Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intranasal Rapamycin Rescues Mice from Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B-Induced Shock

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) and related exotoxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus are potent activators of the immune system and cause toxic shock in humans. Currently there is no effective treatment except for the use of intravenous immunoglobulins administered shortly after SEB exposure. We evaluated the efficacy of intranasal administration of rapamycin in a lethal mouse model of SEB‐induced shock. The results show that intranasal rapamycin delivered as late as 17 h after SEB still protected 100% of mice from lethality. Additionally, rapamycin diminished the weight loss and temperature fluctuations elicited by SEB. Furthermore, only three doses of rapamycin were sufficient to block SEB‐induced shock. Intranasal rapamycin represents a novel use of an immunosuppressant targeting directly to site of toxin exposure, reducing dosages needed and allowing a wider therapeutic window.
Environmental Imperatives Reconsidered

Review of late Holocene paleoenvironmental and cultural sequences from four regions of western North America shows striking correlations between drought and changes in subsistence, population, exchange, health, and interpersonal violence during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (a.d. 800–1350). While ultimate causality is difficult to identify in the archaeological record, synchrony of the environmental and cultural changes and the negative character of many human responses—increased interpersonal violence, deterioration of long‐distance exchange relationships, and regional abandonments—suggest widespread demographic crises caused by decreased environmental productivity. The medieval droughts occurred at a unique juncture in the demographic history of western North America when unusually large populations of both hunter‐gatherers and agriculturalists had evolved highly intensified economies that put them in unprecedented ecological jeopardy. Long‐term patterns in the archaeological record are inconsistent with the predicted outcomes of simple adaptation or continuous economic intensification, suggesting that in this instance environmental dynamics played a major role in cultural transformations across a wide expanse of western North America among groups with diverse subsistence strategies. These events suggest that environment should not be overlooked as a potential cause of prehistoric culture change. The present paper was submitted 16 11 98 and accepted 5 vi 98; the final version reached the Editor's office 6 vii 98.
Programming Effects of Prenatal Glucocorticoid Exposure with a Postnatal High-Fat Diet in Diabetes Mellitus

Increasing evidence has shown that many chronic diseases originate from early life, even before birth, through what are termed as fetal programming effects. Glucocorticoids are frequently used prenatally to accelerate the maturation of the lungs of premature infants. High-fat diets are associated with insulin resistance, but the effects of prenatal glucocorticoid exposure plus a postnatal high-fat diet in diabetes mellitus remain unclear. We administered pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats’ intraperitoneal dexamethasone (0.1 mg/kg body weight) or vehicle at gestational days 14–20. Male offspring were administered a normal or high-fat diet starting from weaning. We assessed the effects of prenatal steroid exposure plus postnatal high-fat diet on the liver, pancreas, muscle and fat at postnatal day 120. At 15 and 30 min, sugar levels were higher in the dexamethasone plus high-fat diet (DHF) group than the vehicle plus high-fat diet (VHF) group in the intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT). Serum insulin levels at 15, 30 and 60 min were significantly higher in the VHF group than in the vehicle and normal diet group. Liver insulin receptor and adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase mRNA expressions and protein levels were lower in the DHF group. Insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate-1 mRNA expressions were lower in the epididymal adipose tissue in the VHF and DHF groups. “Programming” of liver or epididymal adipose tissue resulted from prenatal events. Prenatal steroid exposure worsened insulin resistance in animals fed a high-fat diet.
Differential effects of prostate cancer therapeutics on neuroendocrine transdifferentiation

