julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Problems with two recent Petri net analyses of Neanderthal adhesive technology
2024-05-07

Birch tar making by Neanderthals was one of the first transformative processes in human history.It has implications for our understanding of the cognitive capacity and cultures of early humans.However, it has been shown that birch tar finds cannot be standalone proxies for these processes.This is so because birch tar may be the result of condensation from burning bark onto flat stone surfaces 1 , which can happen even in fortuitous accidents.Thus, the tar making techniques actually used must be investigated and their specific implications for cognition and culture must be properly understood.It is therefore generally welcome that Kozowyk et al. 2 intend an interpretation of the condensation method's implications.They do so for a specific application: the case where three cobbles act as condensation centers.Using the same approach, Fajardo et al. 3 interpret the meaning of several birch tar making techniques.There are several problems with their approach, and here we will address three of them.
Infants Infer And Predict Coherent Event Interactions: Modeling Cognitive Development
2024-05-07

Mental representations in infants are sparse and grow richer over development. Anticipatory eye fixation studies show that infants at around 7 months start to predict the goal of an observed action, e.g., an object targeted by a reaching hand. Interestingly, goal-predictive gaze shifts occur at an earlier age when the (animate) hand subsequently manipulates an object and later when an action is performed by an inanimate actor, e.g., a mechanical claw. We introduce CAPRI2 (Cognitive Action PRediction and Inference in Infants), a computational model that explains this development from a functional, algorithmic perspective. It is based on the theory that infants learn object files and events as they develop a physical reasoning system. In particular, CAPRI2 learns a generative event-predictive model, which it uses to both interpret sensory information and infer goal-directed behavior.When observing object interactions, CAPRI2 (i) interprets the unfolding interactions in terms of event-segmented dynamics, (ii) maximizes the coherence of its event interpretations, and (iii) chooses actions for minimizing anticipated uncertainty. As a result, CAPRI2 mimics the developmental pathway of infants' goal-predictive gaze behavior. Our modeling work suggests that the involved event-predictive representations, longer-term generative model learning, and shorter-term instantaneous, retrospective, and active inference principles constitute fundamental building blocks for the effective development of goal-predictive capacities.
Apophis: may a meteor activity happen on Earth after the 2029 closest approach?
2024-05-07

ABSTRACT The potentially hazardous asteroid 99942 Apophis will have a very close approach to the Earth in 2029. The encounter on its own may provide measurements of Earth’s effects on Apophis’ surface and also contribute to the improvement of some physical characteristics of the asteroid. In a previous work, we assumed the existence of a hypothetical disc of particles around Apophis before the 2029 encounter, and identified the particles that would escape from the gravity domain of Apophis due to the Earth's gravitational perturbation during the close encounter. In the current work, we investigate the possibility of a meteor activity originating from this event. We study the orbital evolution of these particles computing the MOIDs of the particles with respect to the Earth for the following 200 yr. Our results are not favourable for a meteor activity on Earth. However, a meteoroid activity on the Moon might happen during the encircling period after 88 yr of the 2029 encounter.
Probiotic Lactobacilli activate Formyl-Peptide Receptor 2
2024-05-07

Abstract Changes in the composition of the human microbiota can negatively impact human health. Probiotic bacteria like many lactobacilli help prevent or repair dysbiosis but it is largely unclear which molecules of these bacteria mediate the probiotic effects. Given the extensive crosstalk between the immune system and microbiome members, we investigated whether lactobacilli activate the formyl-peptide receptor 2 (FPR2), a pattern recognition receptor that is expressed on the surface of intestinal epithelial cells and known to promote wound healing and immune homeostasis. Probiotic strains of Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum , and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus were isolated from probiotic compounds and sequenced. Calcium influx experiments in FPR1 or FPR2 overexpressing HL60 cells, and primary human neutrophils, along with pharmacological inhibition of FPR2, revealed that culture filtrates of the isolated lactobacilli strongly activate FPR2, promote killing of the methicillin resistant S. aureus USA300 and induce neutrophil chemotaxis. Pretreatment of culture filtrates with proteinase K reduced FPR2 activity, indicating that the FPR2 ligands are peptides. In silico analysis of the amphipathic properties of the signal peptides of lactic acid bacteria identified selected signal peptides of L. plantarum with the ability to predominantly activate FPR2 in vitro . Thereby, via targeted activation of FPR2, peptides released by some lactobacilli are likely to positively influence the outcome of inflammatory gut diseases and could be used to treat inflammatory diseases.
Comprehensive analysis of two hotspot codons in the TUBB4B gene and associated phenotypes
2024-05-08

