Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chronic communicating hydrocephalus and periventricular white matter disease: a debate with regard to cause and effect.

For an increasing number of pathologic conditions, the in vivo information obtained by radiologic brain imaging is often more accurate than that obtained from postmortem examination of the brain. This is true for the intriguing and complex condition of "normal pressure" hydrocephalus (NPH). Patients with NPH often are helped dramatically by shunting, which can mean the difference between being in a wheelchair (or bedridden) and being ambulatory, with additional improvement, though usually less dramatic, in cognitive function and memory. Though clinicians are turning increasingly to the neuroradiologist to determine whether hydrocephalus is present, a set of definitive and consistent in vivo diagnostic markers remains elusive. It is for these reasons that innovative work in this field is of great interest to radiologists as well as to clinicians. However, to convince the clinical community of the usefulness of our findings , we must apply the same stringent criteria used in other scientific disciplines. In this issue of the AJNR, Bradley et al. [1] attempt to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between white matter lesions and hydrocephalus. I would like to discuss three issues related to their article: the pathology of periventricufar I white matter lesions, the relationship of white matter disease to hydrocephalus, and the diagnosis of NPH.
Transient Neonatal Zinc Deficiency Caused by a Heterozygous G87R Mutation in the Zinc Transporter ZnT-2 (SLC30A2) Gene in the Mother Highlighting the Importance of Zn2+ for Normal Growth and Development

Suboptimal dietary zinc (Zn2+) intake is increasingly appreciated as an important public health issue. Zn2+ is an essential mineral, and infants are particularly vulnerable to Zn2+ deficiency, as they require large amounts of Zn2+ for their normal growth and development. Although term infants are born with an important hepatic Zn2+ storage, adequate Zn2+ nutrition of infants mostly depends on breast milk or formula feeding, which contains an adequate amount of Zn2+ to meet the infants' requirements. An exclusively breast-fed 6 months old infant suffering from Zn2+ deficiency caused by an autosomal dominant negative G87R mutation in the Slc30a2 gene (encoding for the zinc transporter 2 (ZnT-2)) in the mother is reported. More than 20 zinc transporters characterized up to date, classified into two families (Slc30a/ZnT and Slc39a/Zip), reflect the complexity and importance of maintaining cellular Zn2+ homeostasis and dynamics. The role of ZnTs is to reduce intracellular Zn2+ by transporting it from the cytoplasm into various intracellular organelles and by moving Zn2+ into extracellular space. Zips increase intracellular Zn2+ by transporting it in the opposite direction. Thus the coordinated action of both is essential for the maintenance of Zn2+ homeostasis in the cytoplasm, and accumulating evidence suggests that this is also true for the secretory pathway of growth hormone.
Combining functional scales and cognitive tests in screening for mild cognitive impairment at a university-based memory clinic in Brazil.

OBJECTIVE To determine the diagnostic accuracy of the Mini-Mental State Examination combined to the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly for the identification of mild cognitive impairment. METHOD 191 elderly subjects were assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination, and their informants were assessed with the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly. Subjects were divided into three groups according to their cognitive state (controls: n = 67, mild cognitive impairment: n = 65 and dementia: n = 59), which was ascertained by clinical and neuropsychological evaluation. The diagnostic accuracy of each test in the discrimination of diagnostic groups (mild cognitive impairment vs. controls, mild cognitive impairment vs. dementia and dementia vs. controls) was examined with the aid of ROC curves. We additionally verified if the combination of both tests would increase diagnostic accuracy for mild cognitive impairment and control identification. RESULTS The combination of the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly scores did not increase the Mini-Mental State Examination diagnostic accuracy in the identification of patients with mild cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS The present data do not warrant the combination of the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly as a sufficient diagnostic tool in the diagnostic screening for mild cognitive impairment.
Role of Hepatic and Intestinal P450 Enzymes in the Metabolic Activation of the Colon Carcinogen Azoxymethane in Mice

