Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Imaging of Motor Cortex Physiology in Parkinson's Disease

There is abundant evidence that the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) is not confined to the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway but propagates along the cortico‐basal ganglia‐thalamo‐cortical neural network. A critical node in this functional circuit impacted by PD is the primary motor cortex (M1), which plays a key role in generating neural impulses that regulate movements. The past several decades have lay witness to numerous in vivo neuroimaging techniques that provide a window into the function and structure of M1. A consistent observation from numerous studies is that during voluntary movement, but also at rest, the functional activity of M1 is altered in PD relative to healthy individuals, and it relates to many of the motor signs. Although this abnormal functional activity can be partially restored with acute dopaminergic medication, it continues to deteriorate with disease progression and may predate structural degeneration of M1. The current review discusses the evidence that M1 is fundamental to the pathophysiology of PD, as measured by neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography, single‐photon emission computed tomography, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, and functional and structural MRI. Although novel treatments that target the cortex will not cure PD, they could significantly slow down and alter the progressive course of the disease and thus improve clinical care for this degenerative disease. © 2018 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Triglyceride to HDL-cholesterol ratio as an independent risk factor for the poor development of coronary collateral circulation in elderly patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and acute total occlusion

Abstract To determine the prognostic role of triglyceride (TG) to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) ratio for poorly developed coronary collateral circulation (CCC) in elderly patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and acute total occlusion (ATO). As a retrospective case–control study, elderly patients (age ≥60 years) with both STEMI and ATO (n = 346) were classified as having either poorly- or well-developed CCC (Rentrop grades 0–1 and 2–3, respectively). The ratio of TG/HDL was calculated according to the detected levels of TG and HDL. The difference of TG/HDL ratio in those 2 groups was compared by Student t test, and multivariate logistic regression analysis indicating occurrence of poorly developed CCC was performed. Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) analysis of TG/HDL ratio which determine the optimal cut-off value of TG/HDL ratio was applied. The TG/HDL ratio was significantly higher in patients with poorly developed CCC than in those with well-developed CCC (2.88 ± 2.52 vs 1.81 ± 1.18, P < .001). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, higher TG/HDL ratio (OR 1.789, 95% CI 1 . 346–2.378, P < .001) and the presence of left circumflex branch of coronary artery (LCX) occlusion (OR6.235, 95% CI 2.220–17.510, P = .001) were emerged as independent positive predictors of poor development of CCC, whereas presence of right coronary artery (RCA) occlusion (OR 0.474, 95% CI 0.265–0.850, P = .002) and onset time (OR 0.693, 95% CI 0.620–0.775, P < .001) were found as negative indicators. The optimal cut-off value of TG/HDL ratio was found as 1.58 in ROC analysis, which yielded an area under the curve value of 0.716 (95% CI 0.654–0.778, P < .001) and demonstrated a sensitivity of 80.9% and a specificity of 59.3% for prediction of poorly developed CCC. TG/HDL ratio is an independent risk factor for predicting poor development of CCC in elderly patients with STEMI and ATO.
Impact of Consistency in Daily Device Use on Speech Perception Abilities in Children with Cochlear Implants: Datalogging Evidence

