Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of RhoA pathway rescues the endocytosis defects in Oligophrenin1 mouse model of mental retardation

The patho-physiological hypothesis of mental retardation caused by the deficiency of the RhoGAP Oligophrenin1 (OPHN1), relies on the well-known functions of Rho GTPases on neuronal morphology, i.e. dendritic spine structure. Here, we describe a new function of this Bin/Amphiphysin/Rvs domain containing protein in the control of clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME). Through interactions with Src homology 3 domain containing proteins involved in CME, OPHN1 is concentrated to endocytic sites where it down-regulates the RhoA/ROCK signaling pathway and represses the inhibitory function of ROCK on endocytosis. Indeed disruption of Ophn1 in mice reduces the endocytosis of synaptic vesicles and the post-synaptic α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoazol-4-propionate (AMPA) receptor internalization, resulting in almost a complete loss of long-term depression in the hippocampus. Finally, pharmacological inhibition of this pathway by ROCK inhibitors fully rescued not only the CME deficit in OPHN1 null cells but also synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus from Ophn1 null model. Altogether, we uncovered a new patho-physiological mechanism for intellectual disabilities associated to mutations in RhoGTPases linked genes and also opened new directions for therapeutic approaches of congenital mental retardation.
A hypervelocity star from the Large Magellanic Cloud

We study the acceleration of the star HE0437-5439, to hypervelocity and discuss its possible origin in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The star has a radial velocity of 723 km/s and is located at a distance of 61 kpc from the Sun. With a mass of about 8 Msun, the travel time from the Galactic centre is of about 100 Myr, much longer than its main sequence lifetime. Given the relatively small distance to the LMC (18 kpc), we consider it likely that HE0437-5439 originated in the cloud rather than in the Galactic centre, like the other hypervelocity stars. The minimum ejection velocity required to travel from the LMC to its current location within its lifetime is of about 500 km/s. Such a high velocity can only be obtained in a dynamical encounter with a massive black hole. We perform 3-body scattering simulations in which a stellar binary encounters a massive black hole and find that a black hole more massive than 1000 Msun is necessary to explain the high velocity of HE0437-5439. We look for possible parent clusters for HE0437-5439 and find that NGC 2100 and NGC 2004 are young enough to host stars coeval to HE0437-5439 and dense enough to produce an intermediate mass black hole able to eject an 8 Msun star with hypervelocity.
Inadequate Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Women with Physical Disabilities

&NA; Health promotion and screening tests are important in persons with disability to avert secondary conditions that can lead to suboptimal functioning or premature death. Conversely, the existence of a primary disability can increase a person's susceptibility to secondary conditions. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of death in the United States, and its prevalence has been underinvestigated in persons with disability. This descriptive study used survey research to compare the risk of CVD in samples of 100 physically disabled women with 50 nondisabled women in the community. Participants, recruited from health fairs, completed questionnaires that explored the participants' knowledge of CVD risk factors, possession of specific CVD risk factors, and experience with CVD preventive screening procedures. Data revealed that compared with women without disability, women with disability were less knowledgeable about CVD risk factors and experienced marked deficiencies in CVD preventive screening. Body weight measurement, baseline electrocardiograms, family history, and smoking queries were performed less often in women with disabilities than in women without disabilities of similar age. Physical inactivity and postmenopausal status were specific CVD risk factors found to be more prevalent in the sample of women with disability. These findings suggest that risk of CVD is underrecognized and underassessed in women with a physical disability.
Exposure to Advertisement Calls of Reproductive Competitors Activates Vocal-Acoustic and Catecholaminergic Neurons in the Plainfin Midshipman Fish, Porichthys notatus

