Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linking temporal coordination of hippocampal activity to memory function

Oscillations in neural activity are widespread throughout the brain and can be observed at the population level through the local field potential. These rhythmic patterns are associated with cycles of excitability and are thought to coordinate networks of neurons, in turn facilitating effective communication both within local circuits and across brain regions. In the hippocampus, theta rhythms (4–12 Hz) could contribute to several key physiological mechanisms including long-range synchrony, plasticity, and at the behavioral scale, support memory encoding and retrieval. While neurons in the hippocampus appear to be temporally coordinated by theta oscillations, they also tend to fire in sequences that are developmentally preconfigured. Although loss of theta rhythmicity impairs memory, these sequences of spatiotemporal representations persist in conditions of altered hippocampal oscillations. The focus of this review is to disentangle the relative contribution of hippocampal oscillations from single-neuron activity in learning and memory. We first review cellular, anatomical, and physiological mechanisms underlying the generation and maintenance of hippocampal rhythms and how they contribute to memory function. We propose candidate hypotheses for how septohippocampal oscillations could support memory function while not contributing directly to hippocampal sequences. In particular, we explore how theta rhythms could coordinate the integration of upstream signals in the hippocampus to form future decisions, the relevance of such integration to downstream regions, as well as setting the stage for behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity. Finally, we leverage stimulation-based treatment in Alzheimer's disease conditions as an opportunity to assess the sufficiency of hippocampal oscillations for memory function.
Relationship between CT-Derived Bone Mineral Density and UTE-MR-Derived Porosity Index in Equine Third Metacarpal and Metatarsal Bones

Simple Summary Racehorses have similar health issues to human runners during their careers. The intense exercise regime leads to changes in their bone compositions where their bones become more dense and less porous in order to adapt to the higher-than-usual physical demands. While this is generally beneficial, their bones also become more brittle in the process, and this can result in stress fractures in human athletes and racehorses alike. The balance between beneficial training responses and overtraining is fine, and we are currently not able to use imaging techniques to distinguish reliably between the two of them before injuries occur. Two important markers of bone health are the density of the bone, which is well established, and the number of pores within the bone tissue, and the latter has recently attracted more interest. We aimed to validate a new MRI-based technique for measuring bone porosity in horses. This has the potential to improve our understanding of bony changes associated with training in racehorses and aid in the identification of factors associated with fracture risks. Abstract Fatigue-related subchondral bone injuries of the third metacarpal/metatarsal (McIII/MtIII) bones are common causes of wastage, and they are welfare concerns in racehorses. A better understanding of bone health and strength would improve animal welfare and be of benefit for the racing industry. The porosity index (PI) is an indirect measure of osseous pore size and number in bones, and it is therefore an interesting indicator of bone strength. MRI of compact bone using traditional methods, even with short echo times, fail to generate enough signal to assess bone architecture as water protons are tightly bound. Ultra-short echo time (UTE) sequences aim to increase the amount of signal detected in equine McIII/MtIII condyles. Cadaver specimens were imaged using a novel dual-echo UTE MRI technique, and PI was calculated and validated against quantitative CT-derived bone mineral density (BMD) measures. BMD and PI are inversely correlated in equine distal Mc/MtIII bone, with a weak mean r value of −0.29. There is a statistically significant difference in r values between the forelimbs and hindlimbs. Further work is needed to assess how correlation patterns behave in different areas of bone and to evaluate PI in horses with and without clinically relevant stress injuries.
Listeria monocytogenes in ready to eat meat products from Zambia: phenotypical and genomic characterization of isolates