Abstract Background: Cochlear implants (CIs) give children with severe to profound hearing loss access to sound. There appears to be a dose effect of sound exposure on speech perception abilities as shown by the positive influence of early implantation and CI experience. The consistency in device use per day could also affect sound dose, potentially affecting perceptual abilities in children with CIs. Purpose: The objectives of the present study were to identify the impact of consistency in device use on: (1) speech perception abilities and (2) asymmetry in speech perception abilities between bilateral CIs. Research Design: Retrospective analysis. Study Sample: To achieve the first objective, data from 65 children (age range at speech test: 1.91–18.05 yrs) with one (unilaterally implanted or bimodal) or two CIs (sequentially or simultaneously implanted) were included. A subset of data from 40 children with bilateral CIs was included to achieve the second objective. Of the 40 children with two CIs, 15 received their CIs sequentially. Data Collection and Analysis: Device use information was extracted from datalogs stored in personal speech processors using custom software. Speech perception scores per CI collected in quiet were also evaluated. Multiple regression was used to assess the impact of daily CI use, while controlling for factors previously identified to affect speech perception: age at speech test, length of pre-CI (acoustic) hearing experience, length of CI hearing experience, and order of CI for the first objective, and CI category (simultaneous/sequential implantation), interimplant delay, and length of CI experience for the second objective. Results: On average, children wore their CIs for 11.59 ± 2.86 hours/day and, with one CI, exhibited 65.07 ± 22.64% accuracy on speech perception tests. Higher monaural speech perception scores were associated with longer everyday CI use and CI experience (p < 0.05). Among children with bilateral CIs, those with simultaneously implanted CIs and similar bilateral hearing experience demonstrated a small but significant right ear advantage with higher speech perception scores when using the right rather than left CI (mean difference = 4.55 ± 9.83%). The asymmetry in speech perception between CIs was larger and more variable in children who received their CIs sequentially (mean difference CI1-CI2 = 27.48 ± 24.87%). These asymmetries decreased with longer/consistent everyday use of the newer CI (p < 0.05). Yet, despite consistent everyday device use of the second CI (>12 hours/day), only a small proportion of children implanted sequentially (one out of seven children) achieved symmetrical function similar to children with simultaneously received bilateral CIs. Conclusions: Consistent everyday CI use contributes to higher speech perception scores. Although consistent CI use can help reduce the asymmetry in speech perception abilities of children with sequentially implanted CIs subsequent to interimplant delay, residual asymmetry often persists.
Transitions Between Amorphous and Crystalline States Using Electrical Pulse in Tellurium-Based Semiconductor

The phase transitions between amorphous and crystalline states by applying electrical pulses in tellurium-based semiconductor at room temperature has been studied in this paper. The memory device was fabricated by a semiconductor thin film of composition GelO Te90 sandwiched between two metal electrodes. Binary states ‘0’ and ‘1’ may be assigned to the high resistive amorphous state and the low resistive crystalline state, respectively. High-speed write and erase operations in the memory device were induced by applying short and long electrical pulses. It was found that for the given write and erase conditions, about 3500 write-erase cycles were attained by the application of electrical pulses. It is observed that the write and erase operations can not be performed for the given write and erase pulses after 3500 number of cycles. The resistivity drop of the amorphous state of the memory device after a number of write-erase cycles is also discussed in this paper.
Analytical performance of a low‐cost multiplex polymerase chain reaction human papillomavirus genotyping assay for use in Sub‐Saharan Africa

We have tested a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) human papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping assay to fill the need for rapid and low‐cost HPV detection in Sub‐Saharan Africa. This method allows high throughput genotyping and simultaneous detection of 14 high‐risk and two low‐risk HPV types, by PCR amplification of HPV DNAs in a single reaction tube. In this study, we describe stepwise experiments to validate the multiplex HPV PCR assay for determination of HPV genotypes from 104 cervical brush samples from Tanzanian women. Assay performance was evaluated by determination of intra‐laboratory reproducibility, sensitivity, and specificity. Further performance was assessed by comparison with the widely accepted and validated HPV My09/My11 amplification and hybridization assay. Statistics; the Cohen kappa (κ) and McNemar P values were used to analyze interobserver and intermethod agreement. Overall concordance between the multiplex and line blot hybridization assays was 99% (per sample) with a κ value equal to 0.95; and 96.49% (per detection event) with a κ value of 0.92. Interobserver reproducibility of the assay per sample was 95.76% with κ of 0.91. These results demonstrate that the multiplex HPV PCR assay has high analytical sensitivity and specificity in detecting as many as 16 different HPV genotypes and that its simplicity and low cost makes it well suited for sub‐Saharan Africa.
Design Exploration of Fake News: A Transdisciplinary Methodological Approach to Understanding Content Sharing and Trust on Social Media

