bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ectoparasites of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Grenada, West Indies
Authors: Thille Katelyn Noelle , Rametta Nia Francesca , Fitzpatrick Daniel Mark , Springer Camille Coomansingh , Tiwari Keshaw , Pinckney Rhonda Denise , Sharma Ravindra Nath
Published: September 2019

Background and Aim: Arthropod ectoparasites (mites, lice, ticks, and fleas) on common house rats or brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) are known to transmit zoonotic pathogens and diminish rat health. To the best of our knowledge, there is no published information regarding the prevalence of ectoparasites on R. norvegicus in Grenada. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and types of ectoparasites present on brown rats from Grenada.

Materials and Methods: One hundred sixty-eight rats were collected live from the parishes of St. George and St. David, Grenada, from May to July 2017. Following euthanasia, external parasites were collected using fine combs, thumb forceps, and paper tape. Tape samples and free specimens were placed in containers with 70% ethanol. External parasites were evaluated using dissection microscopy.

Results: Over 2000 ectoparasites were collected from 149 of the 168 trapped rats (88.7%). Ectoparasites identified included mesostigmatid mites (found on 84.6% of infested rats), fur mites in the families Atopomelidae and Listrophoridae (67.1%), Polyplax spp. lice (6.7%), fleas (3.4%), an unidentified larval tick (0.7%), and a mite in the family Myobiidae (0.7%). Infestation rates were higher in St. David Parish (86/89; 96.6%) than in St. George Parish (63/79; 79.7%) (p=0.001). When comparing sex and age, males had a marginal increase in infestation rate (83/89; 93.3%) compared to females (66/79; 83.5%) (p=0.054), and adults had an infestation rate of 90.7% (97/107) compared to juvenile rats who had a 66.7% (14/21) infestation rate.

Conclusion: Brown rats in Grenada are heavily infested with ectoparasites, including known vectors of pathogens. Future studies will examine the prevalence of zoonotic pathogens in these arthropods.
Die sprachliche Sichtbarkeit der Geschlechter
Authors: Zifonun Gisela , Drewnowska-Vargáné Ewa
Published: September 2019

Ziel des Beitrags ist es, in einer explorativen Untersuchung zu ermitteln, ob und wie in Deutschland und in Polen geschlechtergerechter Sprachgebrauch praktiziert wird. In beiden Gesellschaften wird derzeit mit den einschlägigen Verfahren noch experimentiert. Die feministische Presse spielt dabei eine Vorreiterrolle. Der Beitrag ist in drei inhaltliche Teile gegliedert. Der erste Teil schildert in knapper Form die Entwicklung in der sprachlichen Markierung von Sexuszugehörigkeit und -differenz, wie sie in der deutschen und der polnischen Gesellschaft in der Nachkriegszeit stattgefunden hat. Der zweite Teil befasst sich mit den sprachstrukturellen Grundlagen für die Möglichkeiten des ›Genderns‹ in beiden Sprachen. Hier werden sowohl Gemeinsamkeiten als auch Unterschiede nachgewiesen. Der dritte Teil ist einer kleinen empirischen Studie gewidmet. Es werden Publikationen in erster Linie der feministischen Presse beider Länder aus der jüngsten Zeit auf ihren Umgang mit geschlechterdifferenzierender Sprache hin untersucht.
Comparison of Dipper and Non-Dipper Hypertension Patterns According to Chronic Kidney Disease Stage
Authors: Erkek Esra Turan , Akin Seydahmet , Ozgur Yasemin , Aydin Zeki , Bicik Zerrin
Published: September 2019

Introduction
Hypertension is a major cardiovascular risk factor. There is a strong relationship between blood pressure (BP) elevation and stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure and mortality due to kidney disease. It is known that the loss of the dipping pattern in hypertension is associated with increased target organ damage. In our study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of dipper hypertension (DHT) and nondipper hypertension (NDHT) and related factors in patients with stage 1 and 2 chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Materials and Methods
A total of 158 patients diagnosed with stage 1 or stage 2 CKD were included in the study. Demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, physical examination findings and laboratory results of the patients were recorded. Ambulatory BP monitoring was performed in all patients.

Results
Of the 158 patients (female n: 98), 78 (49%) were in the stage 1 CKD group and 80 (51%) were in the stage 2 CKD group. No significant difference was observed in the prevalence of DHT or NDHT between hypertensive patients in the stage 1 and 2 CKD groups. The rate of NDHT was 59.5% (94/158 patients). Female patients had more DHT in the general population and in the stage 1 group than male patients (p=0.05, p=0.01, respectively).

Conclusion
No significant difference was observed in the prevalence of DHT or NDHT between hypertensive patients in the stage 1 and 2 CKD groups. The prevalence of DHT in female patients was significantly higher in both groups than in men in both groups, but especially in the stage 1 CKD group.
Demonstratives and the Noun Phrase Structure of Hakha Chin
Authors: Wamsley James Christian
Published: September 2019