The contamination of ready to eat foods (RTE) products due to Listeria monocytogenes could compromise the products safety becoming a great risk for the consumers. The high presence of L. monocytogenes in RTE products has been described worldwide, but few data are available about these products from African countries. The aims of this study were to report the presence of L. monocytogenes in Zambian RTE products, providing genomic characterization and data on similarity with African circulating strains using whole genome sequencing (WGS). A total of 304 RTE products, produced by different Zambian manufacturers, were purchased at retail, from major supermarkets located in Lusaka, Zambia, comprising 130 dairy and 174 meat products. L. monocytogenes was detected only in 18 (10.3%) RTE meat products of the 174 samples tested. The MLST analysis grouped the 18 L. monocytogenes isolates in 7 clonal complexes (CCs): CC1 (n = 5), CC2 (n = 4), CC9 (n = 4), CC5 (n = 2), CC121 (n = 1), CC155 (n = 1), and CC3 (n = 1). According to the cgMLST results, several clusters were detected, in particular belonging to hyper-virulent clones CC1 and CC2. Regarding the virulence factors, a complete L. monocytogenes Pathogenicity Island 3 (LIPI-3) was present both in the CC1 and CC3, in addition to LIPI-1. Several resistance genes and mobile genetic elements were detected, including Stress Islands, the bcrABC cassette and Tn6188_qac transposon, plasmids and intact prophages. Despite being a first preliminary work with a limited number of samples and isolates, this study helped to increase existing knowledge on contaminated RTE products in Zambia, confirming the presence of hyper-virulent L. monocytogenes CCs, which could play an important role in human diseases, posing a public health concern for consumers.
Editorial: Non-invasive diagnostic tools in the management of skin disorders

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Zavattaro, Veronese and Savoia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Editorial: Non-invasive diagnostic tools in the management of skin disorders
Dynamique du trait de côte sur les littoraux sableux de la Mauritanie à la Guinée-Bissau (Afrique de l'Ouest) : Approches régionale et locale par photo-interprétation, traitement d'images et analyse de cartes anciennes

Ce memoire sur l'evolution des littoraux sableux de la Mauritanie a la Guinee-Bissau est le fruit d'une recherche doctorale menee dans le cadre du projet «Bilan prospectif des changements a long terme de l'environnement cotier d'Afrique de l'Ouest», composante recherche du Programme Regional de Conservation des Zones Cotieres et Marines en Afrique de l'Ouest (PRCM). Il s'envisageait a deux echelles spatiales (regionale et locale) et avait pour objectif de mettre en evidence et de mesurer les phenomenes d'erosion et d'accumulation intervenus depuis plusieurs decennies sur les cotes sableuses de la Mauritanie a la Guinee-Bissau. A l'echelle regionale, la superposition des lignes instantanees de rivage ou des limites de vegetation extraites d'images Landsat multidates par equidensitometrie ou par classification avec l'ISODATA indique en depit d'une erosion ponctuelle, une tendance a la progradation des formes tres mobiles telles que les pointes des fleches, des petites iles et cordons sableux isolant des mangroves dans les systemes estuariens du Senegal a la Guinee-Bissau. L'analyse locale porte sur quatre sites repartis sur le littoral senegalo-mauritanien (Nouakchott, Ndiago – Saint-Louis, Bargny – Yene-sur-mer, Mbour – Pointe Sarene) et s'etendant sur 67 km environ. Fondee essentiellement sur le traitement numerique et l'interpretation d'images aeriennes au sein d'un SIG, l'etude de l'evolution spatio-temporelle de la position des marqueurs selectionnes comme traits de cote (ligne de pleines mers ou limite superieure de la plage) revele une erosion sur 47 km (70 %) de cote et une progradation sur 20 km (30 %).
microRNAs delivered by small extracellular vesicles in MSCs as an emerging tool for bone regeneration

Bone regeneration is a dynamic process that involves angiogenesis and the balance of osteogenesis and osteoclastogenesis. In bone tissue engineering, the transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is a promising approach to restore bone homeostasis. MSCs, particularly their small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), exert therapeutic effects due to their paracrine capability. Increasing evidence indicates that microRNAs (miRNAs) delivered by sEVs from MSCs (MSCs-sEVs) can alter gene expression in recipient cells and enhance bone regeneration. As an ideal delivery vehicle of miRNAs, MSCs-sEVs combine the high bioavailability and stability of sEVs with osteogenic ability of miRNAs, which can effectively overcome the challenge of low delivery efficiency in miRNA therapy. In this review, we focus on the recent advancements in the use of miRNAs delivered by MSCs-sEVs for bone regeneration and disorders. Additionally, we summarize the changes in miRNA expression in osteogenic-related MSCs-sEVs under different microenvironments.
An Enhanced Trace Ratio Linear Discriminant Analysis for Fault Diagnosis: An Illustrated Example Using HDD Data

