Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuroendocrine responses to a novel growth hormone secretagogue, L-692,429, in healthy older subjects.

L-692,429 (L), a novel nonpeptide mimic of GH-releasing peptide (GHRP), is a potent GH secretagogue in animals and young men. To assess the safety and efficacy of L in stimulating GH release in healthy older men and women, 16 subjects were admitted to a randomized, double blind, cross-over comparison of i.v. administered placebo, GH-releasing hormone [GHRH-(1-29)-NH2; 1 microgram/kg] and two doses of L (0.2 and 0.75 mg/kg). Blood samples were obtained at 5-min intervals for 60 min before and 240 min after each dose for measurement of GH; cortisol, PRL, and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) were measured less frequently. Peak and integrated GH concentrations increased significantly after L in a dose-dependent manner. Responses to L at either dose were significantly greater than the response to GHRH: peak GH responses in older men and women were (mean +/- SE; micrograms per L): after placebo, 1.2 +/- 0.2; L (0.2 mg/kg), 16.5 +/- 1.8; L (0.75 mg/kg), 32.2 +/- 3.9; and GHRH, 7.6 +/- 1.3 (P < 0.05, L vs. placebo or GHRH). Serum cortisol and PRL concentrations increased after both doses of L, but to values within the respective normal ranges. Serum IGF-I values did not change consistently in any group. The GH responses to GHRH and L (0.75 mg/kg) were highly correlated (r2 = 0.61; P < 0.0004). Deconvolution analysis demonstrated that the increase in serum GH concentrations stimulated by L and GHRH resulted from enhanced GH secretion rates, with no change in the half-life of GH disappearance. Amplitudes of GH secretory pulses were increased 11-, 18-, and 4-fold after L (0.2 mg/kg), L (0.75 mg/kg), and GHRH treatments, respectively. The number of GH secretory pulses was significantly increased by L (0.75 mg/kg; 4.6 +/- 0.4) and GHRH (4.4 +/- 0.3) compared to placebo (2.6 +/- 0.5), but the interval between pulses was shorter after L (0.75 mg/kg; 28.6 +/- 3.6 min) than after GHRH (50.7 +/- 7.7 min; P < 0.05). Adverse experiences were limited to brief episodes of flushing or a warm sensation about the upper body. L-692,429 is a potent GH secretagogue that is well tolerated in healthy older men and women. At the doses employed in this study, L elicited greater increases in GH secretion rates and serum GH concentrations than GHRH. L-692,429 may have therapeutic advantages over peptide GH secretagogues to restore endogenous GH secretion in GH deficiency states or the hyposomatotropism of aging.
Left ventricular remodeling subsequent to reperfused myocardial infarction: evaluation of a rat model using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

PURPOSE This study characterized the time course of ventricular remodeling subsequent to reperfused myocardial infarction (MI) in a rat model using cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. METHODS AND RESULTS Short axis cine MR imaging was used to measure left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular volumes in Lewis rats at baseline, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 weeks post-MI. Ventricular pressure and myocardial mass were evaluated at the 10 week time point. RESULTS Measurements of LVEF showed a significant decrease in cardiac function immediately after MI with no significant changes over the remainder of the time course. Measurements of left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) showed significant increases over thefirst 4 weeks after MI with no significant changes over the remainder of the time course. Statistical analysis of the MR measurements of LVESV yielded a repeatability standard error of 3.3%, an inter-observer standard error of 3.3%, and an intra-observer standard error of 1.6%. CONCLUSION This study indicates that cine MRI can be used to longitudinally evaluate changes in ventricular structure and function in a rat model of left ventricular remodeling. In this animal model, preliminary results indicate that the majority of remodeling is completed by 4 weeks and no significant changes in LVEF are seen after the first week. The repeatability values indicate that cardiac MR could be used for evaluating new therapies for mitigating the effects of LV remodeling after reperfused MI.
Attitudes of Suicidal Ideators and Non-Ideators toward Suicide.