Demonstratives are linked to spatial deixis, definiteness, and other semantic and pragmatic functions. This paper looks at the demonstrative class in Hakha Chin, a Kuki-Chin language in the Tibeto-Burman family. Hakha Chin demonstratives exhibit several remarkable features, such as their ability to appear in prenominal, postnominal, and “circumnominal” positions (in which they appear concurrently in prenominal and postnominal positions). This analysis also examines Hakha Chin demonstratives as they relate to other elements in the noun phrase structure, such as case marking, numerals, classifiers, and adjectives. The paper also touches on the relationship between demonstratives and the expression of definiteness and familiarity in Hakha Chin, finding that bare nouns can be interpreted as either definite or indefinite and that there is a dedicated familiarity morpheme kha. The findings of this paper presents several questions for future research on the syntactic structure of Hakha Chin nominal phrases and their semantic interpretations.
EVALUATION OF MODIS-DERIVED LST PRODUCTS WITH AIR TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS IN CYPRUS
Authors: Georgiou Andreas Marios , Varnava Stefani Theofanis
Published: September 2019

Air temperature data is usually obtained from measurements made in meteorological stations, providing only limited information about spatial patterns over wide areas. The use of remote sensing data can help overcome this problem, particularly in areas with low station density, having the potential to improve the estimation of air surface temperature at both regional and global scales. Land Surface (skin) Temperatures (LST) derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor aboard the Terra and Aqua satellite platforms provide spatial estimates of near-surface temperature values. In this study, LST values from MODIS are compared to ground-based near surface air (Tair) measurements obtained from 4 observational stations during 2011 to 2015, covering coastal, mountainous and urban areas over Cyprus. Combining Terra and Aqua LST-8 Day and Night acquisitions into a mean 8-day value, provide a large number of LST observations and a better overall agreement with Tair. Comparison between mean monthly LSTs and mean monthly Tair for all sites and all seasons pooled together yields a very high correlations (r > 0.96) and biases ranging from 1.9oC to 4.1oC. MODIS capture overall variability with a slightly systematic overestimation of seasonal fluctuations of surface temperature. For the evaluation of intra-seasonal temperature variability, MODIS showed biases up to 6.7oC in summer with a tendency to overestimate the variability while in cold seasons, limited biases were presented (0.10oC ± 0.50oC) with a tendency to underestimate the variability. Finally, there was no indication of tendency for MODIS to systematically under- or overestimate the amplitude of the inter-annual variability analysis. The presented high standard deviation can be explained by the influence of surface heterogeneity within MODIS 1km2 grid cells, the presence of undetected clouds and the inherent difference between LST and Tair. Overall, MODIS LST data proved to be a reliable proxy for surface temperature and mostly for studies requiring temperature reconstruction in areas with lack of observational stations.
Der Energie-Impuls-Tensor in einer Fernwirkungsfeldtheorie
Authors: Bopp Fritz
Published: September 2019

Es wird eine Methode angegeben, die auch im Falle allgemeiner linearer Feldtheorien den Energie-Impuls-Tensor abzuleiten gestattet.
Zur labilen Determination der Imaginalscheiben von Drosophila: VI. Die Umwandlung präsumptiven Rüsselgewebes in Bein- oder Fühlergewebe
Authors: Vogt Marguerite
Published: September 2019

Abstrakt

Die temperatursensible Periode der Mutante proboscipedia fällt in das letzte Larvenstadium. Es sind somit auch die Rüssel-Imaginalscheiben bei Drosophila bis zum letzten Larvenstadium in ihrer Differenzierungsrichtung noch nicht festgelegt. Die Fühler-Mutante aristopedia zeigt in der Gen-Kombination proboscipedia-aristopedia einen Einfluß auf die Rüssel- Differenzierung, während ein entsprechender Einfluß der Rüssel-Mutante proboscipedia auf die Fühler-Differenzierung nicht nachweisbar ist. Möglicherweise gehen die von proboscipedia abhängigen Entwicklungsprozesse den von ariatopedia gesteuerten Prozessen voran.
Keto-Enol-Umwarrdlurig des Acetessigesters im Gaszustand
Authors: Brieoleb Günther , Rebelein Hans
Published: September 2019

Es werden die Keto-Enol-Gleichgewichte des Acetessigesters und die Umwandlungs-wärmen erstmalig im Gaszustand im Temperaturbereich von 0° bis 180° C bestimmt. Der Enolgehalt ist im gasförmigen Zustand (52% bei 20°) viel größer als im flüssigen; er nimmt mit steigender Temperatur ab (14% bei 180°). Es werden die Dampfdrucke und Verdampfungswärmen flüssiger Keto-Enol-Mischungen gemessen und die metastabilen Dampfzusammensetzungen, die mit flüssigen Mischungen verschiedenster K-E-Zusammensetzung im metastabilen Gleichgewicht sind.
Versuche zur Einzelstreuung von Elektronen
Authors: Bothe Walther
Published: September 2019

Abstract Aus der ß-Strahlung eines starken RaD - + E-Präparates wurden enge Energiebereiche von einigen 100 keV magnetisch ausgesondert. Mit diesen wurde die Streuung an dünnen Folien verschiedener Ordnungszahl unter einem mittleren Winkel von 110° untersucht. Das Spektrum der gestreuten Elektronen wurde mit einem Halbkreis-Spektrometer auf-genommen. Ergebnisse: 1. Energieverluste, die über die mit der Bremsstrahlung verbundenen wesentlich hinausgingen, wurden nur beobachtet, wenn die Schichtdicke nicht genügend klein war; bei reiner Kern-Einzelstreuung traten keine anomalen Verluste auf (mit einem kleinen Vorbehalt bei den leichtesten Elementen). 2. Die Abhängigkeit des Streuquerschnittes von der Ordnungszahl folgt der von Sexl und Urban korrigierten Mottschen Formel innerhalb der Genauigkeitsgrenzen von Theorie und Experiment. Gegenüber der ursprünglichen Mottschen Formel treten größere Abweichungen auf. 1. Ziele der Untersuchung Genaue Messungen über die Einzelstreuung
Spezifische Wärme, spezifisches Volumen, Temperatur-und Wärmeleitfähigkeit einiger disubstituierter Benzole und polycyclischer Systeme
Authors: Ueberreiter Kurt , Orthmann Hans-Joachim
Published: September 2019

