Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screening for Psychosocial and Family Risk in Pediatric Gastrointestinal Disorders

Objectives: Screening for psychosocial comorbidity is recommended for pediatric patients presenting at an initial gastroenterology (GI) outpatient consultation. We developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the GI Screener to address the need for a screening tool specific to pediatric GI patients. Methods: 128 patients (8–18 years old, 63% female) and 126 parents completed age-specific versions of the GI Screener and 3 validated psychosocial comparison instruments (The Behavioral Assessment System for Children, The Functional Disability Inventory, The General Functioning scale of the Family Assessment Device) at their initial GI consultation. (30%) of families repeated the measures 2 weeks later. We identified GI Screener content domains and retained items using exploratory factor analysis. We evaluated internal consistency, construct validity, cross-informant reliability, and test-retest reliability of the trimmed measures. Results: Exploratory factor analysis identified 2 factors in both the parent and child scales: Symptom Impact and Emotional Functioning. Internal consistency estimates for the trimmed scales were good (Cronbach's alpha >0.75) for both Child and Parent scales. We found that the GI Screener for both patient and parents had good construct validity. Cross-informant reliability between Parent and Child scales at baseline had an estimated correlation of 0.56, while intra class correlation coefficients between baseline and 2-week scores showed high test-retest reliability (>0.7). Conclusions: The GI Screener is a brief, valid and reliable measure that can aid in identifying families who are at high risk for psychosocial comorbidity facilitating the targeted delivery of psychosocial intervention and efficient use of health care resources.
Do central banks' forecasts take into account public opinion and views?

The Federal Reserve through the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) regularly releases macroeconomic forecasts to the general public and the US congress with the purpose of explaining the likely evolution of the economy and the appropriate stance of monetary policy. Immediately before doing so, the FOMC receives a forecast produced by the Federal Reserve staff which remains private for five years. The literature has pointed out that, despite the informational advantage of the FOMC, its forecast differs from and is not always more accurate than the staff forecast. This finding has raised concerns regarding the loss of relevant information and the usefulness of the FOMC forecasts. This paper brings evidence that the FOMC forecast also incorporates other publicly available forecasts and views, and that the weight attributed to public forecasts is larger than what is optimal given a mean squared error objective. These findings are consistent with i) the institutional role of the FOMC in being representative of a variety of public views, ii) the academic literature recommendation to use equal weights and not to overfit specific forecasts based on past performance. The statistical model can also account for several empirical regularities of the forecasts.
Acute coronary syndrome in young adults: the Thai ACS Registry.

BACKGROUND There are few data regarding acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in young adults. ACS in young adults may have some characteristics that are different from those in older patients. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the present study was to assess the frequency, risk factors, presenting symptoms, treatment, complications and in-hospital outcomes of young patients with ACS in Thailand compared with those of older patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD From the Thai ACS registry database of 9,373 consecutive patients admitted to participating hospitals between August 1, 2002 and October 31, 2005, the authors divided patients into three age categories: < 45 years, 45-54 years and > 54 years. Risk factors, presenting symptoms, type ofACS, management, complications and in-hospital outcomes of the 3 age groups were analyzed. RESULTS Young patients comprised of 5.8% (544 patients) of all ACS patients. Discharge diagnosis in the young group was ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in 67%, non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) 20% and unstable angina 14%. The young patients were more likely to have an STEMI than their elder counterparts. Risk factors such as tobacco use and a family history were more frequent in the young patients, whereas diabetes and hypertension were less frequent. Importantly, 66% of the patients aged <45 years had a history of tobacco use. A higher percentage of the young patients underwent coronary angiography, percutaneous coronary intervention and received aspirin, thienopyridines, GP IIb/ IIIa antagonists, beta-blockers and statins. In STEMI patients, reperfusion therapy was given more frequently in the patients aged < 45 years. Younger patients had a lower in-hospital mortality rate, lower incidence of congestive heart failure and a shorter length of stay. Multivariable analysis of in-hospital mortality revealed that older age remained an independent predictor of death. CONCLUSION In Thailand, 5.8% ofpatients with ACS are under the age of 45 years old. The frequency of risk factors in the young patients differs from those in their elderly counterparts. The current management and aggressive risk factor modification are quite good and the overall mortality is lower in young adults with ACS compared to their elder counterparts. Primary preventive measures aimed at preventing our youth from adopting tobacco use should be implemented nationally.
Support for the multigenic hypothesis of amyloidosis: The binding stoichiometry of retinol-binding protein, vitamin A, and thyroid hormone influences transthyretin amyloidogenicity in vitro