P450-mediated bioactivation of azoxymethane (AOM), a colon carcinogen, leads to the formation of DNA adducts, of which O6-methylguanine (O6-mG) is the most mutagenic and contributes to colon tumorigenesis. To determine whether P450 enzymes of the liver and intestine both contribute to AOM bioactivation in vivo, we compared tissue levels of AOM-induced DNA adducts, microsomal AOM metabolic activities, and incidences of colonic aberrant crypt foci (ACF) among wild-type (WT), liver-specific P450 reductase (Cpr)-null (LCN), and intestinal epithelium-specific Cpr-null (IECN) mice. At 6 h following AOM treatment (at 14 mg/kg, s.c.), O6-mG and N7-mG levels were highest in the liver, followed by the colon, and then small intestine in WT mice. As expected, hepatic adduct levels were significantly lower (by >60%) in LCN mice but unchanged in IECN mice, whereas small-intestinal adduct levels were unchanged or increased in LCN mice but lower (by >50%) in IECN mice compared to that in WT mice. However, colonic adduct levels were unchanged in IECN mice compared to that in WT mice and increased in LCN mice (by 1.5–2.9-fold). The tissue-specific impact of the CPR loss in IECN and LCN mice on microsomal AOM metabolic activity was confirmed by rates of formation of formaldehyde and N7-mG in vitro. Furthermore, the incidence of ACF, a lesion preceding colon cancer, was similar in the three mouse strains. Thus, AOM-induced colonic DNA damage and ACF formation is not solely dependent on either hepatic or intestinal microsomal P450 enzymes. P450 enzymes in both the liver and intestine likely contribute to AOM-induced colon carcinogenesis.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics Working Paper Series Conditional Quantile Processes Based on Series or Many Regressors Conditional Quantile Processes Based on Series or Many Regressors

Quantile regression (QR) is a principal regression method for analyzing the impact of covariates on outcomes. The impact is described by the conditional quantile function and its functionals. In this paper we develop the nonparametric QR series framework , covering many regressors as a special case, for performing inference on the entire conditional quantile function and its linear functionals. In this framework, we approximate the entire conditional quantile function by a linear combination of series terms with quantile-specific coefficients and estimate the function-valued coefficients from the data. We develop large sample theory for the empirical QR coefficient process, namely we obtain uniform strong approximations to the empirical QR coefficient process by conditionally pivotal and Gaussian processes, as well as by gradient and weighted bootstrap processes. We apply these results to obtain estimation and inference methods for linear function-als of the conditional quantile function, such as the conditional quantile function itself, its partial derivatives, average partial derivatives, and conditional average partial derivatives. Specifically, we obtain uniform rates of convergence, large sample distributions, and inference methods based on strong pivotal and Gaussian approximations and on gradient and weighted bootstraps. All of the above results are for function-valued parameters, holding uniformly in both the quantile index and in the covariate value, and covering the pointwise case as a by-product. If the function of interest is monotone, we show how to use mono-tonization procedures to improve estimation and inference. We demonstrate the practical utility of these results with an empirical example, where we estimate the price elasticity function of the individual demand for gasoline, as indexed by the individual unobserved propensity for gasoline consumption. The main results of this paper, particularly the pivotal method for inference based on the entire quantile regression process, were first presented at and seminar participants at the Econometric Society meeting, CEMMAP master-class, Stats in the Chateau, BU, Duke, and MIT for many useful suggestions. We gratefully acknowledge research support from the NSF.
Design of a low-light-level image sensor with on-chip sigma-delta analog-to-digital conversion