Die vorliegende Arbeit dient der Untersuchung zwischenmolekularer Kräfte in organischen Festkörpern. Es werden die spezifische Wärme (cp). das spezifische Volumen (v), die Temperaturleitfähigkeit (a) von:

p-Dichlor-, p-Dibrom-, p-Dijodbenzol, o-, m-, p-Dioxybenzol, o-, m-, p-Dinitrobenzol, Chinon und Hydrochinon, Naphthalin, Diphenyl, Anthracen, Phenanthren und Benzanthren zwischen 20 und 95 °C gemessen und daraus die Wärmeleitfähigkeit (λ) berechnet.

In dem Ausdruck λ = acp/v werden die beiden Größen cp und u zu einer neuen Größe s, die „spezifische Wärmekapazität" genannt wird, zusammengefaßt. Die Temperaturleitfähigkeit wird als Maß für die gegenseitige Kopplung der Molekeln betrachtet.

Als eine auf größere Molekelbezirke ansprechende Größe zeigt die Temperaturleitfähigkeit auch dann noch Vorschmelzerscheinungen an, wenn andere Meßverfahren nicht mehr anspredien, wie z. B. beim Naphthalin.

Beim Phenanthren wird bei etwa 69 °C eine I/II Umwandlung mit einer Umwandlungswärme von 607 cal aufgefunden. Unstetigkeiten der Meßkurven lassen auf Umwandlungen höherer Ordnung beim p-Dichlor-, p-Dijodbenzol und Hydrochinon schließen.

Nach den Meßergebnissen scheinen geringe spezifische Wärmekapazität und hohe Temperaturleitfähigkeit einander zu entsprechen, ohne daß jedoch strenge Proportionalität gegeben ist. Mit steigender Ladung des Substituenten fällt die Wärmeleitfähigkeit bei den Dihalogenbenzolen. Sie erhöht sich mit zunehmender symmetrischer Stellung bei den Dinitrobenzolen und bei benzoider Struktur im Gegensatz zur chinoiden beim Hydrochinon und Chinon. Mit einer Vergrößerung der Molekelfläche von Benzol zum Benzanthren nimmt sie ab.
Measurement of the Natural Lifetimes and Quenching Rate Constants of OH(2Σ+, v = 0,1) and OD(2Σ+, v = 0,1) Radicals
Authors: Becker K. H. , Haaks D.
Published: September 2019

The lifetimes of OH(2Σ+) and OD(2Σ+) radicals were measured by using pulse-photolysis of water and methanol in the vacuum-uv for the production of the electronically excited radicals. From the fluorescence decay measurements the natural lifetimes, as well as the quenching rate constants for several added gases such as H2O, CH3OH, H2, N2, Ar, and He were determined. In particular, the natural lifetime of OH (2Σ+, v = 0), τ = (1.00 ± 0.06) · 10-6 s, was corrected for rotation-vibration as well as for rotation-electronic interactions resulting in a lifetime of (0.83 ± 0.08) · 10-6 s for the rotationless state. A lifetime of (0.82 ± 0.08) · 10-6 s was derived for the rotationless state of OD(2Σ+,v = 0).
The Pressure Dependence of the Phase Diagram t-Butanol/Water
Authors: Woznyj M. , Lüdemann H.-D.
Published: September 2019

The phase diagram t-butanol/water is studied in the temperature range between 200 and 450 K at pressures up to 200 MPa. No liquid/liquid phase separation is observed in this range. The solid/liquid phase diagram reveals the presence of a stable t-butanol/dihydrate at all pressures. At the t-butanol rich side of the diagram solid mixtures with compositions t-butanol/water ~ 5 :1 and ~ 6 : 1 are observed.
Spectroscopic and Photochemical Studies of Gossypol in Solution
Authors: Marciniak B. , Kozubek H. , Koput J. , Paszyc S.
Published: September 2019

Spectroscopic properties of gossypol and its stability in different solvents and pH are studied by means of UV-visible absorption and emission spectroscopy. The results are correlated and discussed on the basis of semiempirical INDO/S CI calculations. The influence of oxygen and excitation wavelength on the photodecomposition of gossypol in solution is also investigated.
Nonlocal Symmetry and Consistent Tanh Expansion Method for the Coupled Integrable Dispersionless Equation
Authors: Hu Hengchun , Hu Xiao , Feng Bao-Feng
Published: September 2019

Nonlocal symmetries are obtained for the coupled integrable dispersionless (CID) equation. The CID equation is proved to be consistent, tanh-expansion solvable. New, exact interaction excitations such as soliton–cnoidal wave solutions, soliton–periodic wave solutions, and multiple resonant soliton solutions are discussed analytically and shown graphically.
The content comparison of health-related quality of life measures in heart failure based on the international classification of functioning, disability, and health: a systematic review
Authors: Moshki Mahdi , Khajavi Abdoljavad , Vakilian Farveh , Minaee Shima , Hashemizadeh Haydeh
Published: September 2019

