Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A clinical approach to mild cognitive impairment.

A 70-year-old woman presented with memory decline that had progressed gradually over 12-15 months and was manifested by her repeating statements and questions, frequently losing items, and forgetting things. For example, on returning from an out-of-town visit to her brother, she had difficulty remembering what her own house looked like. She had lent money to her brother and was sure he had paid her back, although he had not. She had trouble recalling recent conversations. When shopping, she would purchase unnecessary items because she was not sure what she already had purchased. According to her husband, she was not as patient as usual but had no problems with mood, sleep, appetite, interpersonal relationships, or activities of daily living and continued to work part-time as a substitute teacher. Family history, medical history, neurological examination, and general mental status examination were unremarkable. She was rated independent on scales filled out by her husband for activities of daily living. Her score on the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia was 5 (normal), and she scored 26 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), losing 3 points on short-term recall and 1 point on orientation. Laboratory studies were unremarkable. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed mild cortical atrophy consistent with age and an old left internal capsule infarct. Neuropsychological testing showed normal functioning on language, attention, visuospatial, and executive function tests. However, she had moderate impairment in immediate and delayed memory on both verbal and visual memory tests and mild impairment on the Trail Making Test part B, a test of executive function. What is the diagnosis? Is this patient developing dementia? What medications or life style changes might help prevent dementia? Is depression a cause of dementia, a reaction to dementia, or both?
Modeling an X-ray flare on Proxima Centauri: Evidence of two flaring loop components and of two heating mechanisms at work

We model in detail a flare observed on Proxima Centauri with the EPIC-PN on board XMM-Newton at high statistics and high time resolution and coverage. Time-dependent hydrodynamic loop modeling is used to describe the rise and peak of the light curve, and a large fraction of the decay, including its change of slope and a secondary maximum, over more than 2 h. The light curve, the emission measure and the temperature derived from the data allow us to constrain the loop morphology and the heating function and to show that this flare can be described with two components: a major one triggered by an intense heat pulse injected in a single flaring loop with half-length ≈1.0 × 10 10 cm, the other one by less intense heat pulses released about 1/2 h after the first one in related loop systems, probably arcades, with the same half-length. The heat functions of the two loop systems appear very similar: an intense pulse located at the loop footpoints followed by a low gradual decay distributed in the coronal part of the loop. The latter result and the similarity to at least one solar event (the Bastille Day flare in 2000) indicate that this pattern may be common to solar and stellar flares.
Peer interventions to improve HIV testing uptake among immigrants: A realist review

Background: As a vulnerable group in HIV control programs, immigrants face various obstacles to HIV testing. Despite the effectiveness of peer interventions on health promotion in HIV testing, relatively little is known about how these interventions work. This realist review aims to understand why, how, and under what conditions peer interventions can improve immigrants’ HIV testing uptake. Methods: We followed the steps suggested by Pawson and colleagues for conducting the realist review. To test a initial program theory, we first systematically searched databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane, as well as the websites of UNAIDS, World Bank, Global Fund, WHO, and IOM. After data extraction and quality appraisal, data synthesis was conducted to explain the intervention pathways corresponding to context-mechanism-outcome configurations. Results: Seventeen studies were included in the review. Peer interventions for improving immigrants’ HIV testing uptake worked through four pathways: Following the improvement of communications (as a proximal mechanism): 1) increasing awareness, 2) reduced stigma, 3) improved support, and 4) increased access to services could lead to improved HIV testing uptake among immigrants. The identified mechanisms were influenced by three groups of individual/ interpersonal, service delivery, and structural factors. Conclusion: Peer interventions with multiple strategies to be designed and implemented considering the barriers to HIV testing and also moving beyond one-size-fits-all approaches can successfully improve the immigrants’ HIV testing uptake. The refined program theory in this study can help the healthcare providers and policy-makers promote the immigrants’ HIV testing uptake and reduce the risk of disease transmission.
Hemispheric Difference in Activation Patterns of Human Auditory-Associated Cortex: An fMRI Study

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate interhemispheric differences in activation patterns of the auditory-associated cortex elicited by a series of sounds. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed while different sounds were presented binaurally to 10 healthy subjects with normal hearing. Characteristic activation patterns were elicited although variability was shown between subjects. The activation number was significantly higher on the right than on the left side for non-speech (but not for speech) stimulations. As stimulation increased in complexity (from a pure tone to white noise to ocean wave sounds to classical music), the activation pattern of the superior temporal lobe became more pronounced in both hemispheres while that of the auditory cortex tended to become more sustained and concentrated on the right rather than on the left side. No hemispheric differences in activation pattern were seen in response to speech.
I Remember You!: Interaction with Memory for an Empathic Virtual Robotic Tutor

