Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptual-motor function of school-age children with slow handwriting speed.

OBJECTIVES This study investigated differences in perceptual-motor measures and sustained attention between children with slow and normal handwriting speed and the relationship between these factors. METHOD Thirty-four slow handwriters and 35 normal speed handwriters (7 to 11 years of age) attending elementary schools in Taiwan were given three perceptual-motor tests and a vigilance task to assess sustained attention. Performances on these measures were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and regression analyses. RESULTS A significant difference was found between slow and normal handwriters in upper-limb coordination, visual memory, spatial relation, form constancy, visual sequential memory, figure ground, visual-motor integration, and sustained attention. The three significant predictors of handwriting speed for the slow handwriters were age, visual sequential memory, and visual-motor integration. For the normal speed handwriters, age and upper-limb speed and dexterity were the only two significant predictors. CONCLUSIONS Slow and normal speed handwriters responded to handwriting demands through different perceptual-motor systems. Whereas upper-limb speed and dexterity seems to play an important role in normal speed handwriters, slow handwriters seem to rely more on visually directed processes, including sequence memory and visual-motor integration.
Circuit-based method for synthesizing serially coupled microring filters

A method for synthesizing bandpass microring filters constructed of N serially coupled microring resonators is presented. The approach is based on the reduction of a chain of N serially coupled microrings to an equivalent prototype baseband LC ladder network. Standard analog-filter-synthesis techniques can then be applied to realize a desired filter transfer function. The proposed method is valid in the narrowband approximation and can be used to synthesize both amplitude and phase filters with the coupled resonators in either the add-drop or allpass configuration. The robustness of the proposed circuit-based method will be demonstrated by two examples: The first is the design of a transitional Chebyshev-Bessel filter, illustrating the useful technique of manipulating filter poles to achieve desired amplitude and phase responses; the second example is the synthesis of an Nth-order maximally flat delay allpass filter. The proposed method can also be applied to other types of serially coupled resonators such as Fabry-Perot cavities and photonic crystal nanocavities to explore novel amplitude and phase filter applications.
Some results of research into the development of the neuronal structure of the cortical ends of the analyzers in man

As a result of the entire preceding course of evolutionary development of organisms, the human cerebral cortex has become well adapted to the accomplishment of the most complex forms of reflex coupling in the central nervous system. The systematic study of the ontogenetic development of the neurons and interneuronal connections in the cortical zones of various analyzers provides us with factual material which makes it possible to reveal some essential features characterizing the gradual complication of the structure of the cortical part of the whole coupling mechanism which takes place with age. Our investigations have already established at comparatively early stages of the development of the cortex (in the first half of the intra-uterine life) three essen-
Non-linear bias of cosmological halo formation in the early universe

We present estimates of the non-linear bias of cosmological halo formation, spanning a wide range in the halo mass from ∼105 to ∼1012 M⊙, based upon both a suite of high-resolution cosmological N-body simulations and theoretical predictions. The halo bias is expressed in terms of the mean bias and stochasticity as a function of local overdensity (δ), under different filtering scales, which is realized as the density of individual cells in uniform grids. The sampled overdensities span a range wide enough to provide the fully non-linear bias effect on the formation of haloes. A strong correlation between δ and halo population overdensity δh is found, along with sizable stochasticity. We find that the empirical mean halo bias matches, with good accuracy, the prediction by the peak-background split method based on the excursion set formalism, as long as the empirical, globally averaged halo mass function is used. Consequently, this bias formalism is insensitive to uncertainties caused by varying halo-identification schemes, and can be applied generically. We also find that the probability distribution function of biased halo numbers has wider distribution than the pure Poisson shot noise, which is attributed to the sub-cell-scale halo correlation. We explicitly calculate this correlation function and show that both overdense and underdense regions have positive correlation, leading to stochasticity larger than the Poisson shot noise in the range of haloes and halo-collapse epochs we study.
Motivational Strategies to Support Engagement of Learners in Serious Games