While the neural circuitry and physiology of the auditory system is well studied among vertebrates, far less is known about how the auditory system interacts with other neural substrates to mediate behavioral responses to social acoustic signals. One species that has been the subject of intensive neuroethological investigation with regard to the production and perception of social acoustic signals is the plainfin midshipman fish, Porichthys notatus, in part because acoustic communication is essential to their reproductive behavior. Nesting male midshipman vocally court females by producing a long duration advertisement call. Females localize males by their advertisement call, spawn and deposit all their eggs in their mate’s nest. As multiple courting males establish nests in close proximity to one another, the perception of another male’s call may modulate individual calling behavior in competition for females. We tested the hypothesis that nesting males exposed to advertisement calls of other males would show elevated neural activity in auditory and vocal-acoustic brain centers as well as differential activation of catecholaminergic neurons compared to males exposed only to ambient noise. Experimental brains were then double labeled by immunofluorescence (-ir) for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), an enzyme necessary for catecholamine synthesis, and cFos, an immediate-early gene product used as a marker for neural activation. Males exposed to other advertisement calls showed a significantly greater percentage of TH-ir cells colocalized with cFos-ir in the noradrenergic locus coeruleus and the dopaminergic periventricular posterior tuberculum, as well as increased numbers of cFos-ir neurons in several levels of the auditory and vocal-acoustic pathway. Increased activation of catecholaminergic neurons may serve to coordinate appropriate behavioral responses to male competitors. Additionally, these results implicate a role for specific catecholaminergic neuronal groups in auditory-driven social behavior in fishes, consistent with a conserved function in social acoustic behavior across vertebrates.
Knowledge, attitudes, and reported practices among obstetrician-gynecologists in the USA regarding antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) have not been well described among obstetrician-gynecologists (OB/GYNs). This information is useful for determining whether an OB/GYN-specific program promoting appropriate antibiotic use would significantly contribute to the efforts to decrease inappropriate antibiotic use among primary care providers. METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire asking about the treatment of URIs was sent to 1031 obstetrician-gynecologists. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 46%. The majority of respondents (92%) were aware of the relationship between antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance, and respondents estimated that 5% of their patients had URI symptoms at their office visits. Overall, 56% of respondents reported that they would prescribe an antibiotic for uncomplicated bronchitis and 43% for the common cold. OB/GYNs with the fewest years of experience were less likely than those with the most years of experience to report prescribing for uncomplicated bronchitis (Odds ratio (OR) 0.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23 to 0.91) or the common cold (OR 0.44, CI 0.22 to 0.89). The majority of respondents (60%) believed that most patients wanted an antibiotic for URI symptoms, with male OB/GYNs being more likely than female OB/GYNs (OR 2.1, CI 1.2 to 3.8) to hold this belief. Both male OB/GYNs (OR 1.9, CI 1.1 to 3.4) and rural practitioners (OR 2.1, CI 1.1 to 4.0) were more likely to believe that it was hard to withhold antibiotics for URI symptoms because other physicians prescribe antibiotics for these symptoms. OB/GYNs who believed that postgraduate training prepared them well for primary care management were more likely than those who did not (OR 2.1, CI 1.1 to 4.2) to believe that they could reduce antibiotic prescribing without reducing patient satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Multiple demographic factors affect attitudes and reported practices regarding antibiotic prescribing. However, in view of the low proportion of office visits for URIs, an OB/GYN-specific program is not warranted.
Effectiveness of Nursing Management Information Systems: A Systematic Review

Objectives The purpose of this study was to review evaluation studies of nursing management information systems (NMISs) and their outcome measures to examine system effectiveness. Methods For the systematic review, a literature search of the PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases was conducted to retrieve original articles published between 1970 and 2014. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms included informatics, medical informatics, nursing informatics, medical informatics application, and management information systems for information systems and evaluation studies and nursing evaluation research for evaluation research. Additionally, manag* and admin*, and nurs* were combined. Title, abstract, and full-text reviews were completed by two reviewers. And then, year, author, type of management system, study purpose, study design, data source, system users, study subjects, and outcomes were extracted from the selected articles. The quality and risk of bias of the studies that were finally selected were assessed with the Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for Non-randomized Studies (RoBANS) criteria. Results Out of the 2,257 retrieved articles, a total of six articles were selected. These included two scheduling programs, two nursing cost-related programs, and two patient care management programs. For the outcome measurements, usefulness, time saving, satisfaction, cost, attitude, usability, data quality/completeness/accuracy, and personnel work patterns were included. User satisfaction, time saving, and usefulness mostly showed positive findings. Conclusions The study results suggest that NMISs were effective in time saving and useful in nursing care. Because there was a lack of quality in the reviewed studies, well-designed research, such as randomized controlled trials, should be conducted to more objectively evaluate the effectiveness of NMISs.
The Dynamics of Weakly Reversible Population Processes near Facets