Androgen ablation therapy is widely used for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. However, the effectiveness of this intervention strategy is generally short-lived as the disease ultimately progresses to a hormone-refractory state. In recent years, it has become clear that even in antiandrogen-resistant cancers the androgen receptor (AR) signaling axis is intact and is required for prostate cancer growth. Thus, there is a heightened interest in developing small molecules that function in part by down-regulating AR expression in tumors. Paradoxically, AR expression has been shown to be important in preventing the transdifferentiation of epithelial prostate cancer cells toward a neuroendocrine phenotype associated with tumor progression. Consequently, we have evaluated the relative effect of prostate cancer therapeutics that function in part by depleting AR levels on neuroendocrine differentiation in established cellular models of prostate cancer. These studies reveal that although histone deacetylase inhibitors can down-regulate AR expression they increase the expression of neuroendocrine markers and alter cellular morphology. Inhibition of AR signaling using classic AR antagonists or small interfering RNA–mediated AR ablation induces incomplete neuroendocrine differentiation. Importantly, the Hsp90 inhibitor geldanamycin effectively down-regulates AR expression while having no effect on neuroendocrine differentiation. Taken together, these data show that the phenotypic responses to pharmacologic agents used in the clinic to prevent the progression of prostate cancer are not equivalent, a finding of significant therapeutic importance. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(3):659–69]
A theoretical and experimental investigation of power harvesting using the NiMnGa martensite reorientation mechanism

Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) can exhibit the shape memory effect when there is a magnetic field in the vicinity of a material point. The microstructure of the MSMAs is comprised of tetragonal martensite variants, each with their preferred internal magnetization orientation. Starting from a random variant orientation, the application of a large enough magnetic field will cause the variants to reorient so that the internal magnetization vectors align with the external field. Then, keeping the magnetic field constant and adding a variable compressive stress in a direction normal to that of the magnetic field, some or all of the martensitic variants may rotate into a stress preferred state. As the variants reorient, the internal magnetization vectors rotate, and the material’s magnetization changes. For power harvesting and sensing applications, the change in magnetization induces a current in a pickup coil placed around the MSMA specimen, resulting in an output voltage at its terminals according to Faraday’s law of inductance. This paper focuses on the evaluation of the voltage output, both experimentally and numerically, in an attempt to assess the ability of a MSMA thermodynamic based constitutive model, used in conjunction with Faraday’s law of induction, to predict the variant reorientation induced voltage output. Assessing the accuracy of the predicted voltage is beneficial for the design of both MSMA based power harvesting devices and MSMA based displacement sensors.
Retinoic acid influences the embryoid body formation in mouse embryonic stem cells by induction of caspase and p38 MAPK/JNK‐mediated apoptosis

Although all‐trans retinoic acid (RA), the oxidative metabolite of vitamin A, is essential for normal development, high levels are teratogenic in many species. RA results in immediate effects on the preimplantation embryo and on blastocyst development in vitro and in vivo. To further elucidate the cellular mechanisms of early postimplantation embryo development induced by RA, we present an embryonic cell line, B5, as a candidate system for the investigation of these processes. We used undifferentiated ES cells as the model, which is from the undifferentiated status to differentiated status [embryoid body (EB) formation] mimicking postimplantation embryo development (egg‐cylinder stage of embryo formation) to clarify the cellular mechanism of action of RA in the implanted blastocysts and cell apoptosis following the series of exposures to differing RA concentrations. Using an in vitro model, we identified the impact of RA on undifferentiated embryonic stem (ES) cells, including inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of cell apoptosis. JNK, P‐38 and caspase activation were shown in the nature of RA‐triggered apoptotic signaling in ES cells. The carry‐on influences of RA on the ES cell were shown in the formation of EB from the pretreated ES cells. RA resulted in apparent impact on undifferentiated ES cells in vitro, with increased numbers of apoptotic cells initially and inhibited cell proliferation, which led to decreased size of EB. The process of EB formation (mimicking the early postimplantation embryo development) is regulated by RA‐induced apoptosis through the activation of caspase and P38 MAPK/JNK pathway. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2013.
Grain boundary curvature and grain growth kinetics with particle pinning