Abstract Our purpose was to elucidate the genotype and ophthalmological and audiological phenotype in TUBB4B -associated inherited retinal dystrophy (IRD) and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), and to model the effects of all possible amino acid substitutions at the hotspot codons Arg390 and Arg391. Six patients from five families with heterozygous missense variants in TUBB4B were included in this observational study. Ophthalmological testing included best-corrected visual acuity, fundus examination, optical coherence tomography, fundus autofluorescence imaging, and full-field electroretinography (ERG). Audiological examination included pure-tone and speech audiometry in adult patients and auditory brainstem response testing in a child. Genetic testing was performed by disease gene panel analysis based on genome sequencing. The molecular consequences of the substitutions of residues 390 and 391 on TUBB4B and its interaction with α-tubulin were predicted in silico on its three-dimensional structure obtained by homology modelling. Two independent patients had amino acid exchanges at position 391 (p.(Arg391His) or p.(Arg391Cys)) of the TUBB4B protein. Both had a distinct IRD phenotype with peripheral round yellowish lesions with pigmented spots and mild or moderate SNHL, respectively. Yet the phenotype was milder with a sectorial pattern of bone spicules in one patient, likely due to a genetically confirmed mosaicism for p.(Arg391His). Three patients were heterozygous for an amino acid exchange at position 390 (p.(Arg390Gln) or p.(Arg390Trp)) and presented with another distinct retinal phenotype with well demarcated pericentral retinitis pigmentosa. All showed SNHL ranging from mild to severe. One additional patient showed a variant distinct from codon 390 or 391 (p.(Tyr310His)), and presented with congenital profound hearing loss and reduced responses in ERG. Variants at codon positions 390 and 391 were predicted to decrease the structural stability of TUBB4B and its complex with α-tubulin, as well as the complex affinity. In conclusion, the twofold larger reduction in heterodimer affinity exhibited by Arg391 substitutions suggested an association with the more severe retinal phenotype, compared to the substitution at Arg390.
Signal‐to‐noise ratio versus field strength for small surface coils
2024-05-08

Abstract The increasing signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) is the main reason to use ultrahigh field MRI. Here, we investigate the dependence of the SNR on the magnetic field strength, especially for small animal applications, where small surface coils are used and coil noise cannot be ignored. Measurements were performed at five field strengths from 3 to 14.1 T, using 2.2‐cm surface coils with an identical coil design for transmit and receive on two water samples with and without salt. SNR was measured in a series of spoiled gradient echo images with varying flip angle and corrected for saturation based on a series of flip angle and T 1 measurements. Furthermore, the noise figure of the receive chain was determined and eliminated to remove instrument dependence. Finally, the coil sensitivity was determined based on the principle of reciprocity to obtain a measure for ultimate SNR. Before coil sensitivity correction, the SNR increase in nonconductive samples is highly supralinear with B 0 1.6–2.7 , depending on distance to the coil, while in the conductive sample, the growth is smaller, being around linear close to the surface coil and increasing up to a B 0 2.0 dependence when moving away from the coil. After sensitivity correction, the SNR increase is independent of loading with B 0 2.1 . This study confirms the supralinear increase of SNR with increasing field strengths. Compared with most human measurements with larger coil sizes, smaller surface coils, as mainly used in animal studies, have a higher contribution of coil noise and thus a different behavior of SNR at high fields.
Minimal-noise estimation of noncommuting rotations of a spin
2024-05-08

We propose an analogue of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mtext>SU</mml:mtext><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math> interferometry to measure rotation of a spin by using two-spin squeezed states. Attainability of the Heisenberg limit for the estimation of the rotation angle is demonstrated for maximal squeezing. For a specific direction and strength an advantage in sensitivity for <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>a</mml:mi><mml:mi>l</mml:mi><mml:mi>l</mml:mi></mml:math> equatorial rotation axes (and hence non-commuting rotations) over the classical bound is shown in terms of quadratic scaling of the single-parameter quantum Fisher information for the corresponding rotation angles. Our results provide a method for measuring magnetic fields in any direction in the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:math>-<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>y</mml:mi></mml:math>-plane with the same optimized initial state.
Mapping Computational Cognitive Profiles of Aging to Dissociable Brain and Sociodemographic Factors
2024-05-08

