Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consciousness in Neurocritical Care Cohort Study Using fMRI and EEG (CONNECT-ME): Protocol for a Longitudinal Prospective Study and a Tertiary Clinical Care Service

Aims and Objectives: To facilitate individualized assessment of unresponsive patients in the intensive care unit for signs of preserved consciousness after acute brain injury. Background: Physicians and neuroscientists are increasingly recognizing a disturbing dilemma: Brain-injured patients who appear entirely unresponsive at the bedside may show signs of covert consciousness when examined by functional MRI (fMRI) or electroencephalography (EEG). According to a recent meta-analysis, roughly 15% of behaviorally unresponsive brain-injured patients can participate in mental tasks by modifying their brain activity during EEG- or fMRI-based paradigms, suggesting that they are conscious and misdiagnosed. This has major ethical and practical implications, including prognosis, treatment, resource allocation, and end-of-life decisions. However, EEG- or fMRI-based paradigms have so far typically been tested in chronic brain injury. Hence, as a novel approach, CONNECT-ME will import the full range of consciousness paradigms into neurocritical care. Methods: We will assess intensive care patients with acute brain injury for preserved consciousness by serial and multimodal evaluation using active, passive and resting state fMRI and EEG paradigms, as well as state-of-the-art clinical techniques including pupillometry and sophisticated clinical rating scales such as the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised. In addition, we are establishing a biobank (blood, cerebrospinal fluid and brain tissue, where available) to facilitate future genomic and microbiomic research to search for signatures of consciousness recovery. Discussion: We anticipate that this multimodal approach will add vital clinical information, including detection of preserved consciousness in patients previously thought of as unconscious, and improved (i.e., personalized) prognostication of individual patients. Our aim is two-fold: We wish to establish a cutting-edge tertiary care clinical service for unresponsive patients in the intensive care unit and lay the foundation for a fruitful multidisciplinary research environment for the study of consciousness in acute brain injury. Of note, CONNECT-ME will not only enhance our understanding of consciousness disorders in acute brain injury but it will also raise awareness for these patients who, for obvious reasons, have lacked a voice so far. Trial registration: The study is registered with clinicaltrials.org (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02644265).
Characterization of symmetric scattering using polarimetric SARs

Cameron's coherent target decomposition (CTD) and classification are discussed in the context of SAR, and the limitations of Cameron's classification are examined. It is shown that these methods may lead to a coarse and misleading scattering segmentation because of the large radiometric dispersion tolerated in each of the elemental scatterer classes, as well as the implicit assumption on the coherence nature of target scattering. A new method, named the symmetric scattering characterization method (SSCM), is introduced to better exploit the information provided by the largest target symmetric scattering component, under coherent conditions. The SSCM, which expressed the symmetric scattering in term of the Poincare sphere angles, permits a better characterization of target symmetric scattering and the generation of coherent scattering segmentation of much higher resolution, in comparison with Cameron's segmentation.
A Method for Analysis of Patient Speech in Dialogue for Dementia Detection

We present an approach to automatic detection of Alzheimer's type dementia based on characteristics of spontaneous spoken language dialogue consisting of interviews recorded in natural settings. The proposed method employs additive logistic regression (a machine learning boosting method) on content-free features extracted from dialogical interaction to build a predictive model. The model training data consisted of 21 dialogues between patients with Alzheimer's and interviewers, and 17 dialogues between patients with other health conditions and interviewers. Features analysed included speech rate, turn-taking patterns and other speech parameters. Despite relying solely on content-free features, our method obtains overall accuracy of 86.5\%, a result comparable to those of state-of-the-art methods that employ more complex lexical, syntactic and semantic features. While further investigation is needed, the fact that we were able to obtain promising results using only features that can be easily extracted from spontaneous dialogues suggests the possibility of designing non-invasive and low-cost mental health monitoring tools for use at scale.
Stability and Decentralized Control of Plug-and-Play DC Distribution Grids

Changes in distribution grids pose significant challenges with respect to the control and management of these grids. Stability and decentralized control are vital to ensure the availability and accessibility of plug-and-play dc distribution grids that are (temporarily) without communication. Therefore, this paper presents guidelines for these grids that ensure global stability and a decentralized control strategy that implements these stability guidelines. The stability guidelines are derived using a Brayton–Moser representation of the system to arrive at a Lyapunov candidate function. Furthermore, the decentralized control strategy implements these stability guidelines and ensures that the voltages in the system remain within a specified range. In addition, several simulations are performed to illustrate the stability of the system and the behavior of the control strategy under different scenarios.
UV-Enhanced 2-D Nanostructured ZnO Field Emitter With Adsorbed Pt Nanoparticles