This work in progress identifies some of the current research work in the areas of fake news, trust and social media. Algorithmic approaches and fact-checking tools are frequently used to help identify fake news sources and influences. Little work has been done on the influences of user experience (aesthetics, interface design, usability) in how end users engage with and recognize news. Standardized UX instruments such as SUPR-Q capture data on Trust, Loyalty and Appearance, as well as usability. UX approaches such as concurrent think aloud and eye tracking could allow for richer data and in-depth exploration of user behavior patterns in their social media use and sharing of news. We thus recommend a transdisciplinary approach to researching fake news that takes into account algorithmic approaches, psychometric data, and qualitative explorations of user behavior.
Drought Monitoring Over the Northeast China Using GRACE Satellite Data from 2002 to 2016

Drought is one of the most common natural disasters in the world. The frequent occurrence and long-term persistence of drought will result in huge losses in industrial and agricultural production. Understanding and quantification of the time and spatial dynamic patterns of drought, including the occurrence, duration and intensity, are the primary goals of the agriculture drought monitoring and yield forecasting in the agricultural region in Northeast China. Fundamentally, drought monitors rely on satellite-gauge precipitation data and temperature, yet is also depends on underground water storage, evapotranspiration and runoff. Since 2002, NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission provide a revolutionary approach to view the water stored in soil, track the movement of water and retrieve the total water storage (TWS) via weight. And the TWS change can provide the regional information of precipitation, evapotranspiration, and surface and subsurface runoff. In this study, the GRACE TWS anomaly will be revealed to Northeast China to characterize more objective identification of drought for 157 months climatology (from April 2002 to December 2016). Comparing with the drought incidents from 2002 to 2016 in the Northeast China, the result shows that the trends of GRACE TWS with months can depict the temporal and spatial characteristic of drought in the study area. According to the negative GRACE terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA), which can represent storage deficits, we find that severe drought happened in western part of the study area in 2003, and southern part of the study area in 2007 and 2011. The April-May average GRACE TWS noted the spring drought occurred in most part of study area in 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2012. The significant decreases of TWS from May 2007 to June 2008 reveled by GRACE TWS lead to a serious drought conditions. The five-month averages of GRACE TWS from June to October were computed in each year, and deficit during 2014 lead to an agricultural drought and crop production loss in Liaoning and Jilin provinces. However, GRACE TWS changes show no one-to-one relationship with precipitation, as the precipitation is not the primary source of TWS changes. The present result demonstrates that GRACE TWS as referenced data is capable of identify and mapping drought in the Northeast China. It will help better understand the cause of drought, and observe the occurrence, trends and spatiotemporal characteristics of drought. It would be valuable for regional water management.
&bgr; 2-Agonist Induces Net Leg Glucose Uptake and Free Fatty Acid Release at Rest but Not During Exercise in Young Men

Objective The role of selective β2-adrenergic stimulation in regulation of leg glucose uptake and free fatty acid (FFA) balance is inadequately explored in humans. The objective of this study was to investigate β2-adrenergic effects on net leg glucose uptake and clearance, as well as FFA balance at rest and during exercise. Design The study was a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial where 10 healthy men received either infusion of β2-agonist terbutaline (0.2 to 0.4 mg) or placebo. Net leg glucose uptake and clearance and FFA balance were determined at rest and during 8 minutes of knee extensor exercise using Fick's principle. Vastus lateralis muscle biopsies were collected at rest and at cessation of exercise. The primary outcome measure was net leg glucose uptake. Results At rest, net leg glucose uptake and clearance were 0.35 (±0.16) mmol/min and 41 (±17) mL/min (mean ± 95% CI) higher (P < 0.001) for terbutaline than placebo, corresponding to increases of 84% and 70%. During exercise, no treatment differences were observed in net leg glucose uptake, whereas clearance was 101 (±86) mL/min lower (P < 0.05) for terbutaline than placebo. At rest, terbutaline induced a net leg FFA release of 21 (±14) µmol/min, being different from placebo (P = 0.04). During exercise, net leg FFA uptake was not different between the treatments. Conclusions These observations indicate that β2-agonist alters net leg glucose uptake and clearance, as well as FFA balance in humans, which is associated with myocellular β2-adrenergic and insulin-dependent signaling. Furthermore, the study shows that exercise confounds the β2-adrenergic effect on net leg glucose uptake and FFA balance.
A nonrandom subset of olfactory genes is associated with host preference in the fruit fly Drosophila orena