<title>Abstract</title> Aging is associated with declines in cognition and brain structural integrity. However, there is equivocality over 1) the specificity of affected domains in different people, 2) the location of associated patterns of brain structural deterioration, and 3) the sociodemographic factors contributing to ‘unhealthy’ cognition. We aimed to identify cognitive profiles displayed by older adults and determine brain and sociodemographic features potentially shaping these profiles. A sample of Southeast-Asian older adults (N = 386) participated in a multi-session study comprising cognitive testing, neuroimaging, and a structured interview. We used computational models to extract latent mechanisms underlying cognitive flexibility and response inhibition. Data-driven methods were used to construct cognitive profiles based on standard performance measures and model parameters. We also investigated grey matter volume and machine-learning derived ‘brain-ages’. A profile associated with poor set-shifting and rigid focusing was associated with widespread grey matter reduction in cognitive control regions. A slow responding profile was associated with advanced brain-age. Both profiles were correlated with poor socioeconomic standing and cognitive reserve. This study furthers understanding of how distinct aging profiles of cognitive impairment uniquely correspond to specific vs. global brain deterioration and the significance of socioeconomic factors in informing cognitive performance in older age.
Task-order control in dual-tasks: Only marginal interactions between conflict at lower levels and higher processes of task organization
2024-05-08

Abstract When simultaneously performing two tasks that share response properties, interference can occur. Besides general performance decrements, performance in the first task is worse when the second task requires a spatially incompatible response, known as the backward crosstalk effect (BCE). The size of this BCE, similar to congruency effects in conflict tasks, is subject to a sequential modulation, with a smaller BCE after incompatible compared to compatible trials. In the present study, we focus on a potential bidirectional interaction between crosstalk (and its resolution) at a lower level of task performance and higher-order processes of task organization. Two questions were of particular interest: First, do participants switch task order more frequently after a conflict-prone incompatible trial than after a compatible trial? Second, does changing task order influence the efficiency of conflict resolution, as indexed by the size of the sequential modulation of the BCE. Across four experiments, we only found marginal evidence for an influence of lower-level conflict on higher-order processes of task organization, with only one experiment revealing a tendency to repeat task order following conflict. Our results thus suggest practical independence between conflict and task-order control. When separating processes of task selection and task performance, the sequential modulation was generally diminished, suggesting that conflict resolution in dual-tasks can be disrupted by a deliberate decision about task order, or, alternatively, by a longer inter-trial interval. Finally, the study found a strong bias towards repeating the same task order across trials, suggesting that task-order sets not only impact task performance but also guide task selection.
IGF-1 and IGFBP-1, Possible Predictors of Response to Lifestyle Intervention – Results from Randomized Controlled Trials
2024-05-08

Lifestyle interventions can prevent type 2 diabetes (T2DM). However, some in-dividuals do not experience anticipated improvements despite weight loss. Bi-omarkers to identify such individuals at early stages are lacking. IGF-1 and IGFBP-1 were shown to predict T2DM onset in prediabetes. We assessed if these markers also predict the success of lifestyle interventions, thereby possibly guid-ing personalized strategies. We analyzed fasting serum levels of IGF-1, IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-2 in relation to changes in metabolic and anthropometric parameters, including intrahepatic li-pids (IHL) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volume measured by MRI, in 345 high-risk prediabetic participants (54% female; aged 36-80 years). Participants were enrolled in three randomized dietary intervention trials and assessed both at baseline and one year post-intervention. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics (version 28), significance set at p
Teachers’ engagement in online professional development—The interplay of online professional development quality and teacher motivation
2024-05-09

Abstract Effective online teacher professional development (OPD) is crucial to support teachers. The effectiveness of OPD depends on teachers’ engagement. According to offer-use models, teachers’ engagement in OPD relates to the OPD quality and teachers’ motivation to learn. However, whereas OPD activities have increased in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, findings on the importance of OPD quality and teachers’ motivation to learn for teachers’ engagement in OPD are scarce. We analyzed data from N = 593 teachers participating in 61 OPD courses. The predictive power of perceived OPD quality (i.e., clarity and structure, practical relevance, cognitive activation, and collaboration) and teachers’ motivation to learn for their behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement during OPD were examined using structural equation modeling. We used latent moderated structural equations to gain insights into the interaction effects between OPD quality and teachers’ motivation. Our findings indicate that OPD quality positively predicted teachers’ OPD engagement. When controlling for OPD quality, teachers’ motivation to learn also predicted teachers’ behavioral and cognitive engagement but not their affective engagement. The findings on the interactions between OPD quality and teachers’ motivation demonstrated that for the different facets of teachers’ OPD engagement, different OPD quality characteristics could compensate for low teacher motivation to learn. For instance, for behavioral engagement, opportunities for collaboration can compensate for low motivation. Implications for practice (e.g., ensuring high-quality OPD) and future directions in research (e.g., conducting longitudinal studies) in the field of OPD are discussed.
Distribution shift detection for the postmarket surveillance of medical AI algorithms: a retrospective simulation study
2024-05-09