This paper proposes a pattern recognition method for the fault diagnosis of machinery based on an enhanced trace ratio linear discriminant analysis (ETR-LDA) algorithm. It is an extension of TR-LDA that pursues to maximize the between-class distance and minimize the within-class distance. Since TR-LDA focuses on the total between-class distance and ignores the attention to local features, it may lead to deficiencies in the classification of specific patterns/classes, which is defined as short board in this paper. To cope with this limitation, the proposed ETR-LDA makes a reconsideration of the relationship between the total between-class distance and the global separability. More specifically, a new objective function is derived in ETR-LDA by taking the smallest between-class distance into account. The optimal solution of this objective function is proved to improve the smallest between-class distance with no change to the convergence and the global optimality of the algorithm, and the separability of different classes is increased eventually. Both synthetic data and hard disk drive wearing experimental data are employed to verify the efficiency of the proposed method. The results show that ETR-LDA is able to distinguish those fault categories and outperform TR-LDA and other dimensionality reduction methods.
Wealth-Based Inequalities in Higher Education Attendance: A Global Snapshot

This study provides a comprehensive global snapshot of wealth-based inequalities in higher education attendance. We draw on data from 117 countries to describe cross-national patterns in higher education attendance rates, disaggregated by wealth quintile and country income group. We then calculate four different indicators to quantify the size of wealth-based inequality in higher education attendance and completion for each country. Our findings point to large wealth-based inequalities in higher education attendance cross-nationally, which are: substantially larger than inequalities in secondary completion, larger in low- and middle-income countries than high-income countries, and negatively associated with national wealth. The results serve as a foundation for future studies on how country-level factors and policies exacerbate or reduce wealth-based inequalities.
Don't Forget Pairing-Friendly Curves with Odd Prime Embedding Degrees

Pairing-friendly curves with odd prime embedding degrees at the 128-bit security level, such as BW13-310 and BW19-286, sparked interest in the field of public-key cryptography as small sizes of the prime fields. However, compared to mainstream pairing-friendly curves at the same security level, i.e., BN446 and BLS12-446, the performance of pairing computations on BW13-310 and BW19-286 is usually considered inefficient. In this paper we investigate high performance software implementations of pairing computation on BW13-310 and corresponding building blocks used in pairing-based protocols, including hashing, group exponentiations and membership testings. Firstly, we propose efficient explicit formulas for pairing computation on this curve. Moreover, we also exploit the state-of-art techniques to implement hashing in G1 and G2, group exponentiations and membership testings. In particular, for exponentiations in G2 and GT , we present new optimizations to speed up computational efficiency. Our implementation results on a 64-bit processor show that the gap in the performance of pairing computation between BW13-310 and BN446 (resp. BLS12-446) is only up to 4.9% (resp. 26%). More importantly, compared to BN446 and BLS12-446, BW13-310 is about 109.1% − 227.3%, 100% − 192.6%, 24.5%−108.5% and 68.2%−145.5% faster in terms of hashing to G1, exponentiations in G1 and GT , and membership testing for GT , respectively. These results reveal that BW13-310 would be an interesting candidate in pairing-based cryptographic protocols.
Strategic use of observer-perspective questions in couples therapy