Introduction: Due to the necessity of assessing the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in heart failure (HF) and the increased use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) for making a content comparison of measurement instruments, the present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the instruments and ICF. To this aim, the disease-specific HRQOL instruments in HF were identified, and then psychometric properties and content comparison of included instruments were conducted by linking to ICF. Methods: Disease-specific HRQOL instruments in HF were identified through a comprehensive and systematic search strategy. Then, the psychometric properties of included instruments were determined, and their contents were analyzed and compared based on the ICF coding system. In addition, each instrument was independently linked to ICF by two researchers based on standardized linking rules, and finally their degree of agreement was assessed by the Cohen’s kappa coefficient. Results: Ten instruments including a total of 247 items and 417 concepts were linked to 124 different ICF categories. Further, 39 (31.5%), 65 (52.5%), 13 (10.4%), and 7 (5.6%) categories were linked to body function, activity and participation, environmental factors, and body structure, respectively. According to the content analysis approach and psychometric properties, the appropriate measurement instruments were Kansas City Cardiomyopathy and Minnesota living with HF questionnaires, respectively. Conclusion: Content comparison provides researchers with valuable information on the instrument heterogeneity and overlapping, which results in selecting the most appropriate measurement instrument based on a specific clinical context.
Renin–angiotensin system blockade after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) improves intermediate survival
Authors: Klinkhammer Brent
Published: September 2019

Introduction: Hypertension is common in patients with severe aortic stenosis undertaking transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Renin–angiotensin system (RAS) blockade therapy with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) has recently been associated with improved outcomes after surgical aortic valve replacement and TAVR, but it is unknown if these findings apply to a more rural patient population. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 169 patients with at least 1 year of post-TAVR follow-up at a single predominantly rural US center was performed to determine if RAS blockade after TAVR affects short- and long-term outcomes. Seventy-one patients were on an ACEI or ARB at the time of TAVR and at 1 year post-TAVR follow-up. Fisher’s exact test was used for categorical data and t-test/ANOVA was used to determine the statistical significance of continuous variables. Results: In a well-matched cohort, RAS blockade therapy post-TAVR was associated with significantly improved overall survival at 2 years (95% vs. 79%, P = 0.042). RAS blockade was also associated with a trend towards decreased heart failure exacerbations in the first year after TAVR, which was statistically significant in the 30 days to 6 months timeframe after TAVR (8% vs. 21%, P = 0.032). Conclusion: In a rural patient population, RAS blockade after TAVR is associated with improved overall survival and a trend towards decreased heart failure exacerbations. This study builds upon previous studies and suggests that TAVR should be considered a compelling indication for these agents.
Chronic dosing with metformin plus bosentan decreases in vitro pulmonary artery contraction from isolated arteries in adults with pulmonary hypertension
Authors: Liao Shutan , Li Dongsheng , Hui Zheng , McLachlan Craig S , Zhang Yang
Published: September 2019

Introduction: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) specific drug therapy using bosentan has significantly improved quality of life and survival, although PAH is still an incurable disease. Recent studies suggest metformin may have additional treatment benefits in PAH. We therefore investigated in vitro pulmonary artery reactivity after combination therapy of bosentan and metformin in PAH patients as compared with bosentan monotherapy in a prospective, randomized study. Methods: Adult patients with PAH associated with congenital heart defects (PAH-CHD) were randomised to receive bosentan (initially at 62.5 mg twice daily for 4 weeks and then 125 mg twice daily) for 3 months with or without the combination treatment of metformin (500 mg twice daily). Vessel reactivity of isolated pulmonary arteries was examined using a wire myograph. Results: Phenylephrine (PE)-induced contractions of arteries in patients received combination therapy were significantly attenuated at concentrations of 3 × 10-7 M, 10-6 M and 3 × 10-6 M, compared to those received bosentan monotherapy. After denudation, PE-induced contractions at concentrations of 3 × 10-6 M and 10-5 M were significantly decreased in the combination therapy group. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor compound C abrogated the inhibitory effects of metformin on PE-induced contractility. AMPK and eNOS phosphorylation in the pulmonary arteries of patients treated with combination therapy was increased compared to monotherapy (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Adding metformin to bosentan therapy in patients with PAH-CHD decreased in vitro pulmonary artery contraction induced by PE, which is possibly related to increased AMPK phosphorylation.
Comparison of postoperative pain intensity following the use of three different instrumentation techniques: A randomized clinical trial
Authors: Adiguzel Mehmet , Tufenkci Pelin , Pamukcu ismail Ilker
Published: September 2019

Background. The aim of this study was to compare the postoperative pain intensity following the root canal preparation carried out with XP-endo Shaper (XPS; FKG Dentaire SA, La Chauxde-Fonds, Switzerland), iRace (iRC; FKG Dentaire SA) and Reciproc Blue (REC Blue; VDW, Munich, Germany) files. Methods. Mandibular molar teeth with asymtomatic necrotic pulps in 69 patients were randomly divided into three groups (n=23). The root canals were prepared using XPS, iRC or REC Blue instruments and obturated using the lateral condensation technique. The patients were asked to record their pain intensity at 24-, 48- and 72-hour and 1-week postoperative intervals on VAS. For intolerable pain after the procedure, ibuprofen (400 mg) was prescribed. Data were analyzed using chi-squared, Friedman, Kruskal–Wallis, and Mann–Whitney U tests. Results. The postoperative pain gradually decreased during the study period in all the groups (P<0.05). No statistically significant difference was found between iRC system and the two other systems at 12-, 24- 48-hour and 1-week intervals (P>0.05). When compared to XPS system, a higher level of postoperative pain was observed with REC Blue system at 24- and 48-hour intervals (P<0.05). Conclusion. The XPS group exhibited less postoperative pain than the REC Blue group at 24- and 48-hour intervals. iRC, XPS and REC Blue systems were found to be similar in terms of postoperative pain severity.
Adaptive Efficient Coding of Correlated Acoustic Properties
Authors: Lu Kai , Liu Wanyi , Dutta Kelsey , Zan Peng , Fritz Jonathan B. , Shamma Shihab A.
Published: September 2019