This study was conducted to investigate attitudes that people hold about a hypothetical suicide victim in different situations. These situations depicted the victim in a scenario as either having cancer, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), schizophrenia, or a depressive disorder. An analysis was made to discern whether there were differences in the attitudes of suicidal ideators and non-ideators toward the suicide victims in each of the different scenarios. Subjects were 228 college students who completed a demographic questionnaire, a suicide questionnaire, one of four scenarios, and a perception rating scale. The suicide questionnaire distinguished ideators from non-ideators. Subjects perceived the victim in the schizophrenia scenario as the most mentally unhealthy. The victims in the cancer and AIDS scenarios were viewed as the most physically unhealthy and the most justified in committing suicide. Subjects believed they were more likely to have a friend who was depressed c. who had cancer than one who had AIDS or schizophrenia. There were no significant gender differences in the number of men and women ideators, and in how they perceived the victims in the scenarios. Ideators scored higher on the perception rating questionnaire and saw people as more justified in committing suicide than did non-ideators. (Author/NB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************
Stacked Similarity-Aware Autoencoders

As one of the most popular unsupervised learning approaches, the autoencoder aims at transforming the inputs to the outputs with the least discrepancy. The conventional autoencoder and most of its variants only consider the one-to-one reconstruction, which ignores the intrinsic structure of the data and may lead to overfitting. In order to preserve the latent geometric information in the data, we propose the stacked similarity-aware autoencoders. To train each single autoencoder, we first obtain the pseudo class label of each sample by clustering the input features. Then the hidden codes of those samples sharing the same category label will be required to satisfy an additional similarity constraint. Specifically, the similarity constraint is implemented based on an extension of the recently proposed center loss. With this joint supervision of the autoencoder reconstruction error and the center loss, the learned feature representations not only can reconstruct the original data, but also preserve the geometric structure of the data. Furthermore, a stacked framework is introduced to boost the representation capacity. The experimental results on several benchmark datasets show the remarkable performance improvement of the proposed algorithm compared with other autoencoder based approaches.
Accuracy of Posture Allocation Algorithms for Thigh- and Waist-Worn Accelerometers.

PURPOSE The objective of this study is to compare the accuracy of the activPAL and ActiGraph GT3X+ (waist and thigh) proprietary postural allocation algorithms and an open-source postural allocation algorithm applied to GENEActiv (thigh) and ActiGraph GT3X+ (thigh) data. METHODS Thirty-four adults (≥18 yr) wore the activPAL3, GENEActiv, and ActiGraph GT3X+ on the right thigh and an ActiGraph on the right hip while performing four lying, seven sitting, and five upright activities in the laboratory. Lying and sitting tasks incorporated a range of leg angles (e.g., lying with legs bent and sitting with legs crossed). Each activity was performed for 5 min while being directly observed. The percentage of the time the posture was correctly classified was calculated. RESULTS Participants consisted of 14 males and 20 females (mean age, 27.2 ± 5.9 yr; mean body mass index, 23.8 ± 3.7 kg·m). All postural allocation algorithms applied to monitors worn on the thigh correctly classified ≥93% of the time lying, ≥91% of the time sitting, and ≥93% of the time upright. The ActiGraph waist proprietary algorithm correctly classified 72% of the time lying, 58% of the time sitting, and 74% of the time upright. Both the activPAL and ActiGraph thigh proprietary algorithms misclassified sitting on a chair with legs stretched out (58% and 5% classified incorrectly, respectively). The ActiGraph thigh proprietary and open-source algorithm applied to the thigh-worn ActiGraph misclassified participants lying on their back with their legs bent 27% and 9% of the time, respectively. CONCLUSION All postural allocation algorithms when applied to devices worn on the thigh were highly accurate in identifying lying, sitting, and upright postures. Given the poor accuracy of the waist algorithm for detecting sitting, caution should be taken if inferring sitting time from a waist-worn device.
Communications in Mathematical Physics From a Large-Deviations Principle to the Wasserstein Gradient Flow : A New Micro-Macro Passage

