Algebra dissociates from arithmetic in the brain semantic network

Background Mathematical expressions mainly include arithmetic (such as 8 − (1 + 3)) and algebra (such as a − (b + c)). Previous studies have shown that both algebraic processing and arithmetic involved the bilateral parietal brain regions. Although previous studies have revealed that algebra was dissociated from arithmetic, the neural bases of the dissociation between algebraic processing and arithmetic is still unclear. The present study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify the specific brain networks for algebraic and arithmetic processing. Methods Using fMRI, this study scanned 30 undergraduates and directly compared the brain activation during algebra and arithmetic. Brain activations, single-trial (item-wise) interindividual correlation and mean-trial interindividual correlation related to algebra processing were compared with those related to arithmetic. The functional connectivity was analyzed by a seed-based region of interest (ROI)-to-ROI analysis. Results Brain activation analyses showed that algebra elicited greater activation in the angular gyrus and arithmetic elicited greater activation in the bilateral supplementary motor area, left insula, and left inferior parietal lobule. Interindividual single-trial brain-behavior correlation revealed significant brain-behavior correlations in the semantic network, including the middle temporal gyri, inferior frontal gyri, dorsomedial prefrontal cortices, and left angular gyrus, for algebra. For arithmetic, the significant brain-behavior correlations were located in the phonological network, including the precentral gyrus and supplementary motor area, and in the visuospatial network, including the bilateral superior parietal lobules. For algebra, significant positive functional connectivity was observed between the visuospatial network and semantic network, whereas for arithmetic, significant positive functional connectivity was observed only between the visuospatial network and phonological network. Conclusion These findings suggest that algebra relies on the semantic network and conversely, arithmetic relies on the phonological and visuospatial networks.

Transcranial Electrical Motor Evoked Potential in Predicting Positive Functional Outcome of Patients after Decompressive Spine Surgery: Review on Challenges and Recommendations towards Objective Interpretation

Spine surgeries impose risk to the spine’s surrounding anatomical and physiological structures especially the spinal cord and the nerve roots. Intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) is a technology developed to monitor the integrity of the spinal cord and the nerve roots via the surgery. Transcranial motor evoked potential (TcMEP) (one of the IONM modalities) is adopted to monitor the integrity of the motor pathway of the spinal cord and the motor nerve roots. Recent research suggested that the IONM is conducive as a prognostic tool towards the patient’s functional outcome. This paper summarizes the researches of IONM being adopted as a prognostic tool. In addition, this paper highlights the problems associated with the signal parameters as the improvement criteria in the previous researches. Lastly, we review the challenges of TcMEP to achieve a prognostic tool focusing on the factors that could interfere with the generation of a stable TcMEP response. The final section will discuss recommendations for IONM technology to achieve an objective prognostic tool.

Loops around the Heme Pocket Have a Critical Role in the Function and Stability of BsDyP from Bacillus subtilis

Bacillus subtilis BsDyP belongs to class I of the dye-decolorizing peroxidase (DyP) family of enzymes and is an interesting biocatalyst due to its high redox potential, broad substrate spectrum and thermostability. This work reports the optimization of BsDyP using directed evolution for improved oxidation of 2,6-dimethoxyphenol, a model lignin-derived phenolic. After three rounds of evolution, one variant was identified displaying 7-fold higher catalytic rates and higher production yields as compared to the wild-type enzyme. The analysis of X-ray structures of the wild type and the evolved variant showed that the heme pocket is delimited by three long conserved loop regions and a small α helix where, incidentally, the mutations were inserted in the course of evolution. One loop in the proximal side of the heme pocket becomes more flexible in the evolved variant and the size of the active site cavity is increased, as well as the width of its mouth, resulting in an enhanced exposure of the heme to solvent. These conformational changes have a positive functional role in facilitating electron transfer from the substrate to the enzyme. However, they concomitantly resulted in decreasing the enzyme’s overall stability by 2 kcal mol−1, indicating a trade-off between functionality and stability. Furthermore, the evolved variant exhibited slightly reduced thermal stability compared to the wild type. The obtained data indicate that understanding the role of loops close to the heme pocket in the catalysis and stability of DyPs is critical for the development of new and more powerful biocatalysts: loops can be modulated for tuning important DyP properties such as activity, specificity and stability.

Critically Examining the Person–Environment Relationship and Implications of Intersectionality for Participation in Children's Rehabilitation Services

Participation of children in rehabilitation services is associated with positive functional and developmental outcomes for children with disabilities. Participation in therapy is at risk when the personal and environmental contexts of a child create barriers to accessing services. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a framework for conceptualizing the personal and environmental factors linked to a child. However, it does not facilitate critical examination of the person–environment relationship and its impact on participation in children's rehabilitation. This perspective study proposes the use of intersectionality theory as a critical framework in complement with the ICF to examine the impact of systemic inequities on the participation in therapy for children with disabilities. Clinicians are called to be critical allies working alongside children and families to advocate for inclusive participation in children's rehabilitation by identifying and transforming systemic inequities in service delivery.