Questions are one of the most frequently used strategies in therapy. There is a body of theoretical work on the kinds of questions that are preferred in specific treatment approaches. However, research on the use of questions in general, how they are formed and what specific therapeutic work they do, is relatively scarce in the literature. In this study, we use the conceptual framework and methods of conversation analysis (CA) to examine how systemic questions soliciting clients' perspective on the partners' thoughts and intents (Observer-Perspective Questions; OPQs) are realized interactively in actual clinical practice and the range of therapeutic work they perform in couples therapy. We identified 78 OPQs from archival data of videotaped time-limited couples therapies, a clinical population working with a professional therapist. From this set of 78 OPQs, five excerpts representing diverse use of OPQs were selected. These excerpts were transcribed in detail capturing not only the textual content but also the prosodic, gestural, and non-verbal aspects of these episodes. Using CA methodology, we identified four specific kinds of changes these questions can promote: progress toward relational optimism, support of positive aspects of the couple's relationship, promoting the concept that the couples' experiences and emotions are interlinked, and introducing new creative relational options. Detailed CA analyses of these clinical excerpts allowed us to identify how the OPQ sequences were built to realize these therapeutically useful moves using various conversational resources progressively and interactively. The conversational analysis of these sequences facilitated the exploration of relationships between the ways the questions are formed, timed, and delivered and the specific functions they perform to move the therapy forward. In conclusion, we make the general argument that examining important therapy events through a CA perspective provides a significant complementary vector to quantitative research on the therapy process.
Mechanisms of separation of rupture area and variation in time interval and size of great earthquakes along the Nankai Trough, southwest Japan

According to the earthquake history along the Nankai Trough more than 1000 years, two great inter- plate earthquakes have occurred east and west off Kii Peninsula within a few years and such earthquakes have occurred repeatedly with 100-200 years intervals. Recent seismic structure surveys along the Nankai Trough reveal that there are some heterogeneous structures in several tens of kilometer scale at the boundaries of the separated rupture areas. For example, high velocity and high density doming body exists beneath Kii Peninsula, which is the main segmentation boundary. We consider that such large-scale heterogeneous struc- tures may control the rupture area separation. The heterogeneity should be also related to the mechanism of variation in time interval and size of great earthquakes occurred there, because such mechanism is closely related how rupture propagation stops. To investigate the mechanisms of rupture area separation and also time- and size-variation of great earthquakes along the Nankai Trough, we conducted large-scale numerical simula- tion of earthquake generation cycles. Heterogeneous distribution in frictional properties is assumed based on the heterogeneous structures obtained by seismic surveys. The results show that rupture area separation can be reproduced within the reasonable range in frictional parameters. The significant variation in recurrence time and earthquake size occurs only when large fracture energy area exists in the deeper portion of the seismogenic zone. The existence of such area causes heterogeneous stress distribution after one earthquake cycle. The varia- tion pattern obtained here is similar to that of the last three earthquake cycles in the historical data.
A Statistical Analysis of the U.S. Crop Spraying Program in South Vietnam

Abstract : This Memorandum aims at an improved understanding of the effects of crop spraying operations on Viet Cong rice consumption, by examination of relevant statistical indicators. Regional averages of individual VC daily rice rations were used as an indicator of the patterN OF RICE CONSUMPTION; THE VARIATION IN RICE RATIONS FROM REGION TO REGION WAS EXAMINED, USING MULTIPLE REGRESSION TECHNIQUES, IN THE CONTEXT OF VARIATIONS IN ORDER REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS INCLUDING THE PERCENTAGE OF REGIONAL RICE LANDS SPRAYED WITH HERBICIDES. It was found that VC rice rations vary in remarkably close relationship with standard regional economic variables and a foreign sanctuary factor. No significant relationship was noted, between rice rations and the percentage of regional rice land sprayed. VC rice rations were found to be a function of regional rice production and population variables and a foreign sanctuary factor taken to be the distance from the center of a region to the Cambodian or Laotian border.
Feasibility of using remotely delivered Spring Forest Qigong to reduce neuropathic pain in adults with spinal cord injury: a pilot study