We study the connection between a system of many independent Brownian particles on one hand and the deterministic diffusion equation on the other. For a fixed time step h > 0, a large-deviations rate functional Jh characterizes the behaviour of the particle system at t = h in terms of the initial distribution at t = 0. For the diffusion equation, a single step in the time-discretized entropy-Wasserstein gradient flow is characterized by the minimization of a functional Kh . We establish a new connection between these systems by proving that Jh and Kh are equal up to second order in h as h → 0. This result gives a microscopic explanation of the origin of the entropy-Wasserstein gradient flow formulation of the diffusion equation. Simultaneously, the limit passage presented here gives a physically natural description of the underlying particle system by describing it as an entropic gradient flow.
Dabigatran versus warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND Warfarin reduces the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation but increases the risk of hemorrhage and is difficult to use. Dabigatran is a new oral direct thrombin inhibitor. METHODS In this noninferiority trial, we randomly assigned 18,113 patients who had atrial fibrillation and a risk of stroke to receive, in a blinded fashion, fixed doses of dabigatran--110 mg or 150 mg twice daily--or, in an unblinded fashion, adjusted-dose warfarin. The median duration of the follow-up period was 2.0 years. The primary outcome was stroke or systemic embolism. RESULTS Rates of the primary outcome were 1.69% per year in the warfarin group, as compared with 1.53% per year in the group that received 110 mg of dabigatran (relative risk with dabigatran, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.74 to 1.11; P<0.001 for noninferiority) and 1.11% per year in the group that received 150 mg of dabigatran (relative risk, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.82; P<0.001 for superiority). The rate of major bleeding was 3.36% per year in the warfarin group, as compared with 2.71% per year in the group receiving 110 mg of dabigatran (P=0.003) and 3.11% per year in the group receiving 150 mg of dabigatran (P=0.31). The rate of hemorrhagic stroke was 0.38% per year in the warfarin group, as compared with 0.12% per year with 110 mg of dabigatran (P<0.001) and 0.10% per year with 150 mg of dabigatran (P<0.001). The mortality rate was 4.13% per year in the warfarin group, as compared with 3.75% per year with 110 mg of dabigatran (P=0.13) and 3.64% per year with 150 mg of dabigatran (P=0.051). CONCLUSIONS In patients with atrial fibrillation, dabigatran given at a dose of 110 mg was associated with rates of stroke and systemic embolism that were similar to those associated with warfarin, as well as lower rates of major hemorrhage. Dabigatran administered at a dose of 150 mg, as compared with warfarin, was associated with lower rates of stroke and systemic embolism but similar rates of major hemorrhage. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00262600.)
Determination of sperm acrosin activity for evaluation of male fertility.

AIM To investigate a simple method for assaying acrosin activity for the evaluation of male fertility. METHODS The acrosin activity of 7.5 x 10(6) sperm without seminal plasma and acrosin activity inhibitors was assayed using N-alpha-benzoyl-DL-arginine-p-nitroanilide (BAPNA) and detergent (Triton X-100) as substrate. RESULTS The acrosin activity of 60 normal fertile men (35 +/- 10 microIU/10(6) sperm ) was higher than that of 168 infertile men (16 +/- 8 microIU/10(6) sperm) (P < 0. 01). It was indicated that there was a significant positive correlation between the acrosin activity and the sperm motility (r > or = 0.6534, P < 0.01) and a significant negative correlation between the sperm malformed rate and the WBC number (r < or = -0.5426, P < 0.01). The temperature and time of incubation and the sperm concentration could influence the assay results. CONCLUSION Acrosin activity is an important index for the evaluation of male fertility. The approach developed by the authors is a simple method for the determination of acrosin activity.
Switching to Tenofovir/Emtricitabine from Abacavir/ Lamivudine in HIV-Infected Adults with Raised Cholesterol: Effect on Lipid Profiles