Zinc oxide is a low-cost and practical II–VI chemical material, which is utilized in the form of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods to absorb platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs). Using Pt NPs to decorate ZnO nanosheets (NSs) can improve the electrical characteristics of zinc oxide. A set of samples has been prepared for different prerequisite Pt precursors with 0- and 30-s sputter deposition times. The SEM results indicate that ZnO NSs and Pt ZnO NSs have an average diameter and length of ~30 nm and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim 1.08~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and ~30 nm and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim 1.25~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively. The surface topography of ZnO NSs and Pt ZnO NSs showed no obvious difference. The results of ZnO NSs and Pt ZnO NSs indicate that the turn-ON field was 5.8 and 3.8 V/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in the dark and that the turn-ON field was 3.9 and 2.9 V/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> under UV light, respectively.
Voltage‐Mode 1.5 Gbps Interface Circuits for Chip‐to‐Chip Communication

In this paper, interface circuits that are suitable for point‐to‐point interconnection with an over 1 Gbps data rate per pin are proposed. To achieve a successful data transfer rate of multi‐gigabits per‐second between two chips with a point‐to‐point interconnection, the input receiver uses an on‐chip parallel terminator of the pass gate style, while the output driver uses the pullup and pulldown transistors of the diode‐connected style. In addition, the novel dynamic voltage level converter (DVLC) has solved such problems as the access time increase and valid data window reduction. These schemes were adopted on a 64 Mb DDR SRAM with a 1.5 Gbps data rate per pin and fabricated using a 0.10 µm dual gate oxide CMOS technology.
Redefining the signaling pathways from pluripotency to pancreas development: In vitro β‐cell differentiation

Pancreatic β‐cells are destroyed by the immune system, in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and are impaired by glucose insensitivity in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Islet‐cells transplantation is a promising therapeutic approach based on in vitro differentiation of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to insulin‐producing cells (IPCs). According to evolutionary stages in β‐cell development, there are several distinct checkpoints; each one has a unique characteristic, including definitive endoderm (DE), primitive gut (PG), posterior foregut (PF), pancreatic epithelium (PE), endocrine precursor (EP), and immature β‐cells up to functional β‐cells. A better understanding of the gene regulatory networks (GRN) and associated transcription factors in each specific developmental stage, guarantees the achievement of the next successful checkpoints and ensures an efficient β‐cell differentiation procedure. The new findings in signaling pathways, related to the development of the pancreas are discussed here, including Wnt, Activin/Nodal, FGF, BMP, retinoic acid (RA), sonic hedgehog (Shh), Notch, and downstream regulators, required for β‐cell commitment. We also summarized different approaches in the IPCs protocol to conceptually define a standardized system, leading to the creation of a reproducible method for β‐cell differentiation. To normalize blood glucose level in diabetic mice, the replacement therapy in the early differentiation stage, such as EP stages was associated with better outcome when compared with the fully differentiated β‐cells’ graft.
The History and Philosophy of Ecological Psychology

Ecological Psychology is an embodied, situated, and non-representational approach pioneered by J. J. Gibson and E. J. Gibson. This theory aims to offer a third way beyond cognitivism and behaviorism for understanding cognition. The theory started with the rejection of the premise of the poverty of the stimulus, the physicalist conception of the stimulus, and the passive character of the perceiver of mainstream theories of perception. On the contrary, the main principles of ecological psychology are the continuity of perception and action, the organism-environment system as unit of analysis, the study of affordances as the objects of perception, combined with an emphasis on perceptual learning and development. In this paper, first, we analyze the philosophical and psychological influences of ecological psychology: pragmatism, behaviorism, phenomenology, and Gestalt psychology. Second, we summarize the main concepts of the approach and their historical development following the academic biographies of the proponents. Finally, we highlight the most significant developments of this psychological tradition. We conclude that ecological psychology is one of the most innovative approaches in the psychological field, as it is reflected in its current influence in the contemporary embodied and situated cognitive sciences, where the notion of affordance and the work of E. J. Gibson and J. J. Gibson is considered as a historical antecedent.
Advanced Patellar Tendinopathy Is Associated With Increased Rates of Bone–Patellar Tendon–Bone Autograft Failure at Early Follow-up After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Background: Revision anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction can be potentially devastating for a patient. As such, it is important to identify prognostic factors that place patients at an increased risk for graft failure. There are no data on the effects of patellar tendinopathy on failure of ACL reconstruction when using a bone–patellar tendon–bone (BPTB) autograft. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of patellar tendinopathy with the risk of graft failure in primary ACL reconstruction when using a BPTB autograft. The hypothesis was that patellar tendinopathy would result in higher rates of graft failure when using a BPTB autograft for primary ACL reconstruction. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: All patients undergoing ACL reconstruction at a single institution from 2005 to 2015 were examined. A total of 168 patients undergoing primary ACL reconstruction with a BPTB autograft were identified. Patients’ magnetic resonance imaging scans were reviewed for the presence and grade of patellar tendinopathy by 2 musculoskeletal fellowship–trained radiologists; both were blinded to the aim of the study, patient demographics, surgical details, and outcomes. Patients were divided into 2 groups: failure (defined as presence of symptomatic laxity or graft insufficiency) and success of the ACL graft. Statistical analyses were run to examine the association of patellar tendinopathy with failure of ACL reconstruction using a BPTB autograft. Results: At a mean follow-up of 18 months, there were 7 (4.2%) patients with graft failure. Moderate or severe patellar tendinopathy was associated with ACL graft failure (P = .011). Age, sex, and side of reconstruction were not associated with the risk of graft failure, although the majority of patients who failed were younger than 20 years. The use of patellar tendons with moderate to severe tendinopathy was associated with a relative risk of ruptures of 6.1 (95% CI, 1.37-27.34) as compared with autograft tendons without tendinopathy. Conclusion: Moderate or severe patellar tendinopathy significantly increases the risk of graft failure when using a BPTB autograft for primary ACL reconstruction. Patellar tendinopathy should be considered when determining the optimal graft choice for patients undergoing primary ACL reconstruction with autograft tendons.
Robust Sparse Bayesian Learning for Off-Grid DOA Estimation With Non-Uniform Noise

