Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Figure–ground segregation requires two distinct periods of activity in V1: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

Discriminating objects from their surroundings by the visual system is known as figure–ground segregation. This process entails two different subprocesses: boundary detection and subsequent surface segregation or ‘filling in’. In this study, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to test the hypothesis that temporally distinct processes in V1 and related early visual areas such as V2 or V3 are causally related to the process of figure–ground segregation. Our results indicate that correct discrimination between two visual stimuli, which relies on figure–ground segregation, requires two separate periods of information processing in the early visual cortex: one around 130–160 ms and the other around 250–280 ms.
Covert and overt orienting to gaze direction cues and the effects of fixation offset

We examined covert and overt orienting in response to non-predictive gaze direction cues and investigated whether the subcortical superior colliculus (SC) plays a role in this type of orienting. Participants viewed a centrally presented gazing schematic face and responded to targets appearing at gazed-at or non-gazed-at locations either by making a keypress response while maintaining central fixation or by making an eye movement to the target. For both response conditions, the fixation stimulus (the gazing face) either remained on the screen or was extinguished at the time of target presentation, a manipulation known to engage and disengage the SC. Results revealed that participants making manual responses oriented covertly to the gazed-at location regardless of the fixation condition, and that participants making eye movements oriented overtly only if the fixation stimulus remained on the screen. Overt gaze-triggered orienting was not enhanced relative to covert orienting, and the fixation offset effect was not reduced for averted gaze cues relative to straight gaze cues. These findings suggest that gaze direction cues do not activate or predisengage the oculomotor system, and thus that orienting to gaze direction does not engage the SC. This is consistent with the view that gaze-triggered orienting is a unique form of reflexive orienting that depends crucially on cortical processes.
Battery power module with tri-port dc-to-dc converter

This paper proposes a battery power module (BPM) which is composed of two batteries with a tri-port dc-to-dc converter. Being powered from two battery sets, the capacity of the BPM can be doubled. The power conversion circuit consists of only an active power switch, leading to less conversion loss. By adjusting the duty-ratio of the active power switch, the voltage regulation at the output as well as the charge equalization between two batteries can be made. Theoretical analyses of the dc-to-dc converter are verified by experimental results conducted in a laboratory circuit.
A robust method for registration and segmentation of multiple range images

Registration and segmentation of multiple range images are one of the most important problems in range image analysis. This problem has been investigated by a number of researchers, but most of existing methods are easily affected by outlying points (outliers) like noise and occlusion. We first propose a robust method of estimating rigid motion parameters from a pair of range images. This method is an integration of the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm with the random sampling and the least median of squares (LMS) estimator. We then detect the outliers by thresholding the residuals in the LMS estimation, and finally we classify each pixel into one of five categories to obtain a segmentation. We experimented on real range images taken by two kinds of rangefinders, and observed that our method worked successfully even for noisy data. The proposed method has another advantage of reducing the computational cost. <<ETX>>
Phase II study of ecteinascidin-743 in advanced pretreated soft tissue sarcoma patients.

PURPOSE A multicenter phase II study evaluating efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics of ecteinascidin-743 (ET-743) in pretreated advanced soft tissue sarcoma patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients received ET-743 1,500 microg/m(2) (24-hour intravenous infusion) every 3 weeks (group 1, 26 patients with one to two prior single agents or one previous combination chemotherapy; group 2, 28 patients with three or more prior single agents or two or more previous combination chemotherapies). Results Patients (30 women, 24 men) had a median age of 48 years (range, 22 to 71 years); 41% had leiomyosarcoma (eight of 22 of uterine origin), a median of two involved organs (range, one to four), and 93% had documented progressive disease at study entry. Patients received a median of three cycles (range, one to 20); 28% received six or more cycles. Fifty-two patients were assessable for response (WHO criteria): two partial responses, four minor responses, and nine with stable disease (> or = 6 months). Three patients were rendered tumor free after surgery. Median progression-free survival was 1.9 months (range, 0.69 to 17.90 months); 24% of patients were progression free at 6 months. Median survival was 12.8 months, with 30% of patients alive at 2 years. Four patients withdrew because of treatment-related toxicity. Two treatment-related deaths occurred (renal failure and febrile neutropenia, and rhabdomyolysis and decompensated cirrhosis, respectively) that were probably related to protocol eligibility violations. Reversible grade 3 to 4 AST or ALT occurred in 50% of patients and grade 3 to 4 neutropenia occurred in 61% of patients, with six episodes of febrile neutropenia. Nausea, vomiting, and asthenia were prevalent but mild and manageable. CONCLUSION With a 4% overall response rate (95% CI, 0.5 to 12.8) and an 11% rate of third-party-verified tumor regression (overall response rate + minor response), ET-743 has a 24% 6-month disease progression control rate, confirming evidence of antitumoral activity and a manageable safety profile in patients experiencing disease progression with pretreated soft tissue sarcoma.
Performance measurements of some aspects of multi-threaded access to key-value stores