The use of Video Games as learning tool is becoming increasingly widespread. Indeed, these games are well known as educational games or serious games. They mainly aim at providing to the learner an interactive, motivational and educational environment at the same time. In order to better study the necessary characteristics for the development of an effective serious game (both motivational and educational), we evaluated the physiological responses of participants during their interaction with our serious game, called HeapMotiv. We essentially measured a physiological index of engagement through an EEG wifi headset and studied the evolution of this index with the different missions and motivational strategies of HeapMotiv. Focusing on the gaming aspects, the analysis of this engagement index behavior showed the significant impact of motivational strategies on skills acquisition and motivational experience.
Glypican‐4 is an FGF2‐binding heparan sulfate proteoglycan expressed in neural precursor cells

FGF2 is a crucial mitogen for neural precursor cells in the developing cerebral cortex. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are thought to play a role in cortical neurogenesis by regulating the action of FGF2 on neural precursor cells. In this article, we present data indicating that glypican‐4 (K‐glypican), a GPI‐anchored cell surface HSPG, is involved in these processes. In the developing mouse brain, glypican‐4 mRNA is expressed predominantly in the ventricular zone of the telencephalon. Neither the outer layers of the telencephalic wall nor the ventricular zone of other parts of the developing brain express significant levels of glypican‐4, with the exception of the ventricular zone of the tectum. In cultures of E13 rat cortical precursor cells, glypican‐4 is expressed in cells immunoreactive for nestin and the D1.1 antigen, markers of neural precursor cells. Glypican‐4 expression was not detected in early postmitotic or fully differentiated neurons. Recombinant glypican‐4 produced in immortalized neural precursor cells binds FGF2 through its heparan sulfate chains and suppressed the mitogenic effect of FGF2 on E13 cortical precursor cells. The spatiotemporal expression pattern of glypican‐4 in the developing cerebral wall significantly overlaps with that of FGF2. These results suggest that glypican‐4 plays a critical role in the regulation of FGF2 action during cortical neurogenesis. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Therapeutic landscape of carfilzomib and other modulators of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway.

For both normal and malignant cells, the degradation of intracellular proteins must be carefully controlled to adjust the levels of important regulatory proteins and rapidly eliminate damaged or misfolded proteins before their toxic aggregates compromise the cell function or survival.1,2 The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway degrades most intracellular proteins. This complex system (Fig 1) identifies proteins intended for degradation and attaches to them chains of ubiquitin (Ub) molecules3 through a sequential system of Ub-activating enzymes, Ub-conjugating enzymes, and Ub ligases.4,5 Ubiquitinated proteins are then recognized by the 26S proteasome7 and selectively digested by its distinct (chymotrypsin-like, trypsin-like, and caspase-like) proteolytic activities.8–10
Phase II study of neoadjuvant therapy with docetaxel, cisplatin, panitumumab, and radiation therapy followed by surgery in patients with locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus (ACOSOG Z4051).

BACKGROUND Preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) improves outcomes in patients with locally advanced but resectable adenocarcinoma of the esophagus. ACOSOG Z4051 evaluated CRT with docetaxel, cisplatin, and panitumumab (DCP) in this patient group with a primary end point of a pathologic complete response (pCR) ≥35%. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 15 January 2009 to 22 July 2011, 70 patients with locally advanced but resectable distal esophageal adenocarcinoma were enrolled. Patients received docetaxel (40 mg/m(2)), cisplatin (40 mg/m(2)), and panitumumab (6 mg/kg) on weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 with RT (5040 cGy, 180 cGy/day × 28 days) beginning week 5. Resection was planned after completing CRT. PCR was defined as no viable residual tumor cells. Secondary objectives included near-pCR (≤10% viable cancer cells), toxicity, and overall and disease-free survival. Adverse events were graded using the CTCAE Version 3.0. RESULTS Five of 70 patients were ineligible. Of 65 eligible patients (59 M; median age 61), 11 did not undergo surgery, leaving 54 assessable. PCR rate was 33.3% and near-pCR was 20.4%. Secenty-three percent of patients completed DCP (n = 70) and 92% completed RT. 48.5% had toxicity ≥grade 4. Lymphopenia (43%) was most common. Operative mortality was 3.7%. Adult respiratory distress syndrome was encountered in two patients (3.7%). At median follow-up of 26.3 months, median overall survival was 19.4 months and 3-year overall survival was 38.6% (95% confidence interval 24.5% to 60.8%). CONCLUSIONS Neoadjuvant CRT with DCP is active (pCR + near-pCR = 53.7%) but toxicity is significant. Further evaluation of this regimen in an unselected population is not recommended. CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER NCT00757172.
Outer membrane protein of Neisseria meningitidis as a mucosal adjuvant for lipopolysaccharide of Brucella melitensis in mouse and guinea pig intranasal immunization models

