Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Theta synchronization networks emerge during human object–place memory encoding

Recent rodent hippocampus studies have suggested that &thetas; rhythm-dependent neural dynamics (‘&thetas; phase precession’) is essential for an on-line memory formation. A computational study indicated that the phase precession enables a human object–place association memory with voluntary eye movements, although it is still an open question whether the human brain uses the dynamics. Here we elucidated subsequent memory-correlated activities in human scalp electroencephalography in an object–place association memory designed according the former computational study. Our results successfully demonstrated that subsequent memory recall is characterized by an increase in &thetas; power and coherence, and further, that multiple &thetas; synchronization networks emerge. These findings suggest the human &thetas; dynamics in common with rodents in episodic memory formation.
Molecular Combing

This unit describes an important advance in fiber‐FISH technology called molecular combing, in which single DNA molecules are bound by one or both ends to a surface and stretched in a uniform and parallel manner by a receding meniscus. This technique is gentle on the molecules, rapid, and easy to perform. Reliable, quantitative information for genome‐wide studies can be obtained without the need for other techniques and a large number of accurate measurements can be made in a single experiment. The authors provide detailed protocols for basic molecular combing, high‐resolution physical mapping, and gene‐dosage approaches as well as support protocols outlining surface preparation, DNA solution preparation, and probe labeling.
SpamBands: a Methodology to Identify Sources of Spam Acting in Concert

In 2012, estimates indicated that 68.8% of all e-mail traffic was spam, what suggests this is still a relevant problem. Recently, some works have focused on the analysis of spam's traffic inside the network, analyzing the protocols used and the AS which originate the traffic. However, those works usually do not consider the relationships between the machines used to send spam. Such an analysis could reveal how different machines may be used by a single spammer to spread his messages, helping us to understand their behavior. To that end, this work proposes a methodology to cluster the machines used by spammers based on the concept of spam campaigns. The groups identified were characterized to identify different aspects of the spam dissemination process, which suggest different orchestration strategies being used.
Interior structure of terrestrial planets : Modeling Mars' mantle and its electromagnetic, geodetic, and seismic properties

[1] We present a new procedure to describe the one-dimensional thermodynamical state and mineralogy of any Earth-like planetary mantle, with Mars as an example. The model parameters are directly related to expected results from a geophysical network mission, in this case electromagnetic, geodetic, and seismological processed observations supplemented with laboratory measurements. We describe the internal structure of the planet in terms of a one-dimensional model depending on a set of eight parameters: for the crust, the thickness and the mean density, for the mantle, the bulk volume fraction of iron, the olivine volume fraction, the pressure gradient, and the temperature profile, and for the core, its mass and radius. Currently, available geophysical and geochemical knowledge constrains the range of the parameter values. In the present paper, we develop the forward problem and present the governing equations from which synthetic data are computed using a set of parameter values. Among all Martian models fitting the currently available knowledge, we select eight candidate models for which we compute synthetic network science data sets. The synergy between the three geophysical experiments of electromagnetic sounding, geodesy, and seismology is emphasized. The stochastic inversion of the synthetic data sets will be presented in a companion paper.
Trends in Glyburide Compared With Insulin Use for Gestational Diabetes Treatment in the United States, 2000–2011

OBJECTIVE: To describe trends and identify factors associated with choice of pharmacotherapy for gestational diabetes (GDM) from 2000–2011 using a healthcare claims database. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of a large nationwide population of commercially insured women with GDM and pharmacy claims for glyburide or insulin before delivery, 2000–2011. We excluded women younger than 15 years or older than 50 years, those with prior noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, or those who had multiple gestations. We estimated trends over time in the use of glyburide compared with insulin and prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between covariates of interest and treatment with glyburide compared with insulin. RESULTS: We identified 10,778 women with GDM treated with glyburide (n=5,873) or insulin (n=4,905). From 2000 to 2011, glyburide use increased from 7.4% to 64.5%, becoming the more common treatment in 2007. Women less likely to be treated with glyburide were those with metabolic syndrome (prevalence ratio 0.71, 95% CI 0.50–0.99), hyperandrogenism (prevalence ratio 0.77, 95% CI 0.62–0.97), polycystic ovarian syndrome (prevalence ratio 0.88, 95% CI 0.78–0.99), hypothyroidism (prevalence ratio 0.89, 95% CI 0.83–0.96), or undergoing infertility treatment (prevalence ratio 0.93, 95% CI 0.86–1.02). The probability of receiving glyburide decreased by 5% for every 10-year increase in maternal age (prevalence ratio 0.95, 95% CI 0.91–0.99). Among women prescribed with glyburide, 7.8% switched or augmented to a different drug class compared with 1.1% of insulin initiators. CONCLUSION: Glyburide has replaced insulin as the more common pharmacotherapy for GDM over the past decade among those privately insured. Given its rapid uptake and the potential implications of suboptimal glucose control on maternal and neonatal health, robust evaluation of glyburide's relative effectiveness is warranted to inform treatment decisions for women with gestational diabetes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
Normalization of serum rapid plasma reagin titer predicts normalization of cerebrospinal fluid and clinical abnormalities after treatment of neurosyphilis.