The performance of traditional sparse representation-based direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm is substantially degraded in the presence of non-uniform noise and off-grid gap caused by the discretization processes. In this paper, a robust sparse Bayesian learning method is proposed for off-grid DOA estimation with non-uniform noise. In the proposed method, the covariance matrix of non-uniform noise is reconstructed by a modified inverse iteration method. Then, the discrete sampling grid points in the spatial domain are treated as dynamic parameters, and the expectation-maximization algorithm is used to iteratively refine the position of the discretization grid points. This refinement procedure is implemented by solving a polynomial. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method can maintain excellent DOA estimation performance with uniform or non-uniform noise. Furthermore, it can also achieve satisfactory performance under a coarse grid condition.
Task‐dependent responses to muscle vibration during reaching

Feedback corrections in reaching have been shown to be task‐dependent for proprioceptive, visual and vestibular perturbations, in line with predictions from optimal feedback control theory. Mechanical perturbations have been used to elicit proprioceptive errors, but have the drawback to actively alter the limb's trajectory, making it nontrivial to dissociate the subject's compensatory response from the perturbation itself. In contrast, muscle vibration provides an alternative tool to perturb the muscle afferents without changing the hands trajectory, inducing only changes in the estimated, but not the actual, limb position and velocity. Here, we investigate whether upper‐arm muscle vibration is sufficient to evoke task‐dependent feedback corrections during goal‐directed reaching to a narrow versus a wide target. Our main result is that for vibration of biceps and triceps, compensatory responses were down‐regulated for the wide compared to the narrow target. The earliest detectable difference between these target‐specific corrections is at about 100 ms, likely reflecting a task‐dependent feedback control policy rather than a voluntary response.
Rotting bandits are no harder than stochastic ones

In stochastic multi-armed bandits, the reward distribution of each arm is assumed to be stationary. This assumption is often violated in practice (e.g., in recommendation systems), where the reward of an arm may change whenever is selected, i.e., rested bandit setting. In this paper, we consider the non-parametric rotting bandit setting, where rewards can only decrease. We introduce the filtering on expanding window average (FEWA) algorithm that constructs moving averages of increasing windows to identify arms that are more likely to return high rewards when pulled once more. We prove that for an unknown horizon $T$, and without any knowledge on the decreasing behavior of the $K$ arms, FEWA achieves problem-dependent regret bound of $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\log{(KT)}),$ and a problem-independent one of $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\sqrt{KT})$. Our result substantially improves over the algorithm of Levine et al. (2017), which suffers regret $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(K^{1/3}T^{2/3})$. FEWA also matches known bounds for the stochastic bandit setting, thus showing that the rotting bandits are not harder. Finally, we report simulations confirming the theoretical improvements of FEWA.
Noninfectious Comorbidity in the African Cohort Study (AFRICOS).