Natural sounds such as vocalizations often have covarying acoustic attributes, resulting in redundancy in neural coding. The efficient coding hypothesis proposes that sensory systems are able to detect such covariation and adapt to reduce redundancy, leading to more efficient neural coding. Recent psychoacoustic studies have shown the auditory system can rapidly adapt to efficiently encode two covarying dimensions as a single dimension, following passive exposure to sounds in which temporal and spectral attributes covaried in a correlated fashion. However, these studies observed a cost to this adaptation, which was a loss of sensitivity to the orthogonal dimension. Here we explore the neural basis of this psychophysical phenomenon by recording single-unit responses from the primary auditory cortex in awake ferrets exposed passively to stimuli with two correlated attributes, similar in stimulus design to the psychoacoustic experiments in humans. We found: (1) the signal-to-noise ratio of spike-rate coding of cortical responses driven by sounds with correlated attributes remained unchanged along the exposure dimension, but was reduced along the orthogonal dimension; (2) performance of a decoder trained with spike data to discriminate stimuli along the orthogonal dimension was equally reduced; (3) correlations between neurons tuned to the two covarying attributes decreased after exposure; and (4) these exposure effects still occurred if sounds were correlated along two acoustic dimensions, but varied randomly along a third dimension. These neurophysiological results are consistent with the efficient coding hypothesis and may help deepen our understanding of how the auditory system encodes and represents acoustic regularities and covariance.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe efficient coding (EC) hypothesis (Attneave, 1954; Barlow, 1961) proposes that the neural code in sensory systems efficiently encodes natural stimuli by minimizing the number of spikes to transmit a sensory signal. Results of recent psychoacoustic studies in humans are consistent with the EC hypothesis in that, following passive exposure to stimuli with correlated attributes, the auditory system rapidly adapts so as to more efficiently encode the two covarying dimensions as a single dimension. In the current neurophysiological experiments, using a similar stimulus design and the experimental paradigm to the psychoacoustic studies of Stilp et al. (2010) and Stilp and Kluender (2011, 2012, 2016), we recorded responses from single neurons in the auditory cortex of the awake ferret, showing adaptive efficient neural coding of two correlated acoustic attributes.
Humans Perceive Binocular Rivalry and Fusion in a Tristable Dynamic State
Authors: Riesen Guillaume , Norcia Anthony M. , Gardner Justin L.
Published: September 2019

Human vision combines inputs from the two eyes into one percept. Small differences “fuse” together, whereas larger differences are seen “rivalrously” from one eye at a time. These outcomes are typically treated as mutually exclusive processes, with paradigms targeting one or the other and fusion being unreported in most rivalry studies. Is fusion truly a default, stable state that only breaks into rivalry for non-fusible stimuli? Or are monocular and fused percepts three sub-states of one dynamical system? To determine whether fusion and rivalry are separate processes, we measured human perception of Gabor patches with a range of interocular orientation disparities. Observers (10 female, 5 male) reported rivalrous, fused, and uncertain percepts over time. We found a dynamic “tristable” zone spanning from ∼25–35° of orientation disparity where fused, left-eye-, or right-eye-dominant percepts could all occur. The temporal characteristics of fusion and non-fusion periods during tristability matched other bistable processes. We tested statistical models with fusion as a higher-level bistable process alternating with rivalry against our findings. None of these fit our data, but a simple bistable model extended to have three states reproduced many of our observations. We conclude that rivalry and fusion are multistable substates capable of direct competition, rather than separate bistable processes.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTWhen inputs to the two eyes differ, they can either fuse together or engage in binocular rivalry, where each eye's view is seen exclusively in turn. Visual stimuli have often been tailored to produce either fusion or rivalry, implicitly treating them as separate mutually-exclusive perceptual processes. We have found that some similar-but-different stimuli can result in both outcomes over time. Comparing various simple models with our results suggests that rivalry and fusion are not independent processes, but compete within a single multistable system. This conceptual shift is a step toward unifying fusion and rivalry, and understanding how they both contribute to the visual system's production of a unified interpretation of the conflicting images cast on the retina by real-world scenes.
Regulation of Hippocampal Memory by mTORC1 in Somatostatin Interneurons
Authors: Artinian Julien , Jordan Alexander , Khlaifia Abdessattar , Honoré Eve , La Fontaine Alexandre , Racine Anne-Sophie , Laplante Isabel , Lacaille Jean-Claude
Published: September 2019