In this paper we perform performance measurements of six different servers that can function as key-value stores, ranging from purpose made key-value store memcached, over more complex Redis to MySQL, a traditional relational database that also implements access by memcached protocol. We analyze the influence of number of simultaneous clients and item data size on measured wall time of client and server components.
New York outbreak of E coli poisoning affects 1000 and kills two

A serious outbreak of Escherichia coli food poisoning has affected the state of New York, United States, in the past few weeks, with more than 1000 people affected and two deaths. The New York State Department of Health reported last week that a total of 122 cases of E coli O157:H7 had been confirmed on culture, 65 people had been admitted to hospital, and 11 children had developed haemolytic uraemic syndrome. …
K-ras Mutation and p16 and Preproenkephalin Promoter Hypermethylation in Plasma DNA of Pancreatic Cancer Patients: In Relation to Cigarette Smoking

Objectives: To examine the profiles of K-ras mutations and p16 and preproenkephalin (ppENK) promoter hypermethylation and their associations with cigarette smoking in pancreatic cancer patients. Methods: In plasma DNA of 83 patients with untreated primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, DNA hypermethylation was determined by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction and K-ras codon 12 mutations by enriched-nested polymerase chain reaction followed by direct sequencing. Information on smoking exposure was collected by in-person interview. Pearson &khgr;2 test and Fisher exact test were used in statistical analysis. Results: K-ras mutations, ppENK, and p16 promoter hypermethylation were detected in 32.5%, 29.3%, and 24.6% of the patients, respectively. Sixty-three percent (52/83) of patients exhibited at least one of the alterations. Smoking was associated with the presence of K-ras mutations (P = 0.003). A codon 12 G-to-A mutation was predominantly observed in regular smokers and in heavy smokers (pack-year of smoking ≥36). Smoking was not associated with p16 or ppENK hypermethylation. Conclusions: These preliminary observations suggest that plasma DNA might be a useful surrogate in detecting genetic and epigenetic alterations of pancreatic cancer. The findings on the association between K-ras mutation and smoking were in consistency with previous studies. Further studies on environmental modulators of epigenetic changes in pancreatic cancer are warranted.
A Low Voltage Low Power CMOS Delay Element

A low voltage, low power CMOS delay element is proposed. With unit CMOS inverter load, the delay from 2ns to 10¿s is achieved with the power consumption less than 30pW/MHz in 0.8¿m CMOS technology. Based on the CMOS thyristor concept, the delay value of the proposed element can be designed in a wide range with the control current. The designed delay value is less sensitive to the supply voltage variation and temperature than those of RC or CMOS inverter based delay elements.
Combining Feature and Algorithm Hyperparameter Selection using some Metalearning Methods