A mucosal vaccine against brucellosis consisting of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Brucella melitensis complexed with the outer membrane protein (GBOMP) of group B Neisseria meningitidis was tested in small-animal models of intranasal immunization. Mice given two doses of the vaccine developed high levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgA antibodies specific for B. melitensis LPS in lung lavages and specific IgG and IgA antibody-secreting cells in the lungs and spleen. Similarly, in guinea pigs immunized twice intranasally, IgG and IgA LPS-specific antibodies were detected in lung lavages, and specific antibody-secreting cells were isolated from the spleen and cervical nodes. In mice immunized with LPS only, pulmonary responses consisted mostly of IgM antibodies, while guinea pigs given LPS alone developed local antibody of all three isotypes, but at lower levels compared to animals given the complex vaccine. Both mice and guinea pigs also developed high levels of serum IgG and moderate levels of IgA as a result of intranasal immunization with the complex vaccine. The serum antibodies in both cases were found to cross-react with the LPS of B. abortus, which shares an immunogenic epitope with B. melitensis LPS. In mice given the complex vaccine, there was a prominent serum IgG1 response that was absent in the mice given LPS alone. In conclusion, the N. meningitidis GBOMP was an effective mucosal adjuvant for secretory IgA and IgG responses in the lungs of both mice and guinea pigs. The IgG1 subclass response in mice suggests that GBOMP may have favored a Th2 type of response to the LPS. A vaccine capable of stimulating high levels of antibody at local sites has the potential to protect against brucellae, since these pathogens gain entry to the host via mucosal routes.
A multi-loop hysteresis model of piezo actuator based on LS-SVM

In order to approximate the behavior of hysteresis nonlinearity which often severely limits the performance of system and improve the prediction accuracy of classical Preisach model (CPM), a least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) based model is presented in this paper. According to the geometric characteristics of multi-loop hysteresis, the input voltage sequences was combined with output stroke sequence and expand to a matrix as the input of LS-SVM. Then the multi-valued mapping of hysteresis was transformed to one-to-one mapping which enable LS-SVM to approximate the behavior of hysteresis. The prediction accuracy is improved effectively on the condition of finite samples and the default of CPM was avoided. Results of simulation and experiments show that the proposed hysteresis model can exactly describe and predict the multi-valued hysteresis feature compare with bilinear interpolation and has the better generalization ability.
Efficiency of Swiss and New Zealand dairy breeds under grazing conditions on commercial dairy farms

The objective of the study was to investigate over three years (2007 – 2009) the attributes of cows adapted to a pasture-based seasonal milk production system (New Zealand Holstein Friesian) under Swiss conditions and to compare them with Swiss breeds. For this purpose, pairs of Swiss (CH) and New Zealand (NZHF) cows were established (100 cows in total) with similar age and calving date on 15 commercial farms. Body weight (BW) in the first and second lactations were higher in CH cows than in NZHF cows (in 2007, 544 vs. 477 kg, P<0.001; in 2008, 578 vs. 517 kg, P<0.001). Milk yield was similar in CH and NZ cows for the initial two years but the milk of NZ cows had higher fat and protein content. The NZ cows produced more energy corrected milk (ECM) in the second lactation than the CH cows (6017 vs. 5470 kg, P< 0.001). As a consequence, the efficiency (ECM per metabolic BW, kg kg-1) was higher in NZ than in CH cows in both years (2007, 49.7 vs. 44.2, P<0.001; 2008, 55.6 vs. 46.6, P<0.001). It is therefore concluded that New Zealand Holstein Friesians are more efficient in a pasture-based milk production system than Swiss breeds.
Effect of sunitinib (SU) administration on post-treatment survival in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) treated on the upfront randomized phase III trial of sunitinib or interferon alfa (IFN).