We present a study that investigates the effect of incorporating memory in the interaction for a virtual robotic tutor in terms of helping children achieve a pedagogical goal and the perceived likeability and empathy of the tutor. The domain is a virtual robotic tutor who is guiding and helping learners through a mobile Treasure Hunt exercise that tests their map reading skills. The contribution described in this paper is the discovery that incorporating 'memory' through utterances that recall events from previous interactions significantly increases the learner's ability to perform a pedagogical task. However, the virtual tutor with memory was perceived as less likeable and the instructions given as harder to follow than with a virtual tutor without memory. In addition, there was a significant drop in perceived empathy. This work has a large potential influence in the field of interaction design for agents as one cannot blindly add in human-like features, such as, memory that improve task performance without considering the potential detrimental effects to the perceived empathy and likeability.
Apoptotic Cell Death and Inhibition of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway in Human Colon Cancer Cells by an Active Fraction (HS7) from Taiwanofungus camphoratus

Aberrant activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling plays an important role in the development of colon cancer. HS7 is an active fraction extracted from Taiwanofungus camphoratus, which had been widely used as complementary medicine for Taiwan cancer patients in the past decades. In this study, we demonstrated the effects of HS7 on the growth inhibition, apoptosis induction, and Wnt/β-catenin signaling suppression in human colon cancer cells. HS7 significantly inhibited proliferation of HT29, HCT116, and SW480 colon cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The apoptosis induction was evidenced by DNA fragmentation and subG1 accumulation, which was associated with increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, activation of caspase-3 and cleavage of PARP. By using Tcf-dependent luciferase activity assay, HS7 was found to inhibit the β-catenin/Tcf transcriptional activities. In addition, HS7 strongly suppressed the binding of Tcf complexes to its DNA-binding site shown in electrophoretic mobility shift assay. This inhibition was further confirmed by the decreased protein levels of Tcf-4 and β-catenin. The β-catenin/Tcf downstream target genes, such as survivin, c-myc, cyclin D1, MMP7, and MT1-MMP involved in apoptosis, invasion, and angiogenesis were also diminished as well. These results indicate that Taiwanofungus camphoratus may provide a benefit as integrative medicine for the treatment of colon cancer.
Structure, function, and activation of the erythropoietin receptor.

RYTHROPOIETIN (EPO) is the principal growth factor E that promotes the viability, proliferation, and differentiation of mammalian erythroid progenitor cells, functions that are transduced by the specific cell surface EPO receptor (EPO-R). In contrast to many other hematopoietic growth factors, EPO primarily affects relatively mature erythroid cells, although it may also influence the growth and behavior of other cells. The recent cloning of the EPO-R gene has greatly facilitated the molecular analysis of the structure and function of this receptor, and provided a fundamental link to earlier biochemical and cellular studies of erythropoiesis. Here we describe recent studies on the structure, function, and activation of this receptor. One focus will be on mechanisms by which the activated receptor can induce cellular proliferation in the absence of EPO. This can be achieved by binding of a retrovirus envelope glycoprotein to the EPO-R or by a specific point mutation in the exoplasmic domain of the EPOR. EPO-independent activation of the EPO-R can contribute to the development of erythroleukemia in animal model systems. A second focus will be on the structure and control of expression of the EPO-R gene.
Construction de réservoirs aquifères alluviaux par modèle génétique de mise en place des sédiments

L'objectif de ce travail est d'obtenir une image tridimensionnelle de la structure des milieux alluviaux. L'approche genetique utilisee consiste a reproduire la formation du milieu avec une echelle representative pour les ecoulements souterrains. Le modele reproduit la mise en place des sediments a partir de regles empiriques simples. Le modele, inspire de la philosophie des systemes multi-agent, applique l'idee de distribution et d'interaction entre des entites elementaires. Les processus principaux de construction de la plaine, a l'echelle soit des cours d'eau soit de l'ensemble de la plaine, sont modelises par des regles empiriques simples distribuees dans les entites sediments ou les entites conceptuelles erosion. Des elements stochastiques dans les processus de decision des differents comportements de ces entites, permettent d'obtenir plusieurs realisations. Afin de tester la validite d'une telle approche, on modelise l'evolution sur quelques decennies, des meandres de la riviere white (indiana, usa) dont trois traces sont connus. Le fleuve virtuel montre les memes tendances d'evolution, malgre le faible nombre et la simplicite des regles utilisees. Le modele est ensuite applique, a une echelle pluri-kilometrique, a la plaine alluviale du rhone pres de lyon. Le modele reproduit les differentes periodes climatiques de mise en place des sediments de 15 000 bp a l'actuel. Les processus modelises sont adaptes a l'echelle des simulations et a l'echelle les spatiale consideree. Le modele de sedimentation reproduit de facon satisfaisante la geometrie des depots. Les simulations effectuees montrent l'utilite du modele pour valider des hypotheses sedimentaires. Ce travail de reconstruction tridimensionnelle du souterrain alluvial est une etape prealable aux etudes d'ecoulements. Le modele, par l'alternance de modelisation et de simulations, constitue un outil exploratoire sur les processus de mise en place des sediments et sur la representation de la structure alluviale.
A TIME FREQUENCY BASED SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY DETECTION FOR ANTIMONEY LAUNDERING

