Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuroimage: Clinical Striatal Disorders Dissociate Mechanisms of Enhanced and Impaired Response Selection — Evidence from Cognitive Neurophysiology and Computational Modelling

Keywords: Computational modelling Basal ganglia Executive control Benign hereditary chorea Huntington's disease EEG a b s t r a c t Paradoxically enhanced cognitive processes in neurological disorders provide vital clues to understanding neural function. However, what determines whether the neurological damage is impairing or enhancing is unclear. Here we use the performance of patients with two disorders of the striatum to dissociate mechanisms underlying cognitive enhancement and impairment resulting from damage to the same system. In a two-choice decision task, Huntington's disease patients were faster and less error prone than controls, yet a patient with the rare condition of benign hereditary chorea (BHC) was both slower and more error prone. EEG recordings confirmed significant differences in neural processing between the groups. Analysis of a computational model revealed that the common loss of connectivity between striatal neurons in BHC and Huntington's disease impairs response selection, but the increased sensitivity of NMDA receptors in Huntington's disease potentially enhances response selection. Crucially the model shows that there is a critical threshold for increased sensitivity: below that threshold, impaired response selection results. Our data and model thus predict that specific striatal malfunctions can contribute to either impaired or enhanced selection, and provide clues to solving the paradox of how Huntington's disease can lead to both impaired and enhanced cognitive processes.
Relationship of prenatal diagnosis and pregnancy termination to overall infant mortality in Canada.

CONTEXT Prenatal diagnosis and termination of affected pregnancies can prevent infant deaths due to congenital anomalies, but an effect at the population level has not been shown. OBJECTIVE To examine the impact of recent changes in congenital anomaly-related fetal and infant deaths on overall population-based infant mortality. DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS Birth cohort-based study of all live births, stillbirths, and infant deaths in Canada (excluding Ontario) for 1991-1998. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Cause-specific infant mortality rates and gestational age-specific fetal death rates. RESULTS The birth cohort-based infant mortality rate fluctuated between 6.4 and 6.1 per 1000 live births between 1991 and 1995, then dropped to 5.4 per 1000 in 1996 and 5.5 per 1000 in 1997. The rate of infant death from congenital anomalies was stable between 1991 and 1995 but declined by 21% (95% confidence interval, 19%-32%) from 1.86 per 1000 in 1995 to 1.47 per 1000 in 1996 and 1997. Fetal deaths due to pregnancy termination at 20 to 23 weeks' gestation increased dramatically in 1994, while fetal deaths due to congenital anomalies at 20 to 21 weeks increased in 1995 and subsequently. Provinces/territories with high rates of fetal death due to pregnancy termination/congenital anomalies at 20 to 23 weeks had fewer infant deaths due to congenital anomalies. CONCLUSION A large decrease in infant deaths due to congenital anomalies was associated with the most recent decline in infant mortality in Canada, suggesting that increases in prenatal diagnosis and pregnancy termination for congenital anomalies are related to decreases in overall infant mortality at the population level.
Experiments on deformation measurements of "Helsinki Design Week 2005" Info Pavilion

The ”Helsinki Design Week” info pavilion is an example of a challenging mass customisation based industrial construction planned with CAD techniques. The final pavilion was modelled using both close-range photogrammetric methods and terrestrial laser scanning. The as-built model was compared to the design model revealing the maximum difference of 0.035 m. Two load tests (20 and 100 kg) were arranged to simulate low and moderate snow loads on a roof structure and to arrange two different loads versus deformation cases for measurements. Both modelling methods yielded similar result indicating that the 20 kg load did not cause significant deformations to the pavilion. In the case of 100 kg load, the rim arcs kept their shapes well, but some deformations was found from the shell structures. The results from photogrammetry and laser scanning were compared and both methods had some advantages and disadvantages. The strength of photogrammetry was more accurate alignment when corners were measured and the strength of the laser scanning was the more complete surface model. In our case, the photogrammetric models were measured from free-network image blocks. One model appeared to have some distortion along the z-axes. The disadvantages with laser data included difficulties to measure accurate corner points and the strong deformation of reference spheres in moist conditions.
Surface Area Loss and Increased Sphericity Account for the Splenic Entrapment of Subpopulations of Plasmodium falciparum Ring-Infected Erythrocytes