Background Noninfectious comorbid diseases (NCDs) contribute to morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected populations in resource-rich countries. With antiretroviral therapy (ART) scale-up in Africa, understanding the burden of NCDs informs public health strategy. We describe NCDs across four countries in The African Cohort Study (AFRICOS). Methods At enrollment, participants at eleven HIV clinics in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria underwent medical history, physical, laboratory and neuropsychological assessments to identify elevated blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, dysglycemia, renal insufficiency, and cognitive impairment. Poisson regression models estimated adjusted relative risks (ARRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for number of NCDs associated with demographic and clinical factors of interest. Logistic regression was used to evaluate each NCD separately among HIV-infected participants. Results Among 2720 participants with complete NCD data, 2159 (79.4%) were HIV-infected. Of those, 1426 (66.0%) were taking ART and 813 (37.7%) had at least one NCD. HIV infection was associated with more NCDs, especially with ART (ARR 1.42, CI 1.22-1.66). In addition to age, BMI and program site, ART usage was associated with more NCDs (ARR 1.50, C.I. 1.27-1.78 for virologically suppressed, ARR 1.38, C.I. 1.13-1.68 for viremic) among HIV-infected participants. In participants taking ART, CD4 nadir below 200 cells/mm 3 was associated with more NCDs (ARR 1.43, CI 1.06-1.93). ART use was independently associated with hypercholesterolemia and dysglycemia. Program site was significantly associated with all comorbidities except renal insufficiency. Conclusions HIV infection was a risk for NCDs, which were common in HIV-infected participants, geographically variable, and largely consistent with metabolic complications of first-line ART.
Reproducibility of cytological smears stained with modified ultrafast Papanicolaou stain: Methodological issue

Dear Editor, We were interested to read the paper by Uthamalingam et al. published in the April 2018 issue of Diagnostic Cytopathology. The authors aimed to determine the inter-observer agreement of cytological smears stained with Modified Ultrafast Papanicoloau stain (MUFPAP). The MUFPAP stained slides were evaluated in tandem with other routine cytological stains as well as independently by two pathologists. The agreement between the two pathologists was interpreted using kappa statistic. Based on their results, the agreement was better for fine-needle aspirate smears (FNACs) than fluid specimens. Cases with malignant pathology demonstrated a perfect agreement (k = 1) between the raters in terms of “overall ease of interpretation” (91.7% cases were rated “very good” by each pathologist) when compared to cases with benign pathology (k = 0.52). It is good to know that the kappa value has three important weaknesses that we point out here: First, it depends on the prevalence in each category. Table 1 shows that in both (a) and (b) situations, the prevalence of concordant cells is 90% and discordant cells is 10%; however, we get different kappa values (0.44 as moderate and 0.80 as very good), respectively. Second, Kappa value also depends on the number of categories. Finally, the third important flaw is when the two raters have unequal marginal distributions of their responses. They concluded that the modified UFPAP stain appears to be an excellent reliable alternative in cytological staining, especially for detecting malignant cells with ease in smears with low cellularity. They also concluded that FNACs and also MUFPAP stain is quick, reliable, and can be done using reagents that are locally available. Such a sweeping conclusion regarding reliability may be a misleading message because of the aforementioned weakness of kappa values to assess reproducibility. Taking into account the aforementioned limitations of kappa values to assess reproducibility, such a sweeping conclusion may be a misleading message. Therefore, misinterpretation cannot be avoided. In this letter, we discussed limitations of kappa values to assess reproducibility. Any conclusion in reproducibility analysis should be supported by the aforementioned methodological and statistical issues.
Zur gestiegenen Bedeutung des Crowdfundings im Rahmen des Gründungscontrollings

Dr. rer. pol. Daniel Gerbaulet ist Habilitand am Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Investitionstheorie und Unternehmensbewertung an der FernUniversität in Hagen. E-Mail: Daniel.Gerbaulet@fernunihagen.de Die in Abhängigkeit der angestrebten Gründungsoder Projektfinanzierung bestehenden und vom beratenden Gründungscontroller als Finanzierungsalternativen auszuwählenden Möglichkeiten des Crowdfundings haben, insbesondere durch die gestiegene Anzahl erfolgreich finanzierter Projekte und die sich abzeichnende verstärkte Einbindung technologisch orientierter Vorhaben, nachdrücklich an Bedeutung gewonnen.
Emotion recognition and acoustic analysis from speech signal

Recently, robot technique has been developed remarkably. But, they cannot do emotional tasks and the work they can is limited. In this view, it is important for machine to understand human's emotion. Also, emotion recognition is necessary to make an intimate robot. This paper shows simulation results which classify emotions by learning 4 pitch patterns and results from some analyses. The pitch contour includes emotion information. This is why the pitch has been widely used for emotion recognition. However, because the pitch contour is not sufficient for recognizing emotion, we should add other elements. Thus, several analyses are done and the analyzed elements are called acoustic elements for convenience. These elements are the fundamental for more accurate recognition. In addition to this, we analyze the relation between emotion and acoustic elements. The brain is high-dimensional nonlinear dynamical system. So, it is essential to utilize a system that is capable of storing internal states and utilize a system that is capable of storing internal states and implementing complex dynamics. DRNN fits such a system. The simulator is composed of the DRNN (dynamic recurrent neural network), feature extraction.