Second-phase particles are used extensively in design of polycrystalline materials to control the grain size. According to Zener’s theory, a distribution of particles creates a pinning pressure on a moving grain boundary. As a result, a limiting grain size is observed, but the effect of pinning on the detail of grain growth kinetics is less known. The influence of the particles on the microstructure occurs in multiple length scales, established by particle radius and the grain size. In this article, we use a meso-scale phase-field model that simulates grain growth in the presence of a uniform pinning pressure. The curvature of the grain boundary network is measured to determine the driving pressure of grain growth in 2D and 3D systems. It was observed that the grain growth continues, even under conditions where the average driving pressure is smaller than the pinning pressure. The limiting grain size is reached when the maximum of driving pressure distribution in the structure is equal to the pinning pressure. This results in a limiting grain size, larger than the one predicted by conventional models, and further analysis shows consistency with experimental observations. A physical model is proposed for the kinetics of grain growth using parameters based on the curvature analysis of the grain boundaries. This model can describe the simulated grain growth kinetics.
Water Quality Assessment and Pollution Source Identification of the Eastern Poyang Lake Basin Using Multivariate Statistical Methods

Multivariate statistical methods including cluster analysis (CA), discriminant analysis (DA) and component analysis/factor analysis (PCA/FA), were applied to explore the surface water quality datasets including 14 parameters at 28 sites of the Eastern Poyang Lake Basin, Jiangxi Province of China, from January 2012 to April 2015, characterize spatiotemporal variation in pollution and identify potential pollution sources. The 28 sampling stations were divided into two periods (wet season and dry season) and two regions (low pollution and high pollution), respectively, using hierarchical CA method. Four parameters (temperature, pH, ammonia-nitrogen (NH 4 -N), and total nitrogen (TN)) were identified using DA to distinguish temporal groups with close to 97.86% correct assignations. Again using DA, five parameters (pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), TN, Fluoride (F), and Sulphide (S)) led to 93.75% correct assignations for distinguishing spatial groups. Five potential pollution sources including nutrients pollution, oxygen consuming organic pollution, fluorine chemical pollution, heavy metals pollution and natural pollution, were identified using PCA/FA techniques for both the low pollution region and the high pollution region. Heavy metals (Cuprum (Cu), chromium (Cr) and Zinc (Zn)), fluoride and sulfide are of particular concern in the study region because of many open-pit copper mines such as Dexing Copper Mine. Results obtained from this study offer a reasonable classification scheme for low-cost monitoring networks. The results also inform understanding of spatio-temporal variation in water quality as these topics relate to water resources management.
Background Method Method Controls Controls Thioridazine and Sudden Unexplained Death Thioridazine and Sudden Unexplained Death in Psychiatric In-patients in Psychiatric In-patients Data Collected Data Collected

Background Sudden death has been Sudden death has been linked to antipsychotic therapy, butthe linked to antipsychotic therapy, butthe relative risk associated with specific drugs relative risk associated with specific drugs is unknown. is unknown. Aims Aims To assess the risk of sudden To assess the risk of sudden unexplained death associated with unexplained death associated with antipsychotic drug therapy and its relation antipsychotic drug therapy and its relation to drug dose and individual agents. to drug dose and individual agents. Method Method A A case^control study of case ^ control study of psychiatric in-patients dying suddenly in psychiatric in-patients dying suddenly in five hospitals in the northeast of England five hospitals in the northeast of England and surviving controls matched for age, and surviving controls matched for age, gender and mental disorder.Logistic gender and mental disorder.Logistic regression analysis was used to identify regression analysis was used to identify significant risk factors, and odds ratios significant risk factors, and odds ratios were calculated. were calculated. Results Results Sixty-nine case ^ control Sixty-nine case ^ control clusters were identified.Probable sudden clusters were identified.Probable sudden unexplained death was significantly unexplained death was significantly associated with hypertension, ischaemic associated with hypertension, ischaemic heart disease and currenttreatment with heart disease and currenttreatment with thioridazine (adjusted odds ratio thioridazine (adjusted odds ratio5.3, 5.3, 95% CI1.7^16.2, 95% CI1.7^16.2, P P0.004). There was no 0.004). There was no significant association with otherindividual significant associationwith otherindividual antipsychotic drugs. antipsychotic drugs. Conclusions Conclusions Thioridazine alone was Thioridazine alone was associated with sudden unexplained associated with sudden unexplained death, the likely mechanism being drug-death, the likely mechanism being drug-induced arrythmia. induced arrythmia. Psychiatric patients have a high death rate Psychiatric patients have a high death rate from cardiovascular causes (Harris & from cardiovascular causes (Harris & Barraclough, 1998). One contributory Barraclough, 1998). One contributory mechanism may be drug-induced arrhyth-mechanism may be drug-induced arrhyth-mia, because some antipsychotic drugs mia, because some antipsychotic drugs delay ventricular repolarisation (Warner delay ventricular repolarisation (Warner et et al al, 1996; Reilly , 1996; Reilly et al et al, 2000) and this may , 2000) and this may result in a form of ventricular tachycardia, result in a form of ventricular tachycardia, termed torsades de pointes, which may termed torsades de pointes, which may cause sudden death (Thomas, 1994). This cause sudden death (Thomas, 1994). This retrospective matched case±control study retrospective matched case±control study investigated the hypotheses that …
Dyadic interventions for community-dwelling people with dementia and their family caregivers: a systematic review