Ex vivo perfusion of human spleens revealed innate retention of numerous cultured Plasmodium falciparum ring-infected red blood cells (ring-iRBCs). Ring-iRBC retention was confirmed by a microsphiltration device, a microbead-based technology that mimics the mechanical filtering function of the human spleen. However, the cellular alterations underpinning this retention remain unclear. Here, we use ImageStream technology to analyze infected RBCs’ morphology and cell dimensions before and after fractionation with microsphiltration. Compared to fresh normal RBCs, the mean cell membrane surface area loss of trophozoite-iRBCs, ring-iRBCs and uninfected co-cultured RBCs (uRBCs) was 14.2% (range: 8.3–21.9%), 9.6% (7.3–12.2%) and 3.7% (0–8.4), respectively. Microsphilters retained 100%, ∼50% and 4% of trophozoite-iRBCs, ring-iRBCs and uRBCs, respectively. Retained ring-iRBCs display reduced surface area values (estimated mean, range: 17%, 15–18%), similar to the previously shown threshold of surface-deficient RBCs retention in the human spleen (surface area loss: >18%). By contrast, ring-iRBCs that successfully traversed microsphilters had minimal surface area loss and normal sphericity, suggesting that these parameters are determinants of their retention. To confirm this hypothesis, fresh normal RBCs were exposed to lysophosphatidylcholine to induce a controlled loss of surface area. This resulted in a dose-dependent retention in microsphilters, with complete retention occurring for RBCs displaying >14% surface area loss. Taken together, these data demonstrate that surface area loss and resultant increased sphericity drive ring-iRBC retention in microsphilters, and contribute to splenic entrapment of a subpopulation of ring-iRBCs. These findings trigger more interest in malaria research fields, including modeling of infection kinetics, estimation of parasite load, and analysis of risk factors for severe clinical forms. The determination of the threshold of splenic retention of ring-iRBCs has significant implications for diagnosis (spleen functionality) and drug treatment (screening of adjuvant therapy targeting ring-iRBCs).
Low-Frequency Electrical Stimulation Induces the Proliferation and Differentiation of Peripheral Blood Stem Cells Into Schwann Cells

Background:Functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury remains a tough problem at present. Specifically, a type of glial cell exists in peripheral nerves that promotes axonal growth and myelin formation and secretes various active substances, such as neurotrophic factors, extracellular matrix and adherence factors. These substances have important significance for the survival, growth and regeneration of nerve fibers. Numerous recent studies have shown that electrical stimulation can increase the number of myelinated nerve fibers. However, whether electrical stimulation acts on neurons or Schwann cells has not been verified in vivo. This study investigates low-frequency electrical stimulation-induced proliferation and differentiation of peripheral blood stem cells into Schwann cells and explores possible mechanisms. Methods:Peripheral blood stem cells from Sprague-Dawley rats were primarily cultured. Cells in passage 3 were divided into 4 groups: a low-frequency electrical stimulation group (20 Hz, 100 &mgr;s, 3 V), a low-frequency electrical stimulation + PD98059 (blocking the extracellular signal-regulated kinase [ERK] signaling pathway) group, a PD98059 group and a control group (no treatment). After induction, the cells were characterized. A 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazoliumbromide assay was employed to measure the absorbance values at 570 nm in the 4 groups. A Western blot assay was used to detect the expression of cyclin D1 and cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) in each group. Results:No significant difference in cell viability was detected before induction. Peripheral blood stem cells from the 4 groups differentiated into Schwann cells. Phosphorylated ERK 1/2, cyclin D1 and CDK4 protein levels were highest in the low-frequency electrical stimulation group and lowest in the ERK blockage group. Phosphorylated ERK 1/2, cyclin D1 and CDK4 protein levels in the low-frequency electrical stimulation + ERK blockage group were lower than those in the low-frequency electrical stimulation group but higher than those in the ERK blockage group. Conclusions:Low-frequency electrical stimulation contributed to the proliferation of peripheral blood stem cells cultured in vitro and induced differentiation into Schwann cells. The ERK signaling pathway underlies cell proliferation and differentiation.
The disciplined healthcare professional: a qualitative interview study on the impact of the disciplinary process and imposed measures in the Netherlands

Objective It is known that doctors who receive complaints may have feelings of anger, guilt, shame and depression, both in the short and in the long term. This might lead to functional impairment. Less is known about the impact of the disciplinary process and imposed measures. Previous studies of disciplinary proceedings have mainly focused on identifying characteristics of disciplined doctors and on sentencing policies. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore what impact the disciplinary process and imposed measures have on healthcare professionals. Design Semistructured interview study, with purposive sampling and inductive qualitative content analysis. Participants 16 healthcare professionals (9 medical specialists, 3 general practitioners, 2 physiotherapists and 2 psychologists) that were sanctioned by the disciplinary tribunal. Setting The Netherlands. Results Professionals described feelings of misery and insecurity both during the process as in its aftermath. Furthermore, they reported to fear receiving new complaints and provide care more cautiously after the imposed measure. Factors that may enhance psychological and professional impact are the publication of measures online and in newspapers, media coverage, the feeling of treated as guilty before any verdict has been reached, and the long duration of the process. Conclusions This study shows that the disciplinary process and imposed measures can have a profound psychological and professional impact on healthcare professionals. Although a disciplinary measure is meant to have a corrective effect, our results suggest that the impact that is experienced by professionals might hamper optimal rehabilitation afterwards. Therefore, organising emotional support should be considered during the disciplinary process and in the period after the verdict.
Surgical Site Infections Following Open Reduction and Internal Fixation of Ankle Fractures