The amyloidoses are a large group of protein misfolding diseases. Genetic and biochemical evidence support the hypothesis that amyloid formation from wild-type or 1 of 80 sequence variants of transthyretin causes the human amyloid diseases senile systemic amyloidosis or familial amyloid polyneuropathy, respectively. The late onset and variable penetrance of these diseases has led to their designation as multigenic—implying that the expression levels and alleles of multiple gene products influence the course of pathology. Here we show that the binding stoichiometry of three interacting molecules, retinol-binding protein, vitamin A, and l-thyroxine, notably influenced transthyretin amyloidogenicity in vitro. At least 70 genes control retinol-binding protein, vitamin A, and l-thyroxine levels in plasma and have the potential to modulate the course of senile systemic amyloidosis or familial amyloid polyneuropathy.
On the absence of simultaneous reflection and transmission in integrable impurity systems

We establish that the Yang-Baxter equations in the presence of an impurity can in general only admit solutions of simultaneous tranmission and reflection when the transmission and reflection amplitudes commute in the defect degrees of freedom with an additional exchange of the corresponding rapidities. In the absence of defect degrees of freedom we show in complete generality, that the only exceptions to this are theories which possess rapidity independent bulk scattering matrices. In particular bulk theories with diagonal scattering matrices, can only be the free Boson and Fermion, the Federbush model and their generalizations. These anyonic solutions do not admit the possibility of excited impurity states.
C-Reactive Protein, Fibrin D-Dimer, and Incident Ischemic Heart Disease in the Speedwell Study: Are Inflammation and Fibrin Turnover Linked in Pathogenesis?

Abstract— Plasma levels of C-reactive protein (CRP, a marker of the reactant plasma protein component of the inflammatory response) and of fibrin D-dimer (a marker of cross-linked fibrin turnover) have each been associated in recent studies with the risk of future ischemic heart disease (IHD). Previous experimental studies have shown that fibrin degradation products, including D-dimer, have effects on inflammatory processes and acute-phase protein responses. In the Speedwell Prospective Study, we therefore measured CRP and D-dimer levels in stored plasma samples from 1690 men aged 49 to 67 years who were followed-up for incident IHD for an average of 75±4 months (mean±SD) and studied their associations with each other, with baseline and incident IHD, and with IHD risk factors. CRP and D-dimer levels were each associated with age, plasma fibrinogen, smoking habit, and baseline evidence of IHD. CRP was associated with D-dimer (r =0.21, P <0.00001). On univariate analyses, both CRP and D-dimer were associated with incident IHD. The incidence of IHD increased with CRP independently of the level of D-dimer (P =0.0002) and also increased with D-dimer independently of the level of CRP (P =0.048). In multivariate analyses, inclusion of D-dimer and conventional risk factors reduced the strength of the association between CRP and incident IHD; likewise, inclusion of CRP and conventional risk factors reduced the strength of the association between D-dimer and incident IHD. We conclude that although these respective markers of inflammation and fibrin turnover show modest association with each other in middle-aged men, they may have additive associations with risk of incident IHD. Further larger studies are required to test this hypothesis.
Interaction of neurotransmitter systems in the hippocampus: a study of some behavioral effects of hippocampal sympathetic ingrowth