Machine learning users need methods that can help them identify algorithms or even workflows (combination of algorithms with preprocessing tasks, using or not hyperparameter configurations that are different from the defaults), that achieve the potentially best performance. Our study was oriented towards average ranking (AR), an algorithm selection method that exploits meta-data obtained on prior datasets. We focused on extending the use of a variant of AR* that takes A3R as the relevant metric (combining accuracy and run time). The extension is made at the level of diversity of the portfolio of workflows that is made available to AR. Our aim was to establish whether feature selection and different hyperparameter configurations improve the process of identifying a good solution. To evaluate our proposal we have carried out extensive experiments in a leave-one-out mode. The results show that AR* was able to select workflows that are likely to lead to good results, especially when the portfolio is diverse. We additionally performed a comparison of AR* with Auto-WEKA, running with different time budgets. Our proposed method shows some advantage over Auto-WEKA, particularly when the time budgets are small.
Alzheimer research forum live discussion : Brain derived neurotrophic factor and Alzheimer ’ s disease – What is the connection ? 1

Participants: Carl Cotman and Nicole Berchtold (University of California, Irvine), Gabrielle Strobel (Alzheimer Research Forum), Qiurong Xiao (Memory Pharma), Fulya Karaman Trakya (University Medical Faculty, Turkey), Roland Pochet (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), Volkmar Lessmann (University of Mainz, Germany), Danling Wang (China), Leigh Holcomb (Texas A&M University, Neuropsychiatry Research Program), Margaret Fahnestock (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario), Taihung Duong (Indiana University School of Medicine-Terre Haute Center), Jorge Busciglio (University of California, Irvine), Shunwei Zhu (Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge Hospital University, Stockholm).
Pokémon GO: snake oil or miracle cure for physical inactivity?

The term “snake oil” was popularized in the early 1900s as a miracle cure-all, and later, after uncovering that it was made up of no more than mineral water and turpentine, it was coined as a term for someone selling products with fraudulent, questionable, or unverifiable benefits (1). Pokemon GO, released in July 2016, quickly became the world’s most downloaded smartphone application, surpassing Twitter and Candy Crush within the first two weeks of its release (2). Initial reports and anecdotal evidence suggested that Pokemon GO might be the panacea researchers have been searching for to solve the global physical inactivity crisis. However, less than a year later, we understand that after the initial excitement subsided, Pikachu was not able maintain an increase in habitual physical activity. Pokemon GO may be just snake oil.
Comprehensive analysis of high quality power converters for level 3 off-board chargers

Level 1 and level 2 EV/PHEV charging methods tend to require excess time to reach a full charge, preventing a seemless transition from conventional gasoline vehicles to battery-powered vehicles. The level 3 off-board charging infrastructure will alleviate the down-time required for vehicle charging, and provide an option for quick refueling. It is necessary to choose suitable power electronic interfaces for these chargers to prevent any potential damage to the grid, and optimize system efficiency. This paper introduces level 3 charging along with compatible battery chemistries, and analyzes some high power quality converters based on two different power conversion architectures. In particular, the paper focuses on several isolated and non-isolated DC-DC power converter topologies, and provides a detailed comparison in terms of component size and efficiency.
Phosphorylation of L-cell glucocorticoid receptors in immune complexes: evidence that the receptor is not a protein kinase.

Two phosphoproteins are absorbed to protein A-Sepharose when cytosol from 32P-labeled L-cells is incubated with a monoclonal antibody against the glucocorticoid receptor: one is a 98K phosphoprotein that contains the steroid binding site, and the other is a 90K non-steroid-binding phosphoprotein that is associated with the molybdate-stabilized receptor [Housley, P. R. , Sanchez, E. R. , Westphal, H. M. , Beato, M. , & Pratt, W. B. (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 13810-13817]. In this paper we have incubated L-cell cytosol with rabbit antiserum against the mouse glucocorticoid receptor and show that incubation of protein A-Sepharose-bound immune complexes with [gamma-32P]ATP and Mg2+ results in phosphorylation of the 98K steroid-binding protein but not of the 90K receptor-associated protein. Phosphorylation occurs regardless of whether the receptor is unoccupied or is present as the untransformed or transformed steroid-receptor complex. No phosphorylation occurs in the presence of Ca2+ instead of Mg2+. If protein A-Sepharose-bound immune complexes prepared with a monoclonal antibody against the receptor are incubated with [gamma-32P]ATP and Mg2+, neither protein is phosphorylated. If the protein A-Sepharose pellet is obtained from molybdate-stabilized cytosol that has been incubated both with monoclonal antibody to provide the 98K receptor and its 90K associated protein and with preimmune rabbit serum, which causes the nonspecific adsorption of an L-cell protein kinase, then incubation with [gamma-32P]ATP and Mg2+ causes receptor phosphorylation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Impact of Nutritional Status on Peritonitis in CAPD Patients