Translational control of long-term synaptic plasticity via Mechanistic Target Of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1) is crucial for hippocampal learning and memory. The role of mTORC1 is well characterized in excitatory principal cells but remains largely unaddressed in inhibitory interneurons. Here, we used cell-type-specific conditional knock-out strategies to alter mTORC1 function selectively in somatostatin (SOM) inhibitory interneurons (SOM-INs). We found that, in male mice, upregulation and downregulation of SOM-IN mTORC1 activity bidirectionally regulates contextual fear and spatial memory consolidation. Moreover, contextual fear learning induced a metabotropic glutamate receptor type 1 (mGluR1)-mediated late long-term potentiation (LTP) of excitatory input synapses onto hippocampal SOM-INs that was dependent on mTORC1. Finally, the induction protocol for mTORC1-mediated late-LTP in SOM-INs regulated Schaffer collateral pathway LTP in pyramidal neurons. Therefore, mTORC1 activity in somatostatin interneurons contributes to learning-induced persistent plasticity of their excitatory synaptic inputs and hippocampal memory consolidation, uncovering a role of mTORC1 in inhibitory circuits for memory.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTMemory consolidation necessitates synthesis of new proteins. Mechanistic Target Of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling is crucial for translational control involved in long-term memory and in late long-term potentiation (LTP). This is well described in principal glutamatergic pyramidal cells but poorly understood in GABAergic inhibitory interneurons. Here, we show that mTORC1 activity in somatostatin interneurons, a major subclass of GABAergic cells, is important to modulate long-term memory strength and precision. Furthermore, mTORC1 was necessary for learning-induced persistent LTP at excitatory inputs of somatostatin interneurons that depends on type I metabotropic glutamatergic receptors in the hippocampus. This effect was consistent with a newly described role of these interneurons in the modulation of LTP at Schaffer collateral synapses onto pyramidal cells.
Spatial Coupling Tunes NMDA Receptor Responses via Ca2+Diffusion
Authors: Iacobucci Gary J. , Popescu Gabriela K.
Published: September 2019

In the CNS, NMDA receptors generate large and highly regulated Ca2+signals, which are critical for synaptic development and plasticity. They are highly clustered at postsynaptic sites and along dendritic arbors, but whether this spatial arrangement affects their output is unknown. Synaptic NMDA receptor currents are subject to Ca2+-dependent inactivation (CDI), a type of activity-dependent inhibition that requires intracellular Ca2+and calmodulin (CaM). We asked whether Ca2+influx through a single NMDA receptor influences the activity of nearby NMDA receptors, as a possible coupling mechanism. Using cell-attached unitary current recordings from GluN1–2a/GluN2A receptors expressed in human HEK293 cells and from NMDA receptors native to hippocampal neurons from male and female rats, we recorded unitary currents from multichannel patches and used a coupled Markov model to determine the extent of signal coupling (κ). In the absence of extracellular Ca2+, we observed no cooperativity (κ < 0.1), whereas in 1.8 mmexternal Ca2+, both recombinant and native channels showed substantial negative cooperativity (κ = 0.27). Intracellular Ca2+chelation or overexpression of a Ca2+-insensitive CaM mutant, reduced coupling, which is consistent with CDI representing the coupling mechanism. In contrast, cooperativity increased substantially (κ = 0.68) when overexpressing the postsynaptic scaffolding protein PSD-95, which increased receptor clustering. Together, these new results demonstrate that NMDA receptor currents are negatively coupled through CDI, and the degree of coupling can be tuned by the distance between receptors. Therefore, channel clustering can influence the activity-dependent reduction in NMDA receptor currents.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTAt central synapses, NMDA receptors are a major class of excitatory glutamate-gated channels and a source of activity-dependent Ca2+influx. In turn, fluxed Ca2+ions bind to calmodulin-primed receptors and reduce further entry, through an autoinhibitory mechanism known as Ca2+-dependent inactivation (CDI). Here, we show that the diffusion of fluxed Ca2+between active channels situated within submicroscopic distances amplified receptor inactivation. Thus, calmodulin-mediated gating modulation, an evolutionarily conserved regulatory mechanism, endows synapses with sensitivity to both the temporal sequence and spatial distribution of Ca2+signals. Perturbations in this mechanism, which coordinates the activity of NMDA receptors within a cluster, may cause signaling alterations that contribute to neuropsychiatric conditions.
Metabolic effects of dopamine agonists in patients with prolactinomas: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Byberg Sarah , Futtrup Jesper , Andreassen Mikkel , Krogh Jesper
Published: September 2019

Objectives

Recent large cohort studies suggest an association between high plasma prolactin and cardiovascular mortality. The objective of this systematic review was to systematically assess the effect of reducing prolactin with dopamine agonist on established cardiovascular risk factors in patients with prolactinomas.

Design

Bibliographical search was done until February 2019 searching the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, WHO and LILAC. Eligible studies had to include participants with verified prolactinomas where metabolic variables were assessed before and after at least 2 weeks treatment with dopamine agonists.

Methods

Baseline data and outcomes were independently collected by two investigators. The study was registered with PROSPERO (registration number CRD42016046525).

Results

Fourteen observational studies enrolling 387 participants were included. The pooled standardized mean difference of the primary outcome revealed a reduction of BMI and weight of −0.21 (95% CI −0.37 to −0.05; P = 0.01; I2 = 71%), after treatment. Subgroup analysis suggested that the reduction of weight was primarily driven by studies with high prolactin levels at baseline (P = 0.04). Secondary outcomes suggested a small decrease in waist circumference, a small-to-moderate decrease in triglycerides, fasting glucose levels, HOMA-IR, HbA1c and hsCRP, and a moderate decrease in LDL, total cholesterol and insulin.