Generalized Eigenvalue Proximal Support Vector Machine for Functional Data Classification

Functional data analysis has become a research hotspot in the field of data mining. Traditional data mining methods regard functional data as a discrete and limited observation sequence, ignoring the continuity. In this paper, the functional data classification is addressed, proposing a functional generalized eigenvalue proximal support vector machine (FGEPSVM). Specifically, we find two nonparallel hyperplanes in function space, a positive functional hyperplane, and a functional negative hyperplane. The former is closest to the positive functional data and furthest from the negative functional data, while the latter has the opposite properties. By introducing the orthonormal basis, the problem in function space is transformed into the ones in vector space. It should be pointed out that the higher-order derivative information is applied from two aspects. We apply the derivatives alone or the weighted linear combination of the original function and the derivatives. It can be expected that to improve the classification accuracy by using more data information. Experiments on artificial datasets and benchmark datasets show the effectiveness of our FGEPSVM for functional data classification.

Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Variation in ABO As Risk Factor for Platelet Reactivity in Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia

Background: Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is an unpredictable, potentially catastrophic adverse effect of heparin treatment resulting from an immune response to platelet factor 4 (PF4)/heparin complexes. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have the potential to identify genetic risk factors and generate insights into biological mechanisms of adverse drug reactions. However, published HIT GWAS are underpowered and do not include confirmation of HIT using functional assays. We aimed to identify genetic associations with HIT using a GWAS approach in two European ancestry populations tested for functional assay and PF4/heparin antibody levels. Methods: We performed a GWAS with positive functional assay as the outcome in a large discovery cohort of patients, including heparin-induced platelet aggregation (HIPA) positive cases (n=1243), antibody positive but functional assay negative controls (n=1091), and antibody negative controls (n=1718). Logistic regressions were adjusted for age, gender, and first two principal components. Significant associations from the discovery cohort (alpha=5.00x10-8) were then investigated in a replication cohort of serotonin-release assay (SRA)-confirmed HIT cases (n=173), antibody positive controls (n=125), and antibody negative controls (n=488). All patients were genotyped with the HumanOmniExpressExome BeadChip, including 9,065,510 variants after imputation and quality control. Genes near significantly associated loci were resequenced. Results: In the discovery cohort, a genome-wide significant association was observed between common variation in the ABO gene and HIPA positive status (rs505922 odds ratio 0.738 [0.668-0.816], p=2.813x10-9). This variant was also significantly associated with SRA-confirmed HIT in the replication cohort (odds ratio 0.392 [0.172-0.891], p=0.025). Meta-analysis indicated strong association of ABO variation with positive functional assay (Figure 1). Sequencing and fine-mapping of the ABO locus indicated this effect was driven by ABO blood groups, with the O blood group being a risk factor for HIT (odds ratio 1.42 [1.25-1.61], p=6.11x10-8). Conclusions: We identify common variation in ABO as a risk factor for platelet reactivity and HIT. Strong association of ABO variation may have important implications for prediction and understanding of HIT pathogenesis. Figure 1 Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

A Photoalkylative Fluorogenic Probe of Guttiferone A for Live Cell Imaging and Proteome Labeling in Plasmodium falciparum

Guttiferone A (GA) 1, a polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinol (PPAP) isolated from the plant Symphonia globulifera (Clusiaceae), constitutes a novel hit in antimalarial drug discovery. PPAPs do not possess identified biochemical targets in malarial parasites up to now. Towards this aim, we designed and evaluated a natural product-derived photoactivatable probe AZC-GA 5, embedding a photoalkylative fluorogenic motif of the 7-azidocoumarin (AZC) type, devoted to studying the affinity proteins interacting with GA in Plasmodium falciparum. Probe 5 manifested a number of positive functional and biological features, such as (i) inhibitory activity in vitro against P. falciparum blood-stages that was superimposable to that of GA 1, dose–response photoalkylative fluorogenic properties (ii) in model conditions using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as an affinity protein surrogate, (iii) in live P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes, and (iv) in fresh P. falciparum cell lysate. Fluorogenic signals by photoactivated AZC-GA 5 in biological settings were markedly abolished in the presence of excess GA 1 as a competitor, indicating significant pharmacological specificity of the designed molecular probe relative to the native PPAP. These results open the way to identify the detected plasmodial proteins as putative drug targets for the natural product 1 by means of proteomic analysis.

A Security-Related Reputation Scheme of Android Apps Based on NLP Analysis of Comments

Comments are exploited by product vendors to measure satisfaction of consumers. With the advent of Natural Language Processing (NLP), comments on Google Play can be processed to extract knowledge on applications such as their reputation. Proposals in that direction are either informal or interested merely on functionality. Unlike, this work aims to determine reputation of Android applications in terms of confidentiality, integrity, availability and authentication (CIAA). This work proposes a model of assessing app reputation relying on sentiment analysis and text analysis of comments. While assuming that comments are reliable, we collect Google Play applications subject to comments which include security keywords. An in-depth analysis of keywords based on Naive Bayes classification is made to provide polarity of any comment. Based on comment polarity, reputation is evaluated for the whole application. Experiments made on real applications including dozens to billions of comments, reveal that developers lack to make efforts to guarantee CIAA services. A fine-grained analysis shows that not security reputed applications can be reputed in specific CIAA services. Results also show that applications with negative security polarities display in general positive functional polarities. This result suggests that security checking should include careful comment analysis to improve security of applications.