4634 Background: Drugs targeting VEGFR are approved for, or under investigation in, cancer treatment. Animal experiments suggest such therapies may accelerate metastases (Ebos et al, Cancer Cell. 2009). We sought to address whether treatment with a VEGFR agent might accelerate tumor growth after its discontinuation. METHODS We compared the time on treatment (TOT), post-treatment survival (PTS), overall survival (OS), and tumor growth rate constants (g) of patients (pts) with mRCC randomized to either SU or IFN. We used linear regression models to evaluate associations between these measures. RESULTS Although reported response rate and progression free survival were better in the SU arm [Motzer et al., NEJM 2006], pts randomized to IFN had a longer PTS than pts randomized to SU (medians: 29.1 v 18.7 wks, p=.006). While acquisition of a growth-retarding immune response following IFN cannot be excluded, ≈ 60% of IFN pts eventually received SU or another VEGFR agent and this may have caused the longer PTS following IFN. That randomization to SU was not detrimental is supported by the observation that longer TOT did not reduce PTS (slope of regression line =-0.054, 95%CI -0.189,0.048) indicating increased SU exposure does not adversely impact PTS. Furthermore, tumor response defined as minimum sum of the longest diameters (LD) divided by initial sum of LD, and thus analyzed as a continuous variable, modestly correlated with TOT (Rsq=0.28, p < 0.001), but not at all with PTS (Rsq= 0.027, p=0.02). Similarly, the g calculated while pts received on-study treatment was correlated with TOT (Rsq=0. 68; p<0.0001) and OS (Rsq = 0.40; p<0.0001) but not PTS (Rsq=.008; p=.27). CONCLUSIONS Neither the duration of SU treatment nor its anti-tumor activity, reflected in tumor response and g, had an effect on PTS. Thus, SU reduces tumor growth while administered, improves OS, and appears unlikely to alter tumor biology after treatment discontinuation. Concerns arising from animal models do not appear to apply to pts receiving SU.
Regulation of Teleost Macrophage and Neutrophil Cell Development by Growth Factors and Transcription Factors