Money laundering is the crucial mechanism utilized by criminals to inject proceeds of crime into the financial system. The primary responsibility of the detection of suspicious activity related to money laundering is with the financial institutions. Most of the current systems in these institutions are rule-based and ineffective (over 90 % false positives). The available data science-based anti-money laundering (AML) models to replace the existing rule-based systems work on customer relationship management (CRM) features and time characteristics of transaction behaviour. Due to thousands of possible account features, customer features, and their combinations, it is challenging to perform feature engineering to achieve reasonable accuracy. Aiming to improve the detection performance of suspicious transaction monitoring systems for AML systems, in this article, we introduce a novel feature set based on time-frequency analysis, that uses 2-D representations of financial transactions. Random forest is utilized as a machine learning method, and simulated annealing is adopted for hyperparameter tuning. The designed algorithm is tested on real banking data, proving the results’ efficacy in practically relevant environments. It is shown that the time-frequency characteristics are discriminatory features for suspicious and non-suspicious entities. Therefore, these features substantially improve the area under curve results (over 1%) of the existing data science-based transaction monitoring systems. Using time-frequency features alone, a false positive rate of 14.9% has been achieved, with an F-score of 59.05%. When combined with transaction and CRM features, the false positive rate is 11.85%, and the F-Score is improved to 74.06%.
Length control and sharpening of atomic force microscope carbon nanotube tips assisted by an electron beam

We report on the precise positioning of a carbon nanotube on an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip. By using a nanomanipulator inside a scanning electron microscope, an individual nanotube was retrieved from a metal foil by the AFM tip. The electron beam allows us to control the nanotube length and to sharpen its end. The performance of these tips for AFM imaging is demonstrated by improved lateral resolution of DNA molecules.
Communicating Semantics: Reference by Description

Messages often refer to entities such as people, places and events. Correct identification of the intended reference is an essential part of communication. Lack of shared unique names often complicates entity reference. Shared knowledge can be used to construct uniquely identifying descriptive references for entities with ambiguous names. We introduce a mathematical model for `Reference by Description', derive results on the conditions under which, with high probability, programs can construct unambiguous references to most entities in the domain of discourse and provide empirical validation of these results.
Clinical signi W cance of EphA 2 expression in squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck

Purpose EphA2 receptor tyrosine kinase is frequently overexpressed and functionally altered in a variety of human cancers. The study aimed to assess EphA2 expression and to explore its roles in squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). Methods EphA2 expression in 98 primary SCCHN tissue specimens was analyzed by immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinicopathological parameters. Additionally, 13 paired SCCHN tissues and 6 SCCHN cell lines were evaluated for EphA2 expression by RT–PCR and immunoblotting. Results EphA2 overexpressed in SCCHN tissues and SCCHN cell lines. More importantly, high EphA2 expression was signiWcantly associated with tumor site, T classiWcation, clinical stage, recurrence, and lymph node metastasis, respectively. Patients with high EphA2 expression had both poorer disease-free survival and overall survival than patients with low EphA2 expression. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that EphA2 overexpression was an independent prognostic factor for patients with SCCHN. Conclusions These Wndings suggested that EphA2 may contribute to SCCHN progression and represent a novel prognostic indicator for patients with SCCHN.
Serum homocysteine and cysteine levels and associated factors in children and adolescents