Recent research has suggested that normal learning/memory may depend upon the balance between central noradrenergic and cholinergic systems. This hypothesis has particular relevance to the study of the neuronal rearrangement that follows cholinergic denervation of hippocampus. In this, peripheral noradrenergic fibers, originating from the superior cervical ganglion, grow into the hippocampus in response to lesions of the medial septal (MS) cholinergic cell bodies. To understand further the influence of hippocampal sympathetic ingrowth (HSI) on behavior, gustatory neophobia, passive avoidance (PA) learning, and open field activity were studied. Male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent one of four surgical procedures: MS lesions and sham ganglionectomy (ingrowth group; MS/HSI group), sham MS lesions and ganglionectomy (Gx group), MS lesions and ganglionectomy (no-ingrowth group; MS/Gx group), or sham MS lesions and sham ganglionectomy (CON group). Behavioral testing began 4 weeks following surgery. The time to acquire the PA task was similar among all groups; however, the initial latency to enter the dark chamber of the PA apparatus was longer, and the number of partial reentries greatest, for MS/HSI animals. Retention testing at 24 hr revealed that MS/HSI animals were significantly impaired when compared to the CON and MS/Gx groups. The MS/Gx and the CON groups demonstrated gustatory neophobia, preferring water to saccharin solution, while gustatory neophobia was absent in the MS/HSI and Gx groups. MS/HSI animals were found to be more active in the open field than the other groups. Biochemical studies revealed the expected loss of ChAT activity in the dorsal and ventral hippocampi of lesioned animals along with elevated levels of norepinephrine (NE) in the dorsal hippocampus of MS/HSI animals.
Mate Choice and Reproductive Success in the Red-Legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa)

Behavioral patterns, reproductive success, and concentrations of plasma-luteinizing hormone, testosterone, and estrogen were compared in pairs of red-legged partridges which had either selected their own mates or had been randomly paired. Males in self-selected pairs called more frequently than males in non-self-selected pairs. Females in self-selected pairs but not those in non-self-selected pairs guarded their nests. Females in self-selected pairs had a greater egg production and laid more of their eggs in nests than females in non-self-selected pairs. There was a significant difference between the two groups in the concentration of plasma testosterone in males, which was higher in males from self-selected pairs prior to the onset of egg laying. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that mate choice affects both reproductive parameters and nest defense in monogamous birds.
Mood-state-dependent retrieval of verbal associations.

Retrieval of previously self-generated events in the form of verbal associations was observed to be mood-state dependent in individuals who cycled between states of mania and normality. Recall of associations was more complete during periods of relatively stable mood, including periods of mania, compared to the reproduction of associations that were generated and retrieved during periods of disparate mood. The findings are discussed in the context of moodstate-specific encoding and storage of events and subsequent mood-state-specifk retrieval of experience. Mood states appear to determine how experienced events are processed, stored, and later retrieved from memory (Henry, Weingartner, & Murphy, 1973; Miller, 1975; Murphy, Henry, & Weingartner, 1973). Many of the findings relating mood state, learning, and recall have emerged from the study of patients who demonstrate a bipolarity in mood swings. These patients demonstrate periods of normal mood as well as episodes of depression and mania, with accompanying changes in brain catecholamine activity (Murphy & Redmond, 197S). Learning and memory appear to be disrupted during both the manic and the depressed phase of this disorder, and the extent to which such cognitive changes take place is a function of the intensity of the disturbance in mood (Henry et al., 1973). In a depressed phase, patients appear to be able to attend to input events and to form a temporary memory trace of experience, but they appear to be unable to retrieve experience after periods of delay. However, if these patients are treated with the precursor of the biogenic amine neurotransmitter dopamine, L-dopa, then this specific mood-related facet of the memory-learning deficit appears to be erased, but without an immediate associated lifting of mood (Henry et al., 1973). This finding suggests
Comparative Analysis of Gelsemine and Gelsemium sempervirens Activity on Neurosteroid Allopregnanolone Formation in the Spinal Cord and Limbic System