BACKGROUND Success of neurosyphilis treatment is defined by normalization of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and clinical abnormalities. The goal of this study was to determine whether normalization of serum rapid plasma reagin (RPR) titer could accurately predict treatment success. METHODS One hundred ten patients who were enrolled in a longitudinal study of CSF abnormalities in syphilis had asymptomatic syphilitic meningitis, symptomatic syphilitic meningitis, or syphilitic eye disease and were treated for neurosyphilis. At 4, 7, and 13 months after treatment, serum RPR titer and CSF and clinical abnormalities were analyzed for normalization. Odds ratios for normalization of each CSF and clinical abnormality when serum RPR titer had normalized and the positive predictive value of normalization of serum RPR titer for normalization of CSF and clinical abnormalities were determined. RESULTS Serum RPR titer had normalized in 63 patients (57%) by 4 months after treatment, in 94 (85%) by 7 months, and in 97 (88%) by 13 months. Except for CSF protein concentration, normalization of serum RPR titer predicted normalization of other CSF and clinical abnormalities in >80% of patients at 4 months, >85% at 7 months, and >90% at 13 months. The odds of normalization of CSF and clinical abnormalities were 28-57-fold higher when serum RPR titer had normalized, compared with when it had not. Normalization of serum RPR titer was consistently less accurate in predicting treatment success in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients who were not receiving antiretroviral therapy, compared with those who were receiving such therapy. CONCLUSIONS In most instances, normalization of serum RPR titer correctly predicts success of treatment of neurosyphilis, and follow-up lumbar puncture can be avoided.
Improvements in the Rheologic Properties of Blood Induced by Medium-Term Treatment with Buflomedil in Diabetic Patients

Introduction Buflomedil hydrochloride is a vasoactive agent widely used, since 1976, for the treatment of peripheral circulatory insufficiency, with good results in cases of chronic occlusive peripheral arterial diseases (Desandre & Coudrec 1980, Galley & De Boysson 1981, Cloarec 1976, Balas & Pagratis 1981, Trubestein & Duong 1981) and of microcirculatory disorders (Fagrell & Hermansson 1980, Courlier, Bergeron & Fouque 1981). Its mechanism of action has not yet been completely elucidated; recently, however, Dormandy and Ernst (1981) have reported that individual venous infusion with Buflomedil caused a marked improvement in red blood cell deform ability, studied with a filtration method, in ten patients with lower limb ischaemia. This suggests that Buflomedil also has an haemorheologic effect. It is a known fact that patients with diabetes are often affected by vascular diseases, both macroand microcirculatory, and it is also known that one of the pathogenetic processes of vascular complications in diabetes consists in complex alterations of the blood flow properties (McMillan 1975, Calwell et al 1979), comprising mainly an increase in blood and plasma viscosity and alterations in the deformability and aggregability of the red cells (McMillan 1976, McMillan, Utterback & La Puma 1978, Juhan et al 1978, SchmidSchonbein & Volger 1976). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the administration of Buflomedil on the rheologic properties of blood in a group of diabetic patients.
The Arabidopsis RESURRECTION1 Gene Regulates a Novel Antagonistic Interaction in Plant Defense to Biotrophs and Necrotrophs1[W][OA]

We report a role for the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) RESURRECTION1 (RST1) gene in plant defense. The rst1 mutant exhibits enhanced susceptibility to the biotrophic fungal pathogen Erysiphe cichoracearum but enhanced resistance to the necrotrophic fungal pathogens Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria brassicicola. RST1 encodes a novel protein that localizes to the plasma membrane and is predicted to contain 11 transmembrane domains. Disease responses in rst1 correlate with higher levels of jasmonic acid (JA) and increased basal and B. cinerea-induced expression of the plant defensin PDF1.2 gene but reduced E. cichoracearum-inducible salicylic acid levels and expression of pathogenesis-related genes PR1 and PR2. These results are consistent with rst1's varied resistance and susceptibility to pathogens of different life styles. Cuticular lipids, both cutin monomers and cuticular waxes, on rst1 leaves were significantly elevated, indicating a role for RST1 in the suppression of leaf cuticle lipid synthesis. The rst1 cuticle exhibits normal permeability, however, indicating that the disease responses of rst1 are not due to changes in this cuticle property. Double mutant analysis revealed that the coi1 mutation (causing defective JA signaling) is completely epistatic to rst1, whereas the ein2 mutation (causing defective ethylene signaling) is partially epistatic to rst1, for resistance to B. cinerea. The rst1 mutation thus defines a unique combination of disease responses to biotrophic and necrotrophic fungi in that it antagonizes salicylic acid-dependent defense and enhances JA-mediated defense through a mechanism that also controls cuticle synthesis.
Population Dynamics in Vasopressin Cells