This paper concerns the dynamical behavior of weakly reversible, deterministically modeled population processes near the facets (codimension-one faces) of their invariant manifolds and proves that the facets of such systems are “repelling. ” It has been conjectured that any population process whose network graph is weakly reversible (has strongly connected components) is persistent. We prove this conjecture to be true for the subclass of weakly reversible systems for which only facets of the invariant manifold are associated with semilocking sets, or siphons. An important application of this work pertains to chemical reaction systems that are complex-balancing. For these systems it is known that within the interior of each invariant manifold there is a unique equilibrium. The global attractor conjecture states that each of these equilibria is globally asymptotically stable relative to the interior of the invariant manifold in which it lies. Our results pertaining to weakly reversible systems imply that thi.
Effects of a topically applied 2% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol ophthalmic solution on intraocular pressure and aqueous humor flow rate in clinically normal dogs.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effects of topically applied 2% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) ophthalmic solution on aqueous humor flow rate (AHFR) and intraocular pressure (IOP) in clinically normal dogs. ANIMALS 21 clinically normal dogs. PROCEDURES A randomized longitudinal crossover design was used. Following acquisition of baseline IOP (morning and evening) and AHFR (afternoon only) data, dogs were randomly assigned to 2 treatment groups and received 1 drop of either 2% THC solution or a control treatment (olive oil vehicle) to 1 randomly selected eye every 12 hours for 9 doses. The IOPs and AHFRs were reassessed after the final treatment. Following a washout period of ≥ 7 days, dogs were administered the alternate treatment in the same eye, and measurements were repeated. RESULTS Mean ± SD IOPs in the morning were 15.86 ± 2.48 mm Hg at baseline, 12.54 ± 3.18 mm Hg after THC treatment, and 13.88 ± 3.28 mm Hg after control treatment. Mean ± SD IOPs in the evening were 13.69 ± 3.36 mm Hg at baseline, 11.69 ± 3.94 mm Hg after THC treatment, and 12.13 ± 2.99 mm Hg after control treatment. Mean IOPs were significantly decreased from baseline after administration of THC solution but not the control treatment. Changes in IOP varied substantially among individual dogs. Mean ± SD AHFRs were not significantly different from baseline for either treatment. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Topical application of 2% THC ophthalmic solution resulted in moderate reduction of mean IOP in clinically normal dogs. Further research is needed to determine efficacy in dogs with glaucoma.
Monitoring Avian Influenza Viruses from Chicken Carcasses Sold at Markets, China, 2016

During 2016 in Guangzhou, China, we detected infectious avian influenza viruses (AIVs) in 39.8% of samples from chicken carcasses slaughtered at live poultry markets but none from carcasses supplied to supermarkets by facilities bypassing live poultry markets. Promoting supply chains with high biosecurity may reduce the risk for zoonotic AIV transmission.
Loose-Coupling a Cellular Automaton Model and GIS: Long-Term Urban Growth Prediction for San Francisco and Washington/Baltimore

"Prior research developed a cellular automaton model, that was calibrated by using historical digital maps of urban areas and can be used to predict the future extent of an urban area. The model has now been applied to two rapidly growing, but remarkably different urban areas: the San Francisco Bay region in California and the Washington/Baltimore corridor in the Eastern United States. This paper presents the calibration and prediction results for both regions, reviews their data requirements, compares the differences in the initial configurations and control parameters for the model in the two settings, and discuses the role of GIS in the applications. "
Bidirectional Introgressive Hybridization between a Cattle and Human Schistosome Species