The design and projected performance of a low-light-level active-pixel-sensor (APS) chip with semi-parallel analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion is presented. The individual elements have been fabricated and tested using MOSIS* 2 micrometers CMOS technology, although the integrated system has not yet been fabricated. The imager consists of a 128 X 128 array of active pixels at a 50 micrometers pitch. Each column of pixels shares a 10-bit A/D converter based on first-order oversampled sigma-delta ((Sigma) -(Delta) ) modulation. The 10-bit outputs of each converter are multiplexed and read out through a single set of outputs. A semi- parallel architecture is chosen to achieve 30 frames/second operation even at low light levels. The sensor is designed for less than 12 e- rms noise performance.
Shared Genetic Signals of Hypoxia Adaptation in Drosophila and in High-Altitude Human Populations

The ability to withstand low oxygen (hypoxia tolerance) is a polygenic and mechanistically conserved trait that has important implications for both human health and evolution. However, little is known about the diversity of genetic mechanisms involved in hypoxia adaptation in evolving populations. We used experimental evolution and whole-genome sequencing in Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the role of natural variation in adaptation to hypoxia. Using a generalized linear mixed model we identified significant allele frequency differences between three independently evolved hypoxia-tolerant populations and normoxic control populations for approximately 3,800 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Around 50% of these variants are clustered in 66 distinct genomic regions. These regions contain genes that are differentially expressed between hypoxia-tolerant and normoxic populations and several of the differentially expressed genes are associated with metabolic processes. Additional genes associated with respiratory and open tracheal system development also show evidence of directional selection. RNAi-mediated knockdown of several candidate genes’ expression significantly enhanced survival in severe hypoxia. Using genomewide single nucleotide polymorphism data from four high-altitude human populations—Sherpas, Tibetans, Ethiopians, and Andeans, we found that several human orthologs of the genes under selection in flies are also likely under positive selection in all four high-altitude human populations. Thus, our results indicate that selection for hypoxia tolerance can act on standing genetic variation in similar genes and pathways present in organisms diverged by hundreds of millions of years.
Estimating the Total Nitrogen Concentration of Reed Canopy with Hyperspectral Measurements Considering a Non-Uniform Vertical Nitrogen Distribution

The total nitrogen concentration (NC, g/100 g) of wetland plants is an important parameter to estimate the wetland health status and to calculate the nitrogen storage of wetland plants. Remote sensing has been widely used to estimate biophysical, physiological, and biochemical parameters of plants. However, current studies place little emphasis on NC estimations by only taking nitrogen’s vertical distribution into consideration, resulting in limited accuracy and decreased practical value of the results. The main goal of this study is to develop a model, considering a non-uniform vertical nitrogen distribution to estimate the total NC of the reed canopy, which is one of the wetland’s dominant species, using hyperspectral data. Sixty quadrats were selected and measured based on an experimental design that considered vertical layer divisions within the reed canopy. Using the measured NCs of different leaf layers and corresponding spectra from the quadrats, the results indicated that the vertical distribution law of the NC was distinct, presenting an initial increase and subsequent decrease from the top layer to the bottom layer. The spectral indices MCARI/MTVI2, TCARI/OSAVI, MMTCI, DCNI, and PPR/NDVI had high R2 values when related to NC (R2 > 0.5) and low R2 when related to LAI (R2 < 0.2) and could minimize the influence of LAI and increase the sensitivity to changes in NC of the reed canopy. The relative variation rates (Rv, %) of these spectral indices, calculated from each quadrat, also indicated that the top three layers of the reed canopy were an effective depth to estimate NCs using hyperspectral data. A model was developed to estimate the total NC of the whole reed canopy based on PPR/DNVI with R2 = 0.88 and RMSE = 0.37%. The model, which considered the vertical distribution patterns of the NC and the effective canopy layers, has demonstrated great potential to estimate the total NC of the whole reed canopy.
Analysis of the stability and performance of exponential backoff