Background: Ankle fracture fixation is one of the most commonly performed orthopaedic procedures. Although the results are generally favourable, complications are not uncommon, particularly in the case of surgical site infections. These have considerable impact on both postoperative morbidity and healthcare costs. The purpose of this study was to determine the infection rate following ankle fracture fixation and elucidate variables in their causation. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 50 consecutive patients who underwent open reduction and internal fixation of an ankle fracture. The study group consisted of 26 females and 24 males with an average age of 43 (Range 16-82) years. Results: Problems with superficial infections were noted in seven patients and deep infections in five. Of the latter, four patients underwent further surgery including two that had their metal work removed. With use of the Fisher’s exact test we determined that only smoking and a bimalleolar fracture pattern were significant variables, having pvalues of 0.02 and 0.04 respectively. Conclusion: We conclude that smoker and/or patient with bimalleolar injury have are more at risk of developing surgical site infection and its implications on their functional recovery Following Open Reduction and Internal Fixation of Ankle Fractures.
Effect of Physically Active Academic Lessons on Body Mass Index and Physical Fitness in Primary School Children.

BACKGROUND Preventing overweight and improving physical fitness in primary school children is a worldwide challenge, and physically active intervention programs usually come with the cost of academic instruction time. This study aimed to investigate effects of physically active academic lessons on body mass index (BMI) and physical fitness in primary school children. METHODS Dutch children attending second- or third-grade class from 12 primary schools (N = 376; 8.1 ± 0.7 years) were randomly assigned to a 22-week intervention program or to the control group. In addition to measuring BMI before and after the intervention, physical fitness was measured with 5 items of the Eurofit test battery, measuring cardiovascular and muscular fitness. RESULTS Multilevel analysis showed a significant interaction effect between condition (intervention vs control) and grade (B = -0.47; p < .05). For third-grade children, BMI of the intervention group did not change significantly during the intervention period, whereas a significant increase was found in the control group. No significant main or interaction effects were found for cardiovascular or muscular fitness. CONCLUSIONS The current physically active academic lessons had positive effects on BMI in third-grade children, but had no effects on cardiovascular and muscular fitness.
Soluble CD 40 ligand and Oxidative Response are Reciprocally Stimulated during Shiga Toxin-associated Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome . Running title : Role of sCD 40 L and oxidative response in HUS

Shiga toxin (Stx) produced by Escherichia coli is the main pathogenic factor of diarrhea-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is characterized by obstruction of renal microvasculature by platelet-fibrin thrombi. It is well known that the oxidative imbalance generated by Stx induces platelet activation, contributing to thrombus formation. Moreover, activated platelets release soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) which in turn contributes to oxidative imbalance, triggering the release of reactive oxidative species (ROS) on various cellular types. The aim of this work was to determine if the interaction between the oxidative response and platelet-derived sCD40L participates in the pathogenic mechanism during HUS. Activated human glomerular endothelial cells (HGEC) by Stx2 induced platelets to adhere to them. Although platelet adhesion did not contribute to endothelial damage, high levels of sCD40L were released to the medium. The release of sCD40L by activated platelets was inhibited by antioxidant treatment. Furthermore, we found increased levels of sCD40L in plasma from HUS patients, which were also able to trigger the respiratory burst in monocytes, in a sCD40L-dependent manner. Thus, we concluded that platelet-derived sCD40L and the oxidative response are reciprocally stimulated during Stx2-associated HUS. This process may contribute to the evolution of glomerular occlusion and the microangiopathic lesions.
MCN The Dynamics of SAP 90 / PSD-95 Recruitment to New Synaptic Junctions