Centesimal dilutions (5, 9 and 15 cH) of Gelsemium sempervirens are claimed to be capable of exerting anxiolytic and analgesic effects. However, basic results supporting this assertion are rare, and the mechanism of action of G. sempervirens is completely unknown. To clarify the point, we performed a comparative analysis of the effects of dilutions 5, 9 and 15 cH of G. sempervirens or gelsemine (the major active principle of G. sempervirens) on allopregnanolone (3α,5α-THP) production in the rat limbic system (hippocampus and amygdala or H-A) and spinal cord (SC). Indeed, H-A and SC are two pivotal structures controlling, respectively, anxiety and pain that are also modulated by the neurosteroid 3α,5α-THP. At the dilution 5 cH, both G. sempervirens and gelsemine stimulated [3H]progesterone conversion into [3H]3α,5α-THP by H-A and SC slices, and the stimulatory effect was fully (100%) reproducible in all assays. The dilution 9 cH of G. sempervirens or gelsemine also stimulated 3α,5α-THP formation in H-A and SC but the reproducibility rate decreased to 75%. At 15 cH of G. sempervirens or gelsemine, no effect was observed on 3α,5α-THP neosynthesis in H-A and SC slices. The stimulatory action of G. sempervirens and gelsemine (5 cH) on 3α,5α-THP production was blocked by strychnine, the selective antagonist of glycine receptors. Altogether, these results, which constitute the first basic demonstration of cellular effects of G. sempervirens, also offer interesting possibilities for the improvement of G. sempervirens-based therapeutic strategies.
Mortierella elongata's roles in organic agriculture and crop growth promotion in a mineral soil

The addition of organic amendments contributes substantially to improvements in soil quality and prevents soil degradation. However, very little is known about the responses of dominant fungal strains to organic fertilizers or their functions in the nutrient transformations and crop growth promotion. Here, soils and maize roots were collected from a 35‐year field experiment treated with composted soybean cake. The fungal communities in the bulk soil, rhizosphere, and endosphere were analyzed by deep amplicon sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer region gene. Overall, the soil fungal community was dominated by the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Zygomycota. Organic amendments changed the fungal community composition, with significant increase in the relative abundances of Mortierella, Fusarium, and Chaetomiceae in the bulk and rhizosphere soils. Mortierella elongata was the most successful fungi responding to organic inputs as seen by the surge in abundance. Genome characteristics of M. elongata indicated that M. elongata possessed the functional capacity to degrade a range of toxic organics, and thereby improve soil health. Furthermore, M. elongata's capacity to compose recalcitrant substances that can contribute to pools of long‐term stable SOM was confirmed. These findings suggest that M. elongata may be mechanistic in sequestering C in soil. Inoculations of M. elongata into soil significantly increased the levels of plant indole acetic acid and plant biomass. Soil phosphatase and β‐glucosidase activities were also improved. Our study suggests that M. elongata can defend against soil degradation, improve soil health, and stimulate production of plant growth hormones.
EFFECTIVENESS OF A MOTOR CONTROL THERAPEUTIC EXERCISE PROGRAM COMBINED WITH MOTOR IMAGERY ON THE SENSORIMOTOR FUNCTION OF THE CERVICAL SPINE: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL.