Objective To determine the impact of nutritional status on peritonitis in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) in a developing country. Methods 56 patients with end-stage renal disease on CAPD were randomly selected for this study. These patients were assessed for nutritional status and peritonitis episodes. Nutritional parameters were assessed by anthropometry, diet, body mass index (BMI), Nutritional Risk Index (NRI), serum albumin level, and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). Based on SGA, patients were categorized into either group 1 (malnutrition, n = 31) or group 2 (normal nutritional status, n = 25). Peritonitis was considered the primary outcome and was compared between the two groups. Results Demographic profiles, Kt/V, creatinine clearance, and mean follow-up of the two groups were similar. Number of peritonitis episodes was significantly higher in patients with malnutrition (25/31) compared to patients with normal nutritional status (4/25) (p = 0.001). Mean peritonitis rate per patient per year was also significantly higher in patients with malnutrition (0.99 ± 1.07) compared to patients with normal nutritional status (0.18 ± 0.42) (p = 0.007). On univariate analysis, malnutrition based on SGA (p = 0.009), NRI (p = 0.02), serum albumin level (p = 0.005), and calorie intake (p = 0.006) was a significant predictor of peritonitis. On multivariate Cox regression analysis, only SGA (p = 0.001, odds ratio 0.08, 95% confidence interval 0.02 – 0.36) was found to be a significant predictor of peritonitis. On general linear model, the observed power of prediction of peritonitis was 0.96 based on SGA. On Kaplan–Meier survival analysis, peritonitis-free survival in patients with normal nutrition (42 months) was significantly higher compared to patients with malnutrition (21 months) based on SGA (log rank p = 0.003). Conclusion We conclude that peritonitis rate is high in patients with malnutrition and that malnutrition indices, especially SGA, can predict the peritonitis rate in CAPD patients.
Genetic polymorphism of two enzymes with alcoholic liver disease in Northeast China.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Alcohol abuse is becoming an increasingly severe problem among the Han, Mongol and Chaoxian nationalities in the northeast of China. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and the genetic polymorphism of two enzymes, cytochrome P450IIE1 (CYPIIE1) and glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) in patients of three nationalities. METHODOLOGY Peripheral blood was collected from 353 Chinese patients with ALD, 300 alcohol-dependent patients without liver disease (alcoholic) and 360 healthy controls. Each group included patients from the Han, Mongol and Chaoxian nationalities. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used in this research. RESULTS Regardless of nationality patients who carried the rare CYPIIE1 C2 and GSTP1 Val allele were at higher risk of ALD. The frequency of C2 and Val in patients with ALD was 50.00% and 26.98% in the Han, 31.36% and 22.87% in the Mongol and 45.87% and 22.02% in the Chaoxian, respectively. No significant differences were seen in the frequency of either the C2 or Val alleles in ALD, among the three nationalities. In each nationality, the frequency of both the C2 and Val alleles was significantly higher in ALD compared to alcoholic and healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS In this group of Chinese patients, we found that regardless of nationality, patients with ALD tended to carry the C2 allele and the Val allele. This may indicate a causal relationship between these polymorphic alleles that lead to the development of ALD.
The brief repeatable battery of neuropsychological tests for multiple sclerosis: a preliminary serial study

The Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests (BRB-N) for MS consisting of the selective reminding, 10136 spatial recall, symbol digit modalities, paced auditory serial addition (PASAT) and word list generation tests is a sensitive measure of early cognitive impairment in MS patients. We administered it to 19 chronic stable MS patients every 60 days for 120 days to examine variability. The mean coefficient of variation for the tests ranged from 18% to 22%. A significant practice effect was seen in the PASAT results (P<0.05) using the Wilcoxon signed rank test These results suggest that cognitive fluctuations analogous to motor fluctuations may occur in MS patients and that the BRB-N may be useful in clinical trials of agents expected to alter cognitive function in MS patients if test-retest variability and practice effects are taken into account Further study is warranted.
The Impact of Diagnostic Changes on the Rise in Thyroid Cancer Incidence: A Population-Based Study in Selected High-Resource Countries.