Abstract Distribution shifts remain a problem for the safe application of regulated medical AI systems, and may impact their real-world performance if undetected. Postmarket shifts can occur for example if algorithms developed on data from various acquisition settings and a heterogeneous population are predominantly applied in hospitals with lower quality data acquisition or other centre-specific acquisition factors, or where some ethnicities are over-represented. Therefore, distribution shift detection could be important for monitoring AI-based medical products during postmarket surveillance. We implemented and evaluated three deep-learning based shift detection techniques (classifier-based, deep kernel, and multiple univariate kolmogorov-smirnov tests) on simulated shifts in a dataset of 130’486 retinal images. We trained a deep learning classifier for diabetic retinopathy grading. We then simulated population shifts by changing the prevalence of patients’ sex, ethnicity, and co-morbidities, and example acquisition shifts by changes in image quality. We observed classification subgroup performance disparities w.r.t. image quality, patient sex, ethnicity and co-morbidity presence. The sensitivity at detecting referable diabetic retinopathy ranged from 0.50 to 0.79 for different ethnicities. This motivates the need for detecting shifts after deployment. Classifier-based tests performed best overall, with perfect detection rates for quality and co-morbidity subgroup shifts at a sample size of 1000. It was the only method to detect shifts in patient sex, but required large sample sizes ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>&gt;</mml:mo> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>′</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mn>000</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ). All methods identified easier-to-detect out-of-distribution shifts with small (≤300) sample sizes. We conclude that effective tools exist for detecting clinically relevant distribution shifts. In particular classifier-based tests can be easily implemented components in the post-market surveillance strategy of medical device manufacturers.
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission in Greece White Paper
2024-05-09

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, scheduled for launch in the mid-2030s, is a gravitational wave space observatory designed to detect sources emitting in the millihertz band. LISA is an European Space Agency flagship mission, currently entering the Phase-B development phase. It is expected to help us improve our understanding of our Universe by measuring gravitational wave sources of different types, with some of the sources being at very high redshifts ([Formula: see text]). On February 23, 2022, we organized the first LISA in Greece Workshop. This Workshop aimed to inform the Greek scientific and tech industry communities about the possibilities of participating in LISA science and the LISA mission, with the support of the Hellenic Space Center. In this White Paper, we summarize the outcomes of the Workshop, the most important aspect of it being the inclusion of [Formula: see text] Greek researchers to the LISA Consortium, raising our total number to [Formula: see text]. At the same time, we present a road map with the future steps and actions of the Greek Gravitational Wave community with respect to the LISA mission.
Triheptanoin Did Not Show Benefit versus Placebo for the Treatment of Paroxysmal Movement Disorders in Glut1 Deficiency Syndrome: Results of a Randomized Phase 3 Study
2024-05-09

Abstract Background Paroxysmal movement disorders are common in Glut1 deficiency syndrome (Glut1DS). Not all patients respond to or tolerate ketogenic diets. Objectives The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of triheptanoin in reducing the frequency of disabling movement disorders in patients with Glut1DS not receiving a ketogenic diet. Methods UX007G‐CL301 was a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, phase 3 crossover study. After a 6‐week run‐in, eligible patients were randomized 1:1 to the first sequence (triheptanoin/placebo or placebo/triheptanoin) titration plus maintenance, followed by washout and the opposite sequence titration plus maintenance. The placebo (safflower oil) matched the appearance, taste, and smell of triheptanoin. Open‐label triheptanoin was administered in the extension. The frequency of disabling paroxysmal movement disorder events per 4 weeks (recorded by diary during maintenance; primary endpoint) was assessed by Wilcoxon rank‐sum test. Results Forty‐three patients (children, n = 16; adults, n = 27) were randomized and treated. There was no difference between triheptanoin and placebo in the mean (interquartile range) number of disabling paroxysmal movement disorder events (14.3 [4.7–38.3] vs. 11.8; [3.2–28.7]; Hodges‐Lehmann estimated median difference: 1.46; 95% confidence interval, −1.12 to 4.36; P = 0.2684). Treatment‐emergent adverse events were mild/moderate in severity and included diarrhea, vomiting, upper abdominal pain, headache, and nausea. Two patients discontinued the study because of non‐serious adverse events that were predominantly gastrointestinal. The study was closed early during the open‐label extension because of lack of effectiveness. Seven patients continued to receive triheptanoin compassionately. Conclusion There were no significant differences between the triheptanoin and placebo groups in the frequency of disabling movement disorder events during the double‐blind maintenance period. © 2024 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.