New analytic results are given for the stability and performance of the exponential backoff (EB) algorithm. Previous studies on the stability of the (binary) EB have produced contradictory results instead of a consensus: some proved instability, others showed stability under certain conditions. In these studies, simplified and/or modified models of the backoff algorithm were often used to make analysis more tractable. In this paper, care is taken to use a model for backoff that reflects the actual behavior of backoff algorithms. We show that EB is stable under a throughput definition of stability; the throughput of the network converges to a non-zero constant as the offered load N goes to infinity. We also obtain the analytical expressions for the saturation throughput and the medium access delay of a packet for a given number of nodes, N. The analysis considers the general case of EB with backoff factor r, where BEB is the special case with r = 2. The accuracy of the analysis is checked against simulation results.
Moderating Role of Brand Familiarity in Cross-Media Effects: An Information Processing Perspective

Abstract Cross-media advertising campaigns have become commonplace in today's multimedia environment. Drawing from the multiple source effect theorization, this study explores the underlying mechanism of media synergistic effect from an information processing perspective. Brand familiarity is proposed as a moderator of cross-media effects: people with different levels of prior brand-related knowledge tend to process advertisements in diverse cognitive routes. An experiment found that for an unfamiliar brand, media synergy outperformed repeated exposures via a solo medium in terms of raising message credibility and generating more positive thoughts, while similar effects were not seen on a familiar brand.
A Rare Case of Concomitant Maxilla and Mandible Brown Tumours, Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma, Parathyroid Adenoma, and Osteitis Fibrosa Cystica

Objective. The brown tumour of hyperparathyroidism is a result of a metabolic disorder caused by primary hyperparathyroidism. Report. We described a case of a 37-year-old female patient presenting bimaxillary intraoral lesions and swelling in the neck. Incisional biopsy of the oral lesion was performed and histopathological examination revealed a central giant cell lesion composed by intense haemorrhagic exudate, abundant presence of giant cells, and areas with hemosiderin pigment. The patient also presented high levels of serum calcium and parathyroid hormone, hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue, bilateral parenchymal nephropathy, and densitometry lower than expected, showing an advanced stage of osteitis fibrosa cystica. Synchronous parathyroid adenoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma were confirmed by imaging exams and histopathologically. Conclusion. The composition of all the clinical, pathological, and imaging findings led to the final diagnosis of brown tumour of hyperparathyroidism. The occurrence of parathyroid adenoma, papillary thyroid carcinoma, and brown tumours of hyperparathyroidism in their late stage (osteitis fibrosa cystica) associated with oral brown tumours involving the mandible and maxilla is extremely rare.
Signaling and Adhesion Activities of Mammalian β-Catenin and Plakoglobin in Drosophila

The armadillo protein of Drosophila and its vertebrate homologues, β-catenin and plakoglobin, are implicated in cell adhesion and wnt signaling. Here, we examine the conservation of these two functions by assaying the activities of mammalian β-catenin and plakoglobin in Drosophila. We show that, in the female germ line, both mammalian β-catenin and plakoglobin complement an armadillo mutation. We also show that shotgun mutant germ cells (which lack Drosophila E-cadherin) have a phenotype identical to that of armadillo mutant germ cells. It therefore appears that armadillo's role in the germ line is solely in a complex with Drosophila E-cadherin (possibly an adhesion complex), and both β-catenin and plakoglobin can function in Drosophila cadherin complexes. In embryonic signaling assays, we find that plakoglobin has no detectable activity whereas β-catenin's activity is weak. Surprisingly, when overexpressed, either in embryos or in wing imaginal disks, both β-catenin and plakoglobin have dominant negative activity on signaling, an effect also obtained with COOH-terminally truncated armadillo. We suggest that the signaling complex, which has been shown by others to comprise armadillo and a member of the lymphocyte enhancer binding factor-1/T cell factor–family, may contain an additional factor that normally binds to the COOH-terminal region of armadillo.
Supergravity Description of Non-BPS Branes

We construct supergravity solutions that correspond to N D p -branes coinciding with N D p -branes. We study the physical properties of the solutions and analyse the supergravity description of tachyon condensation. We construct an interpolation between the brane-antibrane solution and the Schwarzschild solution and discuss its possible application to the study of non-supersymmetric black holes.
Asymptotic analysis of the Navier-Stokes equations in a curved domain with a non-characteristic boundary