Specialization onto different host plants has been hypothesized to be a major driver of diversification in insects, and traits controlling olfaction have been shown to play a fundamental role in host preferences. A diverse set of olfactory genes control olfactory traits in insects, and it remains unclear whether specialization onto different hosts is likely to involve a nonrandom subset of these genes. Here, we test the role of olfactory genes in a novel case of specialization in Drosophila orena. We report the first population‐level sample of D. orena on the West African island of Bioko, since its initial collection in Cameroon in 1975, and use field experiments and behavioral assays to show that D. orena has evolved a strong preference for waterberry (Syzygium staudtii). We then show that a nonrandom subset of genes controlling olfaction‐–those controlling odorant‐binding and chemosensory proteins–‐have an enriched signature of positive selection relative to the rest of the D. orena genome. By comparing signatures of positive selection on olfactory genes between D. orena and its sister species, D. erecta we show that odorant‐binding and chemosensory have evidence of positive selection in both species; however, overlap in the specific genes with evidence of selection in these two classes is not greater than expected by chance. Finally, we use quantitative complementation tests to confirm a role for seven olfactory loci in D. orena’s preference for waterberry fruit. Together, our results suggest that D. orena and D. erecta have specialized onto different host plants through convergent evolution at the level of olfactory gene family, but not at specific olfactory genes.
Feature Analysis of Marginalized Stacked Denoising Autoenconder for Unsupervised Domain Adaptation

Marginalized stacked denoising autoencoder (mSDA), has recently emerged with demonstrated effectiveness in domain adaptation. In this paper, we investigate the rationale for why mSDA benefits domain adaptation tasks from the perspective of adaptive regularization. Our investigations focus on two types of feature corruption noise: <italic>Gaussian</italic> noise (mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${_{g}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and <italic>Bernoulli dropout</italic> noise (mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{bd}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). Both theoretical and empirical results demonstrate that mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{bd}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> successfully boosts the adaptation performance but mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${_{g}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> fails to do so. We then propose a new mSDA with data-dependent <italic>multinomial dropout</italic> noise (mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{md}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) that overcomes the limitations of mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{bd}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and further improves the adaptation performance. Our mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{md}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is based on a more realistic assumption: different features are correlated and, thus, should be corrupted with different probabilities. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{md}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to mSDA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{bd}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> on the adaptation performance and the convergence speed. Finally, we propose a deep transferable feature coding (DTFC) framework for unsupervised domain adaptation. The motivation of DTFC is that mSDA fails to consider the distribution discrepancy across different domains in the feature learning process. We introduce a new element to mSDA: domain divergence minimization by maximum mean discrepancy. This element is essential for domain adaptation as it ensures the extracted deep features to have a small distribution discrepancy. The effectiveness of DTFC is verified by extensive experiments on three benchmark data sets for both Bernoulli dropout noise and multinomial dropout noise.
Near-Field Aspects of Antiviral Action of Complex Nanoparticles on Adenovirus