Englishntroduction: Studies have identified high serum homocysteine (Hcy) and cysteine (Cys) levels as risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, important cause of death in all world. The factors associated with high levels of these biochemistry markers in adults are well known; however, data are sparse on these associations in the pediatric age group. Objective: the objective was to identify factors associated with different concentrations of serum Hcy and Cys in children and adolescents. Methods: a cross-sectional study with 483 individuals of 7- 15 years of age of both sexes, from a municipality of Bahia. Serum Hcy and Cys levels were considered outcome variables, with exposure being evaluated according to sociodemographic, clinical, biochemical and lifestyle variables. Polytomous logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between exposure and outcome. Results: high serum Hcy levels were associated with being male (PR=3.74; p12 years, being overweight, high blood pressure, low HDL-c levels, high triglyceride levels and poor intake of protective foods are common factors found in individuals with increased serum Hcy and Cys levels. Being male was associated with high serum Hcy levels alone. Considering that these factors are already present early in life, measures should be adopted to prevent and control high Hcy and Cys levels, promoting health and preventing chronic non-communicable diseases at this stage of life. portuguesIntroducao: Estudos tem identificado niveis sericos elevados de homocisteina (Hcy) e cisteina (Cys) como fatores de risco para doencas cardiovasculares, importante causa de morte em todo o mundo. Fatores associados com elevados niveis desse marcadores bioquimicos em adultos parecem bem conhecidos, no entanto na faixa etaria pediatrica, dados sobre essas associacoes sao escassos. Objetivo: identificar os fatores associados as diferentes concentracoes sericas de homocisteina (hcy) e cisteina (cys) em criancas e adolescentes. Metodos: trata-se de um estudo transversal incluindo 483 individuos de 7 a 15 anos, ambos os sexos, de Mutuipe, Bahia. Niveis sericos de Hcy e Cys foram as variaveis desfecho, e condicoes sociodemograficas, clinicas, bioquimicas e de estilo de vida foram incluidas como variaveis independentes. Utilizou-se a regressao logistica politomica para avaliar a associacao entre diferentes niveis de hcy e cys e variaveis de interesse, usando a razao de prevalencia (RP) como medida de associacao. Resultados: elevados niveis sericos de Hcy associaram-se ao sexo masculino (RP=3.74; p
Capturing and Exploiting IDE Interactions

Integrated development environments (IDEs) dominate the production and maintenance of software. Developers interact intensively with their IDEs while working. These interactions reflect a developer's thought process and work habits. By capturing and exploiting comprehensive, fine-grained IDE interactions, we can build intelligent IDEs that improve programmer productivity. This next generation of IDEs will incorporate a general framework to capture and exploit IDE interactions, and create an ecosystem of developer-aware applications and plugins. IDE++ realizes this framework on top of the popular Eclipse IDE and can be downloaded from the Eclipse marketplace. To demonstrate IDE++'s comprehensive and granular capture of interactions, we capture, then faithfully replay, a developer's IDE actions on six nontrivial programming tasks. We built four applications upon IDE++ to illustrate 1) the need for capturing comprehensive, fine-grained IDE interactions, and 2) the promise of developer-aware IDEs.
Transistor aging-induced degradation of analog circuits: Impact analysis and design guidelines

Transistor aging effects are more and more a major concern for device scientists, trying to integrate reliable circuits in unreliable ultra-scaled CMOS processes. Circuit design margins, to guarantee reliable analog circuit operation, are no longer sufficient and result in huge circuit overdesign. This paper discusses i) the most important transistor aging effects, ii) how designers can evaluate their impact on circuits and iii) design guidelines on which circuits are sensitive to transistor aging. Circuit parameters such as amplifier gain, bandwidth and slewrate are shown to be immune to transistor aging, while variation-sensitive parameters such as offset, the output current of a current mirror and the on-resistance of a MOS-resistor are very prone to transistor aging. Furthermore, to help a designer estimate the impact of aging on his/her circuit and to find a good reliability-performance tradeoff, a first-order transistor aging model is provided.
Productivity Improvement in Construction of Onshore Oil & Gas Pipeline Tie in Joints Execution

One of the economical ways of transporting crude oil or gas over long distances is through onshore pipelines. Construction of onshore pipelines, involves considerable repetitive activities at various stages of the project. Cost incurred in the construction of pipelines depends on the length of the pipeline, the route and the timely completion of the project. One of the difficult areas in the execution of onshore pipeline construction is “tie in” joints on either side of crossings like roads, rail tracks etc. The aim of this research work is to improve the productivity of execution of “tie in” joints in onshore oil transporting pipelines so that more number of “tie-in” joints can be executed in a day. Improvements are proposed by suggesting alternatives like advanced tools and equipments or by suggesting alternative work methods to the existing conditions. Suggestion of alternative tools is achieved by using end caps to cover the ends of the pipeline sections, ring type cutting and beveling machines and semi automatic welding for “tie-in” joints. Also, an alternative work sequence has been suggested that has the potential to reduce the operational cost of equipments to a certain extent. The outcome after incorporating these alternatives to the existing as well as the proposed alternative work method is assessed by developing a simulation model. Comparison based on percentage reduction between the alternative work method and the existing work method revealed a 50% reduction in time and 46% reduction in cost.
Dynamic Comparative Advantage and the Welfare Effects of Trade

This paper argues that developing economies may face a trade-off between specializaing according to existing comparative advantage (in low-technology goods), and entering sectors in which they currently lack a comparative advantage, but may acquire such an advantage in the future as a result of the potential for productivity growth (in high-technology goods). Comparative advantage is endogenously determined by past technological change, while simultaneously shaping current rates of innovation.