Background The aim of this study was to investigate the effect on fasting lipid parameters of switching to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) plus emtricitabine (FTC) from abacavir (ABC) plus lamivudine (3TC; both fixed-dose combinations), while maintaining ritonavir-boosted lopinavir (LPV/r). Methods This was an open-label randomized two-arm 12-week controlled study in virologically suppressed HIV-infected patients with elevated cholesterol (≥5.2 mmol/l). Patients stable on ABC/3TC plus LPV/r either continued treatment or switched to TDF/FTC plus LPV/r for 12 weeks. Standard efficacy and safety end points (including fasting lipids) were assessed. Results In total, 85 subjects were treated (n=42 ABC/FTC and n=43 TDF/3TC). A statistically significant decrease in total cholesterol was observed in the TDF/FTC group: from median (IQR) 6.22 mmol/l (5.91–6.77) at baseline to 5.75 mmol/l (5.04–6.18) at week 12 (median [IQR] change from baseline -0.73 mmol/l [-1.20— 0.18]; P<0.001). No notable change was observed for the ABC/3TC group. The difference between groups at week 12 was -0.82 mmol/l (P<0.001). For TDF/FTC (but not for ABC/3TC), statistically significant reductions (P<0.05) from baseline were observed in total, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-and non-HDL cholesterol (at weeks 4 and 12). Statistically significant decreases were observed in median estimated creatinine clearance (Cockcroft–Gault) from baseline to week 12 for patients who switched to TDF/FTC (-5.47 ml/ min) versus the ABC/3TC group (-2.15 ml/min; P=0.016 between groups). Virological suppression was maintained in both groups. No new safety issues were identified. Conclusions Switching to TDF/FTC from ABC/3TC was associated with rapid improvements in fasting lipid parameters and continued virological control in patients receiving LPV/r as the third component of antiretroviral therapy. The effect of these changes on clinical end points remains unclear and would need to be evaluated in a longer-term study.
Isoflavones: Anti-Inflammatory Benefit and Possible Caveats

Inflammation, a biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, is also known to be involved in a host of diseases, such as obesity, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and even cancer. Isoflavones are a class of flavonoids that exhibit antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties. Increasing evidence has highlighted the potential for isoflavones to prevent the chronic diseases in which inflammation plays a key role, though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Recently, some studies have raised concerns about isoflavones induced negative effects like carcinogenesis, thymic involution, and immunosuppression. Therefore, this review aims to summarize the anti-inflammatory effects of isoflavones, unravel the underlying mechanisms, and present the potential health risks.
Advanced Motion Control of Electric Vehicles Based on Robust Lateral Tire Force Control via Active Front Steering

This paper presents a new motion control method based on robust lateral tire force control (LTFC) to improve vehicle stability or maneuverability. During cornering, vehicle motion is totally governed by lateral forces acting on tires. Thus, the real-time information on tire forces provides advantages in vehicle motion control. Since the lateral tire force measurements are available by using multisensing hub (MSHub) units which were invented by NSK Ltd., the direct LTFC is realizable via active front steering. In control design, a robust control method, e.g., two degree-of-freedom control (2-DOF) with a disturbance observer, is used for improving the reference tracking performance. Moreover, the stability of the proposed control system is discussed by using small gain theorem. The proposed motion controller is implemented on an experimental in-wheel-motor-driven electric vehicle and its performance and effectiveness are verified by field tests. Finally, practical applications of lateral tire force sensors to vehicle motion control systems are discussed.
Revisiting enigmatic cortical calretinin-expressing interneurons

Cortical calretinin (CR)-expressing interneurons represent a heterogeneous subpopulation of about 10–30% of GABAergic interneurons, which altogether total ca. 12–20% of all cortical neurons. In the rodent neocortex, CR cells display different somatodendritic morphologies ranging from bipolar to multipolar but the bipolar cells and their variations dominate. They are also diverse at the molecular level as they were shown to express numerous neuropeptides in different combinations including vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), cholecystokinin (CCK), neurokinin B (NKB) corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF), enkephalin (Enk) but also neuropeptide Y (NPY) and somatostatin (SOM) to a lesser extent. CR-expressing interneurons exhibit different firing behaviors such as adapting, bursting or irregular. They mainly originate from the caudal ganglionic eminence (CGE) but a subpopulation also derives from the dorsal part of the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE). Cortical GABAergic CR-expressing interneurons can be divided in two main populations: VIP-bipolar interneurons deriving from the CGE and SOM-Martinotti-like interneurons originating in the dorsal MGE. Although bipolar cells account for the majority of CR-expressing interneurons, the roles they play in cortical neuronal circuits and in the more general metabolic physiology of the brain remained elusive and enigmatic. The aim of this review is, firstly, to provide a comprehensive view of the morphological, molecular and electrophysiological features defining this cell type. We will, secondly, also summarize what is known about their place in the cortical circuit, their modulation by subcortical afferents and the functional roles they might play in neuronal processing and energy metabolism.
Habits of contact lens wearers toward lens care in Malaysia.