ABSTRACT Background: In this review, we study the effects of dyadic psychosocial interventions focused on community-dwelling people with dementia and their family caregivers, and the relationship of the effects with intervention components of programs. Methods: A search from January 2005 to January 2012 led to 613 hits, which we reviewed against our inclusion criteria. We added studies from 1992 to 2005 reviewed by Smits et al. (Smits, C. H. M., De Lange, J., Droes, R.-M., Meiland, F., Vernooij-Dassen, M. and Pot, A. M. (2007). Effects of combined intervention programs for people with dementia living at home and their caregivers: a systematic review. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22, 1181–1193). We assessed the methodological quality of 41 programs with the Cochrane criteria and two items of the Oxford Centre of Evidence-based Medicine guidelines. Results: Studies of moderate to high quality concerning 20 different dyadic psychosocial programs for people with dementia and caregivers were included. Nineteen of these programs show significant effects on the patient with dementia, the caregiver, or both. Due to differences in the programs and the studies, this study does not provide an unequivocal answer about which programs are most effective. Programs with intervention components that actively train one or more specific functional domains for the person with dementia and/or the caregiver seem to have a beneficial impact on that domain, although there are exceptions. Reasons can be found in the program itself, the implementation of the program, and the study design. Conclusions: Dyadic psychosocial programs are effective, but the outcomes for the person with dementia and the caregiver vary. More attention is needed for matching the targeted functional domains, intervention components, and delivery characteristics of a program with the needs of the person with dementia and the family caregiver.
City Research Online a Prosodically-controlled Word and Nonword Repetition Task for 2-4 Year Olds: Evidence from Typically Developing Children Nonword Repetition and Language Measures Nonword Repetition as a Potential Clinical Marker

A prosodically controlled word and nonword repetition task for 2-to 4-year-olds: Evidence from typically developing children. A prosodically controlled word and nonword repetition task for 2-to 4-year-olds: Evidence from typically developing children. Online is checked for eligibility for copyright before being made available in the live archive. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to from other web pages. Enquiries If you have any enquiries about any aspect of City Research Online, or if you wish to make contact with the author(s) of this paper, please email the team at publications@city.ac. uk. A prosodically controlled word and nonword repetition task for 2-to 4-year-olds: Evidence from typically developing children. Abstract An association has been found between nonword repetition and language skills in school-aged children with both typical and atypical language development (Dollaghan & 2002). This raises the possibility that younger children's repetition performance may be predictive of later language deficits. In order to investigate this possibility, it is important to establish that elicited repetition with very young children is both feasible and informative. To this end, a repetition task was designed and carried out with 66 children aged 2-4. The task consisted of 18 words and 18 matched nonwords that were systematically manipulated for length and prosodic structure. In addition, an assessment of receptive vocabulary was administered. The repetition task elicited high levels of response. Total scores as well as word and nonword scores were sensitive to age. Lexical status and item length affected performance regardless of age: words were repeated more accurately than nonwords, and one-syllable items were repeated more accurately than two-syllable items, which were in turn repeated more accurately than three-syllable items. The effect of prosodic structure was also significant. Whole syllable errors were almost exclusive to unstressed syllables, with those preceding stress being most vulnerable. Performance on the repetition task was significantly correlated with performance on the receptive vocabulary test. Since this repetition task was effective in eliciting responses from most of the 2 to 4-year-old participants, tapped developmental change in their repetition skills, and revealed patterns in their performance, it has the potential to identify deficits in very early repetition skills that may be indicative of wider language difficulties. Word and nonword repetition 3 A prosodically-controlled word and nonword repetition task for 2-4 year olds: Evidence from typically developing children The repetition of nonwords has gained remarkable status as a measure of children's …
High PRDM16 expression identifies a prognostic subgroup of pediatric acute myeloid leukaemia correlated to FLT3‐ITD, KMT2A‐PTD, and NUP98‐NSD1: the results of the Japanese Paediatric Leukaemia/Lymphoma Study Group AML‐05 trial