Conclusion

This systematic review suggests a reduction of weight as well as an improved lipid profile and glucose tolerance after treatment with dopamine agonist in patients with prolactinomas. These data are based on low-quality evidence.
An Unexpected Case of Perforated Acalculous Cholecystitis Caused by a Fish Bone
Authors: Berevoescu Nicolae Iustin , Grama Florin Andrei , Welt Luminița , Berevoescu Mihaela , Bordea Adrian , Cristian Daniel Alin
Published: September 2019

Gallbladder inflammation is most often determined by the presence of gallstones. Acalculous cholecystitisusually occurs in patients with multiple comorbidities or with an immunosuppressed status, and therefore itsevolution is faster and more severe compared to acute calculous cholecystitis. The presence of a fish bone intothe peritoneal cavity, through a gastrointestinal fistula is not very rare, but acute cholecystitis caused by a fishbone is unexpected. Here, we present the case of a 75-year old woman who had eaten fish two months beforeand presented at the Emergency Room with perforated acalculous cholecystitis and a right subphrenic abscess.The laparoscopic approach permitted the evacuation of the subphrenic abscess, bipolar cholecystectomy andremoval of a fish bone from nearby the cystic duct. Postoperative evolution was uneventful, with hospitaldischarge after five days. The patient was in good clinical condition at two months follow-up.
CALI GLOSSARY FOR BEGINNERS
Authors: Jones Randall L.
Published: September 2019

Language teachers who make the effort to become familiar with the computer and its application to language teaching oftenencounter an irony that they perhaps do not expect: the necessity of learning a new language, or at least a substantial number of newspecialized terms in their won language. Many of these terms are acronyms and have no meaning apart from the world of computers,e.g., ASCII and ROM. Others are English words which have taken on a new meaning, e.g., boot and menu.
TRANSLATION PROFESSION AND THE COMPUTER
Authors: Melby Alan K.
Published: September 2019

This article describes a different approach to machine translation (the Translator Aid System) which uses the computer toassist the translator in his work rather than to try to replace him.The system described is a three-level system. Each level incorporates successively more sophisticated translation aids, all ofwhich are under the control of the translator. Level three includes a full-blown machine translator.The utility of the system lies in the fact that it can be put into production much sooner than a conventional post-edit system.The successive levels can be added as the need increases.Although there has been much serious research in machine translation (MT) since the early 1950's, it has had little effect onhuman translators. They still use pencil and paper or a typewriter or a tape recorder. Very few deal with computers in any way. Thisis about to change. Rapidly increasing numbers of translators will use word processing equipment. And many, especially students inuniversity training programs, will use sophisticated translator work stations featuring an integrated set of translation aids.
D-Extending Modules
Authors: DURĞUN Yilmaz
Published: September 2019

A submodule $N$ of a module $M$ is called d-closed if $M/N$ has a zero socle. D-closed submodules are similar concept to s-closed submodules, which are defined through nonsingular modules by Goodearl. In this article we deal with modules with the property that all d-closed submodules are direct summands (respectively, closed, pure). The structure of a ring over which d-closed submodules of every module are direct summand (respectively, closed, pure) is studied.
Multiplicative order convergence in $f$-algebras
Authors: AYDIN Abdullah
Published: September 2019

A net $(x_\alpha)$ in an $f$-algebra $E$ is said to be multiplicative order convergent to $x\in E$ if $\left|x_\alpha-x\right|u\oc 0$ for all $u\in E_+$. In this paper, we introduce the notions $mo$-convergence, $mo$-Cauchy, $mo$-complete, $mo$-continuous, and $mo$-KB-space. Moreover, we study the basic properties of these notions.
JORGE AMADO E SEUS CAMARADAS NO CÍRCULO COMUNISTA INTERNACIONAL
Authors: Ridenti Marcelo
Published: September 2019

Resumo: O artigo busca elucidar aspectos da relação de artistas brasileiros e latino-americanos com a imprensa cultural comunista francesa e com o movimento comunista internacional do fim dos anos 1940 a meados dos 1950, no contexto da Guerra Fria. Os contatos no exterior foram fundamentais para a inserção internacional de latino-americanos, bem como para sua formação intelectual e política. A imprensa comunista francesa desempenhou papel importante para divulgar a obra de artistas latino-americanos, notadamente os que moraram em Paris. Alguns deles conseguiram lugar de destaque na rede comunista, especialmente por sua atuação no movimento pela paz mundial, como o poeta chileno Pablo Neruda e o romancista brasileiro Jorge Amado. Ele foi o principal artista brasileiro a beneficiar-se da internacionalização a partir do exílio em Paris, abrindo caminho também para a difusão de obras de amigos estrangeiros no Brasil e de brasileiros no exterior. São abordados ainda os dilemas dos artistas comunistas diante das perseguições e recompensas no auge do stalinismo.
Scalable Robust Kidney Exchange
Authors: McElfresh Duncan C , Bidkhori Hoda , Dickerson John P
Published: September 2019