Macrophages and neutrophils are the sentinel cells of the innate immune response of verte‐ brates, such as bony fish (teleosts). As phagocytic myeloid cells, they are involved in homeo‐ static mechanisms, wound healing, and the detection, elimination and clearance of foreign entities including tumors, virus-infected cells and invading pathogens. Furthermore, macro‐ phages and neutrophils are responsible for producing hundreds of bioactive molecules that are important in pathogen recognition and destruction, cellular communication and activa‐ tion, initiation of an adaptive immune response and later, resolution of an inflammatory re‐ sponse and tissue repair. Neutrophils and macrophages, while essential to survival, have a finite lifespan. Therefore, a manufacturing centre, the hematopoietic niche, is needed for the production of myeloid cells. The hematopoietic niche must maintain basal myeloid cell pro‐ duction levels during homeostasis, yet retain the flexibility to ramp-up cell production in re‐ sponse to physiological demands, such as pathogenic insult. The development of macrophages (monopoiesis) and neutrophils (granulopoiesis) is collectively known as mye‐ lopoiesis, and is regulated by the complex interaction of colony-stimulating factors (CSFs), their receptors, and intracellular transcription factor machinery that control lineage fate de‐ cisions and terminal differentiation events.
Prevalence of endometriosis in women undergoing surgery for benign gynecologic diseases.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of endometriosis among other benign gynecologic diseases and to identify the characteristics of patients at increased risk of concomitant diagnosis before surgery MATERIAL AND METHOD A descriptive cross-sectional study of331 women with benign gynecologic diseases who underwent surgery in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty ofMedicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand were included The subjects were interviewed for demographic data, obstetrics, and medical history. Data from medical records were reviewed and collected Operative notes and pathological reports were reviewedfor the diagnosis of endometriosis. The outcome measurement is the prevalence of endometriosis that was diagnosed by the surgeon from operative finding or pathological report and the characteristics of the patients at increased risk of concomitant diagnosis before surgery. RESULTS Of the 331 women with benign gynecologic diseases, 101 had coexistent endometriosis. Prevalence ofendometriosis in benign gynecologic diseases was 30.5%. Of the 285 women with benign gynecologic diseases that did not have concomitant diagnosis of endometriosis before surgery, endometriosis was found in 55 patients postoperatively. Prevalence of endometriosis in this group was 19.3%. The three most common diseases in women undergoing surgery were uterine leiomyoma, adenomyosis, and benign ovarian cysts, respectively. The coexistence ofendometriosis with uterine leiomyoma, adenomyosis, and benign ovarian cysts were 28%, 43.5%, and 50%, respectively. Women with preexisting endometriosis were significantly younger than those with postoperative diagnosed endometriosis. CONCLUSION The prevalence of coexistence of endometriosis and benign gynecologic diseases, especially uterine leiomyoma, adenomyosis, and benign ovarian cyst, was high. The diagnosis of concomitant diseases was made intra-operatively and postoperatively in more than half of the cases. Physicians should be concerned about the coexistence of both conditions and put this finding into the preoperative counseling data and definite surgery should be informed in advanced stage of endometriosis.
Preparation of Music Scores to Enable Hands-free Page Turning Based on Eye-gaze Tracking

Digital copies of musical scores may be saved on tablet devices, compressing volumes of scores into a single portable device. Tablet screens are however typically smaller than printed sheet music such that the score needs to be resized for readability. This necessitates additional page turning which is made more complex when repeat instructions are used since these give rise to forward and backward page turns of the music. In this paper, we tackle this problem by first performing image analysis of the score in order to identify repeat instructions and hence flatten the score. Thus, the music player is presented the score as it should be played. We then propose the use of eye-gaze tracking to provide a hands-free page turning mechanism. Thus, the player remains in full control of when the page turn occurs. Through a preliminary study, we found that our proposed score flattening and eye-gaze page turning reduced the time spent navigating the page turns by 47% in comparison to available music score reading tools.
Frequency reconfigurable wideband compact dual-polarized magneto-electric dipole

In this paper, a novel wideband frequency reconfigurable compact dual-polarized magneto-electric dipole is presented. The antenna has two operation modes and cover an ultra-wideband operation frequency from 1.5 to 2.8 GHz and from 2.5 to 4.6 GHz with a Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) <3. RF PIN diodes are placed on the antenna structure and used as switches to select different operation modes. Moreover, in the lower operation band adding a capacitive loading allows to miniaturize the antenna height to 0. 1λ.
A first principles simulation framework for the interactions between a Si(001) surface and a scanning probe

By means of total energy calculations within the framework of the local density approximation (LDA), the interactions between a silicon Si(001) surface and a scanning probe are investigated. The tip of the probe, comprising 4 Si atoms scans along the dimer lines above an asymmetric p(2 × 1) surface, at a distance where the chemical interaction between tip-surface is dominant and responsible for image resolution. At that distance, the tip causes the dimer to toggle when it scans above the lower atom of a dimer. The toggled dimers create an alternating pattern, where the immediately adjacent neighbours of a toggled dimer remain unchanged. After the tip has fully scanned across the p(2 × 1) surface, causes the dimers to arrange in a p(2 × 2) reconstruction, reproducing the images obtained in scanning probe experiments. Our modelling methodology includes simulations that reveal the energy input required to overcome the barrier to the onset of dimer toggling. The results show that the energy input to overcome this barrier is lower for the p(2 × 1) surface than that for the p(2 × 2) or c(4 × 2) surfaces.