BACKGROUND Thyroid cancer (TC) incidence is rising in many countries, but the corresponding mortality is constant or declining. Incidence increases appear largely restricted to small papillary TC in young/middle-age individuals. We compared age-specific incidence rates across countries and time periods in order to estimate the fraction of TC possibly attributable to increased surveillance of the thyroid gland (diagnostic changes) following the introduction of neck ultrasonography in the 1980s. METHODS We focused on high-resource countries, including four Nordic countries, England and Scotland, France, Italy, the United States, Australia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. Before the 1970s, TC incidence in Nordic countries increased proportionally to the second power of age, consistent with the multistage model of carcinogenesis. Using this historical observation for reference, we attributed the progressive departure from linearity of the age curves in each country to an increased detection of asymptomatic disease in young/middle-age individuals. The proportion of cases attributable to diagnostic changes was estimated from the difference between observed rates and those expected using the Nordic countries as reference. RESULTS Diagnostic changes may account for ≥60% of TC cases diagnosed in 2003-2007 in women aged under 80 years in France, Italy, the United States, Australia, and the Republic of Korea, and approximately 50% in other assessed countries, except Japan (30%). The proportions attributable to diagnostic changes were higher in countries with largest incidence increases and were consistent across sexes, although increases were smaller and delayed in men. CONCLUSIONS A large proportion of TC cases diagnosed in high-resource countries in the last two decades are likely to be due to diagnostic changes. This proportion has progressively increased over time, and it is likely to grow further in the future. Since there is evidence of harm but no proof of benefit from the intense scrutiny of the thyroid, the dangers of overdiagnosis and overtreatment of TC should be urgently addressed.
Double-Stranded RNA Exacerbates Pulmonary Allergic Reaction through TLR3: Implication of Airway Epithelium and Dendritic Cells

Respiratory viral infections have been implicated in exacerbations of allergic asthma, characterized by a Th2-biased immune response. Respiratory viruses target airway epithelial cells and dendritic cells (DCs). Their activation is, at least in part, mediated by the TLR3-dependent recognition of virus-derived dsRNA. To elucidate the role of epithelial cells and DCs and the implication of TLR3/Toll/IL-1R domain-containing adaptor-inducing IFN-β (TRIF) pathway, we developed a mouse model of lung allergic exacerbation. The effect of intranasal administration of dsRNA in OVA-sensitized wild-type mice and TRIF−/− mice was evaluated on airway hyperresponsiveness and pulmonary inflammation. Our data demonstrated that treatment with dsRNA significantly increased the airway hyperresponsiveness, the lung inflammation, and the OVA-specific Th2 response. This was associated with an infiltrate of eosinophils, myeloid DCs, and T lymphocytes. TRIF activation was required for the development of dsRNA-induced exacerbation of the allergic reaction. Intratracheal transfer of IL-4/dsRNA/OVA–pretreated DCs also triggered exacerbation of the allergic reaction, whereas cells primed with dsRNA/OVA had a more limited effect. dsRNA-induced production of CCL20 by airway epithelium was associated with DC recruitment. In vivo and in vitro treatment with dsRNA amplified airway epithelial production of the pro-Th2 chemokines CCL11 and CCL17, their secretion being enhanced by Th2 cytokines. In conclusion, dsRNA derived from respiratory viruses trigger exacerbation of the pulmonary allergic reaction through TLR3/TRIF-dependent pathway. Moreover, Th2 cytokines participate in this process by modulating the response of airway epithelium and DCs to dsRNA.