SAP90/PSD-95 is thought to be a central organizer of the glutamatergic synapse postsynaptic reception apparatus. To assess its potential role during glutamatergic synapse formation, we used GFP-tagged SAP90/PSD-95, time lapse confocal microscopy, and cultured hippocampal neurons to determine its dynamic recruitment into new synaptic junctions. We report that new SAP90/PSD-95 clusters first appeared at new axodendritic contact sites within 20–60 min of contact establishment. SAP90/ PSD-95 clustering was rapid, with kinetics that fit a single exponential with a mean time constant of ;23 min. Most new SAP90/PSD-95 clusters were found juxtaposed to functional presynaptic boutons as determined by labeling with FM 4–64. No evidence was found for the existence of discrete transport particles similar to those previously reported to mediate presynaptic active zone cytoskeleton assembly. Instead, we found that SAP90/PSD-95 is recruited to nascent synapses from a diffuse dendritic cytoplasmic pool. Our findings show that SAP90/PSD-95 is recruited to nascent synaptic junctions early during the assembly process and indicate that its assimilation is fundamentally different from that of presynaptic active zone components.
The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills of persons with psychiatric disorders.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to examine the discriminant validity of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) when used to evaluate a heterogeneous sample of subjects with psychiatric disorders. METHOD Sixty subjects, ranging in age from 16 to 72 years, participated in this study; 30 were persons without disorders living in the community; 30 had diagnosed psychiatric disorders. Two univariate F tests were used to test the hypothesis that mean AMPS measures would differ significantly between the group with and the group without psychiatric disorders. RESULTS The hypothesis was supported for both AMPS motor and process scale measures. As would be expected among a sample that includes many higher functioning persons, many subjects with psychiatric disorders did just as well as subjects in the group without psychiatric disorders. CONCLUSIONS Motor as well as process skill abilities of persons with psychiatric disorders should be evaluated. Because the AMPS provides more specific features than other global functional instruments, it can help clinicians plan treatment and intervention more effectively. Further examination of the motor and process skill deficits within and among diagnostic subgroups and of the effect of medication and prolonged hospitalization on AMPS motor and process abilities is indicated.
Heart rate recovery in elite athletes: the impact of age and exercise capacity

There is compelling evidence that postexercise heart rate recovery (HRR) is a valid indicator of sympaticovagal balance. It is also used in prescription and monitoring of athletic training. The purpose of our study was to determine HRR after maximal exercise among elite athletes with respect to age. A total of 274 elite male Caucasian athletes were randomly selected from the larger sample and divided into two groups: adolescent (group Y) and adult athletes (≥18 years; group A). They performed maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing on a treadmill. Heart rate recovery was calculated as the rate of decline of HR from peak exercise to rates 1, 2 and 3 min after cessation of exercise (HRR1, HRR2 and HRR3). A significantly higher HRR1 was found in group A (29·5 ± 15·6 versus 22·4 ± 10·8, P<0·001), but HRR3 was higher in group Y (82·7 ± 10·2 versus 79·9 ± 12·25; P = 0·04). Stepwise multivariate linear regression analysis showed that, among all subjects, the HRR1 alone was independently associated with age (P<0·001). The maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) was in a negative relationship with HRR1 and in a positive one with HRR3 (P<0·05) with respect to all athletes. The HRR during 3 min postexercise should be reported for the purpose of better assessing functional adaptation to exercise among elite athletes as well as the age‐associated differences in recovery. Higher values of HRR1 should be expected in older athletes, and HRR3 could be used as an index of aerobic capacity, irrespective of age.
Short-chain fatty acids affect cystic fibrosis airway inflammation and bacterial growth

The hypoxic environment of cystic fibrosis airways allows the persistence of facultative anaerobic bacteria, which can produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) through fermentation. However, the relevance of SCFAs in cystic fibrosis lung disease is unknown. We show that SCFAs are present in sputum samples from cystic fibrosis patients in millimolar concentrations (mean±sem 1.99±0.36 mM). SCFAs positively correlated with sputum neutrophil count and higher SCFAs were predictive for impaired nitric oxide production. We studied the effects of the SCFAs acetate, propionate and butyrate on airway inflammatory responses using epithelial cell lines and primary cell cultures. SCFAs in concentrations present in cystic fibrosis airways (0.5–2.5 mM) affected the release of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and interleukin (IL)-6. SCFAs also resulted in higher IL-8 release from stimulated cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) F508del-mutant compared to wild-type CFTR-corrected bronchial epithelial cells. At 25 mM propionate reduced IL-8 release in control but not primary cystic fibrosis epithelial cells. Low (0.5–2.5 mM) SCFA concentrations increased, while high (25–50 mM) concentrations decreased inducible nitric oxide synthase expression. In addition, SCFAs affected the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a concentration- and pH-dependent manner. Thus, our data suggest that SCFAs contribute to cystic fibrosis-specific alterations of responses to airway infection and inflammation. Short-chain fatty acids contribute to CF-specific alterations of responses to airway infection and inflammation http://ow.ly/L7ZI9
A unified modeling methodology for performance evaluation of distributed discrete event simulation mechanisms

The main problem associated with comparing distributed discrete event simulation mechanisms is the need to base the comparisons on some common problem specification. This paper presents a specification strategy and language which allows the same simulation problem specification to be used for both distributed discrete event simulation mechanisms as well as the traditional single event list mechanism. This paper includes: a description of the Yaddes specification language; a description of the four simulation mechanisms currently supported; the results for three simulation examples; and an estimate of the performance of a communication structure needed to support the various simulation mechanisms. Currently this work has only been done on a uniprocessor emulating a multiprocessor. This has limited some of our results but lays a significant basis for future simulation mechanism comparison.