Most neurons sense and code change, and when presented with a constant stimulus they adapt, so as to be able to detect a fresh change. However, for some things it is important to know their absolute level; to encode such information, neurons must sustain their response to an unchanging stimulus while remaining able to respond to a change in that stimulus. One system that encodes the absolute level of a stimulus is the vasopressin system, which generates a hormonal signal that is proportional to plasma osmolality. Vasopressin cells sense plasma osmolality and secrete appropriate levels of vasopressin from the neurohypophysis as needed to control water excretion; this requires sustained secretion under basal conditions and the ability to increase (or decrease) secretion should plasma osmolality change. Here we explore the mechanisms that enable vasopressin cells to fulfill this function, and consider how coordination between the cells might distribute the secretory load across the population of vasopressin cells.
Spatiotemporal analysis of zebrafish hox gene regulation by Cdx4

Background: Cdx factors expressed in caudal regions of vertebrate embryos regulate hox patterning gene transcription. While loss of Cdx function is known to shift hox spatial expression domains posteriorly, the mechanism underlying the shift is not understood. We addressed this problem by analyzing the spatiotemporal expression profile of all 49 zebrafish hox genes in wild‐type and Cdx4‐deficient embryos. Results: Loss of Cdx4 had distinct effects on hox spatial expression in a paralogous group‐dependent manner: in the head, group 4 expression was expanded posteriorly; in the trunk, group 5–10 expression was shifted posteriorly; and in the tail, group 11–13 genes were expressed in the tail bud but not in more differentiated tissues. In the trunk neural tissue, loss of Cdx4 severely delayed both transcriptional activation of hox genes during the initiation phase, and the anterior‐ward expansion of hox expression domains during the establishment phase. In contrast, in the trunk mesoderm, loss of Cdx4 only delayed the hox initiation phase. Conclusions: These results indicate that Cdx4 differentially regulates the transcription of head, trunk and tail hox genes. In the trunk, Cdx4 conveys spatial positional information to axial tissues primarily by regulating the time of hox gene transcriptional activation during the initiation phase. Developmental Dynamics 244:1564–1573, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Determinants and prevalence of HIV infection in pregnant Peruvian women

Objectives: To determine age-specific seroprevalence, risk factors, and risk markers for heterosexually-acquired HIV infection among pregnant women. Design: Cross-sectional study of 12 436 consecutive pregnant women in Lima, Peru in 1996–1997. Methods: Standardized interviews, serologic tests for HIV and syphilis, bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results: HIV seropositivity was confirmed in 58 women (0.5%). Only 22.6% were married, and only 12% of HIV infected women reported ⩾2 sex partners ever. In multivariate analyses HIV infection was associated with: short duration of current relationship; two risk behaviors of women themselves (early onset of sexual activity and number of past sexual relationships); women's perceptions of two risk behaviors of partners (partner is a ‘womanizer,’ and partner uses illegal drugs); inadequate prenatal care; and four additional risk factors or markers (history of sexually transmitted disease, tuberculosis, or abortion in the women; and diagnosis of HIV/AIDS in a partner). Conclusions: HIV infection was related both to women's own risk behaviors and to the perceived risk behaviors of their sexual partners. Underlying societal factors related to heterosexual HIV infection, including deferral of marriage, warrant further study.
A Bidirectional Three-Level LLC Resonant Converter With PWAM Control

This paper proposes a bidirectional three-level LLC resonant converter with a new pulse width and amplitude modulation control method. With different control signals, it has three different operation modes with different voltage gains. Therefore, it can achieve wide voltage gain range by switching among these three modes, which is attractive for energy storage system applications needing wide voltage variation. The proposed topology operates with constant switching frequency, which is easy to implement with digital control, and it can achieve soft switching for all the switches and diodes in the circuit as a conventional LLC resonant converter. The performance of the proposed converter is validated by the experimental results from a 1-kW prototype with 20 A maximum output current.
Hybrid Approach for Automatic Identification of Multi-Word Expressions in Lithuanian