We consider the Navier-Stokes equations of an incompressible fluid in a three dimensional curved domain with permeable walls in the limit of small viscosity. Using a curvilinear coordinate system, adapted to the boundary, we construct a corrector function at order $e^j$, $j=0,1$, where $e$ is the (small) viscosity parameter. This allows us to obtain an asymptotic expansion of the Navier-Stokes solution at order $e^j$, $j=0,1$, for $e$ small . Using the asymptotic expansion, we prove that the Navier-Stokes solutions converge, as the viscosity parameter tends to zero, to the corresponding Euler solution in the natural energy norm. This work generalizes earlier results in [14] or [26], which discussed the case of a channel domain, while here the domain is curved.
Effect of Butachlor on Antioxidant Enzyme Status and Lipid Peroxidation in Fresh Water African Catfish, (Clarias gariepinus)

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of butachlor, a widely used herbicide, on antioxidant enzyme system and lipid peroxidation formation in African cat fish (Clarias gariepinus). Fish were exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of butachlor 1, 2, 2.5 ppm and sacrificed 24hrs after treatment. A significant increase in malondialdehyde formation was observed in the liver, kidney, gills and heart of the fish following exposure to different concentrations of butachlor. Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities increased in the liver and kidney but decreased in the gills and heart in a concentration-dependent pattern. Glutathione level and glutathione-S-transferase activities increased (P<0.05) in the liver but decreased in the kidneys, gills and heart when fishes were exposed to the three concentrations of butachlor. The results suggest that butachlor induced oxidative stress in the various tissues of the fish particularly in the kidney and as such the organ may be subjected to severe oxidative toxicity due to depressed glutathione detoxification system.
Social relevance enhances memory for impressions in older adults

Previous research has demonstrated that older adults have difficulty retrieving contextual material over items alone. Recent research suggests this deficit can be reduced by adding emotional context, allowing for the possibility that memory for social impressions may show less age-related decline than memory for other types of contextual information. Two studies investigated how orienting to social or self-relevant aspects of information contributed to the learning and retrieval of impressions in young and older adults. Participants encoded impressions of others in conditions varying in the use of self-reference (Experiment 1) and interpersonal meaningfulness (Experiment 2), and completed memory tasks requiring the retrieval of specific traits. For both experiments, age groups remembered similar numbers of impressions. In Experiment 1 using more self-relevant encoding contexts increased memory for impressions over orienting to stimuli in a non-social way, regardless of age. In Experiment 2 older adults had enhanced memory for impressions presented in an interpersonally meaningful relative to a personally irrelevant way, whereas young adults were unaffected by this manipulation. The results provide evidence that increasing social relevance ameliorates age differences in memory for impressions, and enhances older adults’ ability to successfully retrieve contextual information.
Competing for Consumer Identity: Limits to Self-Expression and the Perils of Lifestyle Branding

The idea that consumers use brands to express their identities has led many companies to reposition their products from focusing on functional attributes to focusing on how they fit into a consumer's lifestyle. This repositioning is welcomed by managers who believe that by positioning their brands as means for self-expression, they are less likely to go head-to-head with their direct competitors. However, the authors argue that by doing so, these companies expose themselves to much broader, cross-category competition for a share of a consumer's identity. Thus, they propose that consumers’ need for self-expression through brands is finite and can be satiated when consumers are exposed to self-expressive brands. Moreover, they argue that consumers’ need for self-expression can be satiated not only by a brand's direct competitors but also by brands from unrelated product categories, nonbrand means of self-expression, and self-expressive behavioral acts. The authors examine these propositions in a series of five empirical studies that provide converging evidence in support of the notion that the need for self-expression can be satiated, thus weakening preferences for lifestyle brands.