Schistosomiasis is a disease of great medical and veterinary importance in tropical and subtropical regions, caused by parasitic flatworms of the genus Schistosoma (subclass Digenea). Following major water development schemes in the 1980s, schistosomiasis has become an important parasitic disease of children living in the Senegal River Basin (SRB). During molecular parasitological surveys, nuclear and mitochondrial markers revealed unexpected natural interactions between a bovine and human Schistosoma species: S. bovis and S. haematobium, respectively. Hybrid schistosomes recovered from the urine and faeces of children and the intermediate snail hosts of both parental species, Bulinus truncatus and B. globosus, presented a nuclear ITS rRNA sequence identical to S. haematobium, while the partial mitochondrial cox1 sequence was identified as S. bovis. Molecular data suggest that the hybrids are not 1st generation and are a result of parental and/or hybrid backcrosses, indicating a stable hybrid zone. Larval stages with the reverse genetic profile were also found and are suggested to be F1 progeny. The data provide indisputable evidence for the occurrence of bidirectional introgressive hybridization between a bovine and a human Schistosoma species. Hybrid species have been found infecting B. truncatus, a snail species that is now very abundant throughout the SRB. The recent increase in urinary schistosomiasis in the villages along the SRB could therefore be a direct effect of the increased transmission through B. truncatus. Hybridization between schistosomes under laboratory conditions has been shown to result in heterosis (higher fecundity, faster maturation time, wider intermediate host spectrum), having important implications on disease prevalence, pathology and treatment. If this new hybrid exhibits the same hybrid vigour, it could develop into an emerging pathogen, necessitating further control strategies in zones where both parental species overlap.
The clinical significance of malignant peritoneal cytology in stage I endometrial carcinoma

The prevalence of malignant peritoneal cytology in patients with International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (1971) stage I endometrial carcinoma and its predictive value for recurrence of disease following hysterectomy were analyzed by numerically pooling the crude results of independent studies. Malignant cytology occurred in 8.3, 12.1 and 15.9% of patients with grade 1, 2 and 3 histology, respectively, and in 7.6% and 17.2% of patients with superficial and deep myometrial invasion, respectively. Prevalence was heterogeneous in the groups with grade 1 histology, grade 2 histology and superficial invasion, and homogeneous in the groups with grade 3 histology and deep invasion. This, together with a technical false positive rate of approximately 5% in the diagnosis of malignant cytology, suggests that the pooled values of prevalence for the low grade and superficially invasive groups may be overestimated. Malignant cytology was strongly associated with disease recurrence (pooled odds ratio of 4.7 with a 95% confidence interval of 3.5–6.3). Qualitative review of the literature suggests that this is largely due to the association of malignant cytology with other adverse prognostic factors which dominate the clinical course of the disease. In the absence of other adverse prognostic factors, the true prevalence of malignant cytology is low. This limits the clinical utility of cytology as an independent predictor of either overall recurrence or site of recurrence. Routine adjuvant treatment of patients with malignant cytology is therefore not justified.
High temperature ultrasonic transducers for imaging and measurements in a liquid Pb/Bi eutectic alloy

In some nuclear reactors or accelerator-driven systems (ADS) the core is intended to be cooled by means of a heavy liquid metal, for example, lead-bismuth (Pb/Bi) eutectic alloy. For safety and licensing reasons, an imaging method of the interior of ADS, based on application of ultrasonic waves, has thus to be developed. This paper is devoted to the description of developed various ultrasonic transducers suitable for long term imaging and measurements in the liquid Pb/Bi alloy. The results of comparative experimental investigations of the developed transducers of different designs in a liquid Pb/Bi alloy up to 450/spl deg/C are presented. Prototypes with different high temperature piezoelectric materials were investigated: PZT, bismuth titanate (Bi/sub 4/Ti/sub 3/O/sub 12/), lithium niobate (LiNbO/sub 3/), gallium orthophosphate (GaPO/sub 4/) and aluminum nitride (AlN). For acoustic coupling with the metal alloy, it was proposed to coat the active surface of the transducers by diamond-like carbon (DLC). The radiation robustness was assessed by exposing the transducers to high gamma dose rates in one of the irradiation facilities at SCK/spl middot/CEN. The experimental results proved that the developed transducers are suitable for long-term operation in harsh conditions.
New developments in the management of hepatitis C virus infection: focus on boceprevir