Recent reports described the NUP98‐NSD1 fusion as an adverse prognostic marker for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and PRDM16 (also known as MEL1) as the representative overexpressed gene in patients harbouring NUP98‐NSD1 fusion. PRDM16 gene expression levels were measured via real‐time polymerase chain reaction in 369 paediatric patients with de novo AML, of whom 84 (23%) exhibited PRDM16 overexpression (PRDM16/ABL1 ratio ≥0·010). The frequencies of patients with high or low PRDM16 expression differed widely with respect to each genetic alteration, as follows: t(8;21), 4% vs. 96%, P < 0·001; inv(16), 0% vs. 100%, P < 0·001; KMT2A (also termed MLL)‐ partial tandem duplication, 100% vs. 0%, P < 0·001; NUP98‐NSD1, 100% vs. 0%, P < 0·001. The overall survival (OS) and event‐free survival (EFS) among PRDM16‐overexpressing patients were significantly worse than in patients with low PRDM16 expression (3‐year OS: 51% vs. 81%, P < 0·001, 3‐year EFS: 32% vs. 64%, P < 0·001) irrespective of other cytogenetic alterations except for NPM1. PRDM16 gene expression was particularly useful for stratifying FLT3‐internal tandem duplication‐positive AML patients (3‐year OS: high = 30% vs. low = 70%, P < 0·001). PRDM16 overexpression was highly recurrent in de novo paediatric AML patients with high/intermediate‐risk cytogenetic profiles and was independently associated with an adverse outcome.
Facial deblur inference to improve recognition of blurred faces

This paper proposes a novel method for deblurring facial images to recognize faces degraded by blur. The main problem is how to infer a point spread function (PSF) representing the process of blur. Inferring a PSF from a single facial image is an ill-posed problem. To make this problem more tractable, our method uses learned prior information derived from a training set of blurred facial images of several individuals. We construct a feature space such that blurred faces degraded by the same PSF are similar to one another and form a cluster. During training, we compute a statistical model of each PSF cluster in this feature space. For PSF inference we compare a query image of unknown blur with each model and select the closest one. Using the PSF corresponding to that model, the query image is deblurred, ready for recognition. Experiments on a standard face database artificially degraded by focus or motion blur show that our method substantially improves the recognition performance compared with state-of-the-art methods. We also demonstrate improved performance on real blurred images.
Non data-aided SNR estimation of OFDM signals

This letter deals with the problem of non data aided (NDA) signal to noise ratio (SNR) estimation of OFDM signals transmitted through unknown multipath fading channel. Most of existing OFDM SNR estimators are based on the knowledge of pilot sequences which is not applicable in some contexts such as cognitive radio for instance. We show that it is possible to take advantage of the periodic redundancy induced by the cyclic prefix to get an accurate NDA SNR estimator. Numerical simulations highlight the benefit of the proposed method compared with the state of the art.