BACKGROUND Motor control therapeutic exercise (MCTE) for the neck is a motor relearning program that emphasizes the coordination and contraction of specific neck flexor, extensor, and shoulder girdle muscles. Because motor imagery (MI) improves sensorimotor function and it improves several motor aspects, such as motor learning, neuromotor control, and acquisition of motor skills, the authors hypothesized that a combination of MCTE and MI would improve the sensorimotor function of the cervical spine more effectively than a MCTE program alone. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of MI combined with a MCTE program on sensorimotor function of the craniocervical region in asymptomatic subjects. STUDY DESIGN This study was a single-blinded randomized controlled trial. METHODS Forty asymptomatic subjects were assigned to a MCTE group or a MCTE+MI group. Both groups received the same MCTE program for the cervical region (60 minutes), but the MCTE+MI group received an additional intervention based on MI (15 minutes). The primary outcomes assessed were craniocervical neuromotor control (activation pressure value and highest pressure value), cervical kinesthetic sense (joint position error [JPE]), and the subjective perception of fatigue after effort. RESULTS Intra-group significant differences were obtained between pre- and post interventions for all evaluated variables (p<0.01) in the MCTE+MI and MCTE groups, except for craniocervical neuromotor control and the subjective perception of fatigue after effort in the MCTE group. In the MCTE+MI group a large effect size was found for craniocervical neuromotor control (d between -0.94 and -1.41), cervical kinesthetic sense (d between 0.97 and 2.14), neck flexor muscle endurance test (d = -1.50), and subjective perception of fatigue after effort (d = 0.79). There were significant inter-group differences for the highest pressure value, joint position error (JPE) extension, JPE left rotation, and subjective perception of fatigue after effort. CONCLUSION The combined MI and MCTE intervention produced statistically significant changes in sensorimotor function variables of the craniocervical region (highest pressure value, JPE extension and JPE left rotation) and the perception of subjective fatigue compared to MCTE alone. Both groups showed statistically significant changes in all variables measured, except for craniocervical neuromotor control and the subjective perception of fatigue after effort in the MCTE group. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 1b.
Response to Morphine in Male and Female Patients: Analgesia and Adverse Events

BackgroundThere is little agreement about a differential response of men and women to opioid analgesics. Some experimental and clinical studies have shown that women have a better response to opioids, others have found no difference, and still others have found opioids to be more effective analgesics for men than women. ObjectivesTo assess sex differences in analgesic response to morphine and incidence of adverse events in patients receiving a dose of 0.1 mg intravenous morphine/kg. MethodsSecondary analysis of the control arms of 6 randomized clinical trials that compared 0.1 mg/kg intravenous morphine with other opioids or other doses of morphine in patients aged 21 to 65 with acute pain. The setting was an academic medical center Emergency Department serving primarily Latino and African-American patients. Change in self-reported pain intensity from baseline to 30 minutes postbaseline on a validated and reproducible 11-point numerical rating scale and count of adverse events were the primary outcomes. ResultsThe sample consisted of 211 women and 144 men. The mean change in pain from baseline to 30 minutes postbaseline was 3.7 in women, 3.6 men (difference=0.04; 95% confidence interval: −0.52, 0.60). In women without nausea before administration of morphine, the incidence of adverse events was 18.3% versus 10.7% in men without initial nausea (difference=7.6%; 95% confidence interval: −2.0, 17.2). DiscussionMen and women presenting to the Emergency Department did not have a differential response to a single weight-based dose of morphine for alleviation of acute pain. Women without baseline nausea had more adverse events than men.
A new family of soft-output adaptive receivers exploiting nonlinear MMSE estimates for TDMA-based wireless links

Decision-directed adaptive receivers suffer performance degradation on time varying and intersymbol interference-impaired links because of two major problems: the use of predicted channel estimates due to the unavoidable decision delay of any detector, and the unreliability of hard decisions used for channel estimation and tracking. It is shown here that combining a recursive nonlinear symbol estimator with a channel estimator with a low prediction order may alleviate this performance degradation. In particular, it is here proposed to employ the nonlinear minimum mean-square error (NL-MMSE) filtered and fixed-lag smoothed estimates of the transmitted symbols in place of the usual hard decisions for channel estimation and tracking. It is also shown that these NL-MMSE estimates can be recursively computed on the basis of a linear transformation of the vector of the a posteriori probabilities (APPs) of the states of the channel. This approach allows the prediction order of the channel estimates to be limited and, at the same time, limits the performance degradation due to erroneous hard decisions. Another result presented here is that the use of NL-MMSE estimates in place of hard decisions is not based on mere intuition only, but is a straightforward consequence of the statement of the problem of MMSE channel estimation when the overly optimistic assumption of correct decisions is dropped. On the basis of this novel approach, a new family of soft-output adaptive receivers is presented for time-division multiple-access-based radio communications. The proposed family of adaptive receivers is based on an APP-computer and exploits the APPs for both channel estimation and detection. The versatility of the APPs ensures that the architecture of the proposed receiver is flexible, so that several estimators and detectors can be embedded in it.