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is an important public health problem, and the standard treatment (combination of pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin) has an effectiveness rate of only 40%–50%. Novel virus-specific drugs have recently been designed, and multiple compounds are under development. The approval for the clinical use of direct-acting antivirals in 2011 (boceprevir [BOC] and telaprevir, viral NS3 protease inhibitors) has increased recovery rates by up to 70%. Therefore, a highly effective treatment has been envisioned for the first time. This paper focuses on BOC and the implementation of new BOC-based treatment regimes.
Consumption of fruits and vegetables and associations with risk factors for non-communicable diseases in the Yangon region of Myanmar: a cross-sectional study

Objectives To explore the intake of fruits and vegetables in the Yangon region, Myanmar, and to describe associations between intake of fruits and vegetables (FV) and established risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Design 2 cross-sectional studies, using the STEPs methodology. Setting Urban and rural areas of the Yangon region of Myanmar. Participants 1486, men and women, 25–74 years, were recruited through a multistage cluster sampling method. Institutionalised people, military personnel, Buddhist monks and nuns were not invited. Physically and mentally ill people were excluded. Results Mean intake of fruit was 0.8 (SE 0.1) and 0.6 (0.0) servings/day and of vegetables 2.2 (0.1) and 1.2 (0.1) servings/day, in urban and rural areas, respectively. Adjusted for included confounders (age, sex, location, income, education, smoking and low physical activity), men and women eating ≥2 servings of fruits and vegetables/day had lower odds than others of hypertriglyceridaemia (OR 0.72 (95% CI 0.56 to 0.94)). On average, women eating at least 2 servings of fruits and vegetables per day had cholesterol levels 0.28 mmol/L lower than the levels of other women. When only adjusted for sex and age, men eating at least 2 servings of fruits and vegetables per day had cholesterol levels 0.27 mmol/L higher than other men. Conclusions A high intake of FV was associated with lower odds of hypertriglyceridaemia among men and women. It was also associated with cholesterol levels, negatively among women and positively among men.
Comparison of methods for the simplification of mesh models using quality indices and an observer study

The complexity of a polygonal mesh model is usually reduced by applying a simplification method, resulting in a similar mesh having less vertices and faces. Although several such methods have been developed, only a few observer studies are reported comparing them regarding the perceived quality of the obtained simplified meshes, and it is not yet clear how the choice of a given method, and the level of simplification achieved, influence the quality of the resulting model, as perceived by the final users. Mesh quality indices are the obvious less costly alternative to user studies, but it is also not clear how they relate to perceived quality, and which indices best describe the users behavior. Following on earlier work carried out by the authors, but only for mesh models of the lungs, a comparison among the results of three simplification methods was performed through (1) quality indices and (2) a controlled experiment involving 65 observers, for a set of five reference mesh models of different kinds. These were simplified using two methods provided by the OpenMesh library - one using error quadrics, the other additionally using a normal flipping criterion - and also by the widely used QSlim method, for two simplification levels: 50% and 20% of the original number of faces. The main goal was to ascertain whether the findings previously obtained for lung models, through quality indices and a study with 32 observers, could be generalized to other types of models and confirmed for a larger number of observers. Data obtained using the quality indices and the results of the controlled experiment were compared and do confirm that some quality indices (e.g., geometric distance and normal deviation, as well as a new proposed weighted index) can be used, in specific circumstances, as reasonable estimators of the user perceived quality of mesh models.