In barter exchanges, participants directly trade their endowed goods in a constrained economic setting without money. Transactions in barter exchanges are often facilitated via a central clearinghouse that must match participants even in the face of uncertainty—over participants, existence and quality of potential trades, and so on. Leveraging robust combinatorial optimization techniques, we address uncertainty in kidney exchange, a real-world barter market where patients swap (in)compatible paired donors. We provide two scalable robust methods to handle two distinct types of uncertainty in kidney exchange—over the quality and the existence of a potential match. The latter case directly addresses a weakness in all stochastic-optimization-based methods to the kidney exchange clearing problem, which all necessarily require explicit estimates of the probability of a transaction existing—a still-unsolved problem in this nascent market. We also propose a novel, scalable kidney exchange formulation that eliminates the need for an exponential-time constraint generation process in competing formulations, maintains provable optimality, and serves as a subsolver for our robust approach. For each type of uncertainty we demonstrate the benefits of robustness on real data from a large, fielded kidney exchange in the United States. We conclude by drawing parallels between robustness and notions of fairness in the kidney exchange setting.
NeVAE: A Deep Generative Model for Molecular Graphs
Authors: Samanta Bidisha , DE Abir , Jana Gourhari , Chattaraj Pratim Kumar , Ganguly Niloy , Rodriguez Manuel Gomez
Published: September 2019

Deep generative models have been praised for their ability to learn smooth latent representation of images, text, and audio, which can then be used to generate new, plausible data. However, current generative models are unable to work with molecular graphs due to their unique characteristics—their underlying structure is not Euclidean or grid-like, they remain isomorphic under permutation of the nodes labels, and they come with a different number of nodes and edges. In this paper, we propose NeVAE, a novel variational autoencoder for molecular graphs, whose encoder and decoder are specially designed to account for the above properties by means of several technical innovations. In addition, by using masking, the decoder is able to guarantee a set of valid properties in the generated molecules. Experiments reveal that our model can discover plausible, diverse and novel molecules more effectively than several state of the art methods. Moreover, by utilizing Bayesian optimization over the continuous latent representation of molecules our model finds, we can also find molecules that maximize certain desirable properties more effectively than alternatives.
Differentially Private Empirical Risk Minimization with Smooth Non-Convex Loss Functions: A Non-Stationary View
Authors: Wang Di , Xu Jinhui
Published: September 2019

In this paper, we study the Differentially Private Empirical Risk Minimization (DP-ERM) problem with non-convex loss functions and give several upper bounds for the utility in different settings. We first consider the problem in low-dimensional space. For DP-ERM with non-smooth regularizer, we generalize an existing work by measuring the utility using ℓ2 norm of the projected gradient. Also, we extend the error bound measurement, for the first time, from empirical risk to population risk by using the expected ℓ2 norm of the gradient. We then investigate the problem in high dimensional space, and show that by measuring the utility with Frank-Wolfe gap, it is possible to bound the utility by the Gaussian Width of the constraint set, instead of the dimensionality p of the underlying space. We further demonstrate that the advantages of this result can be achieved by the measure of ℓ2 norm of the projected gradient. A somewhat surprising discovery is that although the two kinds of measurements are quite different, their induced utility upper bounds are asymptotically the same under some assumptions. We also show that the utility of some special non-convex loss functions can be reduced to a level (i.e., depending only on log p) similar to that of convex loss functions. Finally, we test our proposed algorithms on both synthetic and real world datasets and the experimental results confirm our theoretical analysis.
Cognitive Deficit of Deep Learning in Numerosity
Authors: Wu Xiaolin , Zhang Xi , Shu Xiao
Published: September 2019

Subitizing, or the sense of small natural numbers, is an innate cognitive function of humans and primates; it responds to visual stimuli prior to the development of any symbolic skills, language or arithmetic. Given successes of deep learning (DL) in tasks of visual intelligence and given the primitivity of number sense, a tantalizing question is whether DL can comprehend numbers and perform subitizing. But somewhat disappointingly, extensive experiments of the type of cognitive psychology demonstrate that the examples-driven black box DL cannot see through superficial variations in visual representations and distill the abstract notion of natural number, a task that children perform with high accuracy and confidence. The failure is apparently due to the learning method not the CNN computational machinery itself. A recurrent neural network capable of subitizing does exist, which we construct by encoding a mechanism of mathematical morphology into the CNN convolutional kernels. Also, we investigate, using subitizing as a test bed, the ways to aid the black box DL by cognitive priors derived from human insight. Our findings are mixed and interesting, pointing to both cognitive deficit of pure DL, and some measured successes of boosting DL by predetermined cognitive implements. This case study of DL in cognitive computing is meaningful for visual numerosity represents a minimum level of human intelligence.
Direct Training for Spiking Neural Networks: Faster, Larger, Better
Authors: Wu Yujie , Deng Lei , Li Guoqi , Zhu Jun , Xie Yuan , Shi Luping
Published: September 2019

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) that enables energy efficient implementation on emerging neuromorphic hardware are gaining more attention. Yet now, SNNs have not shown competitive performance compared with artificial neural networks (ANNs), due to the lack of effective learning algorithms and efficient programming frameworks. We address this issue from two aspects: (1) We propose a neuron normalization technique to adjust the neural selectivity and develop a direct learning algorithm for deep SNNs. (2) Via narrowing the rate coding window and converting the leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) model into an explicitly iterative version, we present a Pytorch-based implementation method towards the training of large-scale SNNs. In this way, we are able to train deep SNNs with tens of times speedup. As a result, we achieve significantly better accuracy than the reported works on neuromorphic datasets (N-MNIST and DVSCIFAR10), and comparable accuracy as existing ANNs and pre-trained SNNs on non-spiking datasets (CIFAR10). To our best knowledge, this is the first work that demonstrates direct training of deep SNNs with high performance on CIFAR10, and the efficient implementation provides a new way to explore the potential of SNNs.