UNLABELLED The purpose to do this research was to find out the habits of contact lens wearers towards lens care in this country, and to evaluate the compliance of contact lens wearers. METHODS All respondents underwent an interview regarding questionnaire which was carried out at the Klang Valley and Sabah, Malaysia by trained bilingual optometrists. The questionnaire was obtained from a study by Yvonne Wu et al., 2010. The questionnaire included information about respondents' demographics, contact lens hygiene behaviors and attitudes toward lens care. Comparison between groups and certain factors of lens care were analyzed. RESULTS Within the 100 respondents, 74% were female. The majority used monthly disposable lens (53%, 53/100), 35% (35/100) wore daily lens, 3% (3/100) wore biweekly disposable lens, 8% (8/100) wore quarter-yearly (3 months) lens, and only a participant (1%) used conventional lenses. The major non-compliance aspect that found out from this research were poor lens case (46%), inadequate cleaning of lens before storing (38%) and wearers not remembering how often they were advised to return for an aftercare (24%). CONCLUSION The poor lens care hygiene, inadequate cleaning of lens before storing may due to lack of proper advice to the contact lens wearers during examination or lack of awareness of aftercare visit.
Suppression of a signal sequence mutation by an amino acid substitution in the mature portion of the maltose-binding protein

An unusual spontaneous pseudorevertant of an Escherichia coli strain carrying the signal sequence point mutation malE14-1 was characterized. The suppressor mutation, malE2261, resulted in a single substitution of an aspartyl residue for a tyrosyl residue at position 283 in the sequence of the mature maltose-binding protein. The precursor retained the malE14-1 point mutation in the signal sequence. The pseudorevertant carrying both malE14-1 and malE2261 exported twice the amount of maltose-binding protein as that of the mutant carrying the malE14-1 allele alone but only 18% of the amount exported by a strain producing wild-type maltose-binding protein. A strain carrying the suppressor allele malE2261 in combination with a wild-type signal sequence exported normal quantities of maltose-binding protein to the periplasm. Mature MalE2261 had a Kd for maltose of 27 microM, compared with 3.6 microM for mature wild-type maltose-binding protein. The precursor species than contained both changes resulting from malE14-1 and malE2261 was significantly less stable in the cytoplasm than was the precursor containing only the change encoded by malE14-1.
Glycated Albumin Predicts Long-term Survival in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis

Background: In patients with advanced renal dysfunction undergoing maintenance hemodialysis, glycated albumin (GA) levels may be more representative of blood glucose levels than hemoglobin A1C levels. The aim of this study was to determine the predictive power of GA levels on long-term survival in hemodialysis patients. Methods: A total of 176 patients with a mean age of 68.2 years were enrolled. The median duration of follow-up was 51.0 months. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis was utilized to determine the optimal cutoff value. We examined the cumulative survival rate by Kaplan-Meier estimates and the influence of known survival factors with the multivariate Cox proportional-hazard regression model. Results: In the whole patient group, cumulative survival in the low GA group was better than in the high GA group (p=0.030), with more prominence in those aged <70 years (p=0.029). In subgroup analysis, both diabetic (DM) and non-DM patients with low GA had a better cumulative survival compared with those with high GA. The risk of mortality increased by 3.0% for each 1% increase in serum GA level in all patients undergoing hemodialysis. Conclusions: In addition to serving as a glycemic control marker, GA levels may be useful for evaluating the risk of death in both DM and non-DM patients on hemodialysis.