The idea of mainly near-field action of ‘pure’ nanoparticles on viruses of different kinds is used for description of antiviral activity of complex nanoparticles on adenovirus. Two different kinds of Au nanoparticles – simple and covered with SiO2 shell – were synthesized and used as antiviral agents against adenoviruses. It was shown that both types of nanoparticles demonstrate antiviral effect and virucidal action. The nonmonotonic dependence of the antiviral effect on nanoparticles concentration was observed and explained. The antiviral action of complex nanoparticles against adenovirus is important because of low toxicity of the gold nanoparticles covered with SiO2 shell.
Stroke hospital admission rates in Brisbane and Queensland in 2015: Data from 11,072 cases

Background and aims Little data exist on the incidence of stroke in Australia. Our aim was to report age and sex disparities in hospital admission for stroke in Queensland, Australia's most populous northern state. Methods We identified all patients admitted to hospital in Queensland with a diagnosis of stroke from January to December 2015. Results Among 25,776 admissions with a diagnosis of stroke or TIA and related sequelae, stroke was the principal diagnosis in 11,072 cases of whom 5270 (47.60%) were first-ever stroke. Based on incidents per 100,000 population per year, the crude annual admission rate for first-ever strokes was 110 (95% CI, 107 to 113), 120 (95% CI, 115 to 124) for men and 101 (95% CI, 97 to 105) for women. The corresponding rates adjusted to the world population were 69 (95% CI, 52 to 85), and 88 (95% CI, 70 to 107) adjusted to the European population. Gender and age-adjusted incidence was greater for men than women in all age-groups, except those aged 30–34 years, where occurrence was 10 for men and 16 for women. Conclusions Based on the outcomes, hospital admission for stroke occurs less frequently in Queensland than in other regions of Australia. Men generally show a higher rate of hospitalization than women, with the notable exception of women aged 30–34, for whom the trend reverses.
Analysis of Power Losses in a Three-Phase Inverter 3L-NPC. Comparison with different PWM Modulation Techniques

This paper presents the basic operation of a three-phase NPC (Neutral-Point Clamped Converter) three-level converter, together with the different modulation strategies and control techniques most used in the academic literature. The objective was to develop a comparison between the conduction and switching losses in semiconductor devices depending on the modulation technique (SPWM, SVM, THIPWM or DPWM) used. The purpose is to analyze graphically and visually the most influential parameters on power losses, as well as to determine the set of techniques that minimize these losses on the devices. This document discusses the main fields of application and presents some associated technological problems. The heating on semiconductors according to their manufacturing technology (Si, SiC) has also been presented. The analysis has been developed using the free simulation tool Loss Simulation Software by Fuji-Electric. The application uses the specific characteristics of the devices in order to improve the accuracy in the calculation of losses. The purpose is that students can assimilate more quickly the concepts presented in the classroom. The power losses associated with the semiconductors that constitute the 3L-NPC topology have been compared. In this way it is easier to determine and observe the influence of different parameters such as switching frequency, modulation index, output current, power factor, gate resistance, etc. about the proposed structure. At the same time users can learn to use the IGBT application Losses Simulation software
Independent N-Well And P-Well Biasing For Minimum Leakage Energy Operation

This paper proposes a method for minimizing leakage energy consumption under a specific supply voltage and a delay constraint by independently tuning threshold voltages of nMOSFETs and pMOSFETs with body-biasing. We first show a necessary and sufficient condition for the minimum leakage energy operation of a circuit under a delay constraint. We next show that the condition can be identified by a ratio of the leakage currents drawn through an nMOSFET and a pMOSFET in a leakage monitor circuit integrated with the targeting circuit. The leakage current ratio can be monitored at runtime using the leakage monitor. Assuming a constant supply voltage, it is thus possible to minimize the total energy consumption of the circuit by independent tuning of n-well and p-well bias voltages so that the leakage current ratio tracks the predetermined value while keeping the delay constraint. The proposed strategy is experimentally verified by measurements using a 32-bit RISC processor integrating the leakage monitor on the same die fabricated with a 65 nm CMOS process.