Identification of MultiWord Expressions (MWE) is one of the most challenging problems in Computer Linguistic and Natural Language Processing. A number of techniques are used to solve this problem in different language, mostly English. However not all techniques and approaches can be directly transferred to Lithuanian. Hence, in this paper we experiment with automatic identification of bi-gram MWEs for Lithuanian, which is considered to be under-resourced in terms of lexical resources and availability or accuracy of special lexical tools (e.g., POS-taggers, parsers). We use a raw corpus and combination of lexical association measures and supervised machine learning, which was shown to perform well for English and some other languages. Using this approach we have reached 70.4% precision for identification of typical MWEs, 77.1% precision for non-typical MWEs as well as 60.0% and 81.6% precision for typical adjective + noun and noun + noun MWEs respectively.
Soluble BAFF Levels Inversely Correlate with Peripheral B Cell Numbers and the Expression of BAFF Receptors

The TNF family member protein BAFF/BLyS is essential for B cell survival and plays an important role in regulating class switch recombination as well as in the selection of autoreactive B cells. In humans, increased concentrations of soluble BAFF are found in different pathological conditions, which may be as diverse as autoimmune diseases, B cell malignancies, and primary Ab deficiencies (PAD). Because the mechanisms that regulate BAFF levels are not well understood, we newly developed a set of mAbs against human BAFF to study the parameters that determine the concentrations of soluble BAFF in circulation. Patients with PAD, including severe functional B cell defects such as BTK, BAFF-R, or TACI deficiency, were found to have higher BAFF levels than asplenic individuals, patients after anti-CD20 B cell depletion, chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients, or healthy donors. In a comparable manner, mice constitutively expressing human BAFF were found to have higher concentrations of BAFF in the absence than in the presence of B cells. Therefore, our data strongly suggest that BAFF steady-state concentrations mainly depend on the number of B cells as well as on the expression of BAFF-binding receptors. Because most patients with PAD have high levels of circulating BAFF, the increase in BAFF concentrations cannot compensate defects in B cell development and function.
Longitudinal perceptions of prognosis and goals of therapy in patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer: results of a randomized study of early palliative care.

PURPOSE Understanding of prognosis among terminally ill patients impacts medical decision making. The aims of this study were to explore perceptions of prognosis and goals of therapy in patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to examine the effect of early palliative care on these views over time. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with newly diagnosed metastatic NSCLC were randomly assigned to receive either early palliative care integrated with standard oncology care or standard oncology care alone. Participants completed baseline and longitudinal assessments of their perceptions of prognosis and the goals of cancer therapy over a 6-month period. RESULTS We enrolled 151 participants on the study. Despite having terminal cancer, one third of patients (46 of 145 patients) reported that their cancer was curable at baseline, and a majority (86 of 124 patients) endorsed getting rid of all of the cancer as a goal of therapy. Baseline perceptions of prognosis (ie, curability) and goals of therapy did not differ significantly between study arms. A greater percentage of patients assigned to early palliative care retained or developed an accurate assessment of their prognosis over time (82.5% v 59.6%; P = .02) compared with those receiving standard care. Patients receiving early palliative care who reported an accurate perception of their prognosis were less likely to receive intravenous chemotherapy near the end of life (9.4% v 50%; P = .02). CONCLUSION Many patients with newly diagnosed metastatic NSCLC hold inaccurate perceptions of their prognoses. Early palliative care significantly improves patient understanding of prognosis over time, which may impact decision making about care near the end of life.
The discriminative stimulus properties of an ethanol-nicotine mixture in rats

Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate between saline (SAL) and an ethanol-nicotine mixture (0.5 g/kg ethanol plus 0.5 mg/kg nicotine) administered 15 min prior to a 15-min drug discrimination training session under a FR-10 schedule of reinforcement. The mixture dose ratio was adjusted after training to obtain a drug mixture with which both individual drugs contributed about equally to the stimulus control (1.0 g/kg ethanol plus 0.3 mg/kg nicotine). The animals were then retrained for 32 sessions using this new mixture. After training, neither nicotine nor ethanol, when tested singly, engendered > 90% mixture-appropriate responding up to test doses that suppressed responding. Complete generalization occurred when the training doses of either nicotine or ethanol were administered in combination with various doses of the alternate drug element. (+)Nicotine, amphetamine and caffeine engendered dose-dependent increases in responses emitted on the mixture-appropriate lever. Pentobarbital and chloral hydrate only partially generalized to the training mixture. However, depressant/stimulant combinations of chloral hydrate+caffeine and pentobarbital+amphetamine produced complete generalization. The data suggest: (1) drug mixtures are not normally perceived as new entities distinct from their component elements; (2) training dose ratio may influence the characteristics of mixture discriminations; (3) stimulus element saliency may be a factor determining the nature of discriminative control by drug mixture cues; and (4) the ethanol-nicotine cue was most likely based on non-specific depressant/stimulant effects of these drugs.