Introduction: Approximately 69% of 299,000 Americans with spinal cord injury (SCI) suffer debilitating chronic neuropathic pain, which is intractable to treatment. The aim of this study is to determine feasibility, as the primary objective, and estimates of efficacy of a remotely delivered Qigong intervention in adults with SCI-related neuropathic pain, as the secondary objective. Methods: We recruited adults with SCI-related neuropathic pain, with SCI ≥3 months, with complete or incomplete SCI, and highest neuropathic pain level of >3 on the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), using nationwide volunteer sampling. Using a non-randomized controlled trial design, participants practiced Spring Forest Qigong’s “Five Element Qigong Healing Movements” (online video) by combining movement to the best of their ability with kinesthetic imagery, at least 3x/week for 12 weeks. Adherence was automatically tracked through the Spring Forest Qigong website. Outcomes of neuropathic pain intensity (NPRS) were assessed weekly, and SCI-related symptoms were assessed at baseline, 6, and 12 weeks of Qigong practice and at 6-week and 1-year follow-ups. Results: We recruited 23 adults with chronic SCI (7/2021–2/2023). In total, 18 participants started the study and completed all study components, including the 6-week follow-up. Twelve participants completed the 1-year follow-up assessment. Feasibility was demonstrated through participants’ willingness to participate, adherence, and acceptability of the study. Mean age of the 18 participants was 60 ± 12 years, and they were 15 ± 11 years post-SCI with the highest baseline neuropathic pain of 7.94 ± 2.33, which was reduced to 4.17 ± 3.07 after 12 weeks of Qigong practice (Cohen’s d = 1.75). This pain relief remained at 6-week and 1-year follow-ups. Participants reported reduced spasm frequency (change score 1.17 ± 1.20, d = 0.98) and severity (0.72 ± 1.02, d = 0.71), reduced interference of neuropathic pain on mood (3.44 ± 2.53, d = 1.36), sleep (3.39 ± 2.40, d = 1.41), daily activities (3.17 ± 2.77, d = 1.14), greater ability to perform functional activities (6.68 ± 3.07, d = 2.18), and improved mood (2.33 ± 3.31, d = 0.70) after Qigong. Discussion: Remote Spring Forest Qigong’s “Five Element Qigong Healing Movements” practice is feasible in adults with SCI-related neuropathic pain, with promising prolonged results of neuropathic pain relief and improvement in SCI-related symptoms after Qigong practice. Clinical trial registration: https://www.clinicaltrials. gov/ct2/show/NCT04917107, identifier NCT04917107
Sub-hourly precise point positioning accuracy analysis – case study for selected ASG-EUPOS stations

Precise Point Positioning (PPP) is still considered a new technique of GNSS measurements intensively developed in recent years. One of the main advantages of this method is the autonomous mode of measurement, requiring only one receiver, which ensures the high accuracy of the measured position. The accuracy, in some modes of measurement and processing, is similar to the results obtained with the use of Relative GNSS technique (RGNSS). The main disadvantages of PPP include the need to introduce a set of corrections, which in the RGNSS are reduced using differential equations and a relatively long time (about 20 min or more) needed for ambiguity resolution. The analysis conducted so far concerning the determination of the PPP accuracy focused mainly on the results obtained from long (daily) static observation. The results obtained from the sub-daily observation, less often analysed, involved longer time intervals (1–8 h). In this paper, time series of position components derived from sub-hourly (30 min) PPP solutions were analysed. The analysis was based on 30 days of observations performed at 8 ASG-EUPOS system stations. For processing the collected GNSS observations (in different variants) the NAvigation Package for Earth Orbiting Satellites (NAPEOS) software was chosen. If it will be assumed that standard deviation (SD) can be a good measure of the accuracy of the obtained results, the conducted analyzes prove that the sub-hourly PPP technique can provide accuracy in the order of 0.5 cm (SD below 0.5 cm) for the horizontal position components and 1 cm (SD below 1 cm) for the vertical position component. The above accuracy was obtained in the multi-station PPP approach (fixed ambiguity solution). In float ambiguity solution scenarios the standard deviation increases up to 1 cm for horizontal components and up to 2 cm for the vertical component. The periodicity, in the obtained position components time series, were analysed using the Lomb-Scargle periodogram. Spectral analysis showed clear periodicity in the obtained results (especially for GPS-only fixed and float solutions). For GPS or GPS/GLONASS processing strategies 73% of detected periodic signals correspond to a multiple of the orbital periods of the satellites.