Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MiR-16 Targets the Serotonin Transporter: A New Facet for Adaptive Responses to Antidepressants

MicroRNA-16 and Depression Signal transmission between neurons is effected by neurotransmitters such as serotonin. Membrane-bound transporters remove excess neurotransmitters. Disruption of the delicate balance between neurotransmitter release and removal can lead to larger disruptions in neuronal circuitry. Depression and anxiety may be linked to dysfunction of some of these circuits. Uptake inhibitors can be used to treat depression, but the molecular pathways affected have been unclear. Baudry et al. (p. 1537) now show that microRNA-16 controls synthesis of the serotonin transporter and that the amount of microRNA-16 can be controlled by the same uptake inhibitors used to treat depression. The uptake transporter for a key neurotransmitter is regulated by a microRNA, yielding new insight into how Prozac functions. The serotonin transporter (SERT) ensures the recapture of serotonin and is the pharmacological target of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants. We show that SERT is a target of microRNA-16 (miR-16). miR-16 is expressed at higher levels in noradrenergic than in serotonergic cells; its reduction in noradrenergic neurons causes de novo SERT expression. In mice, chronic treatment with the SSRI fluoxetine (Prozac) increases miR-16 levels in serotonergic raphe nuclei, which reduces SERT expression. Further, raphe exposed to fluoxetine release the neurotrophic factor S100β, which acts on noradrenergic cells of the locus coeruleus. By decreasing miR-16, S100β turns on the expression of serotonergic functions in noradrenergic neurons. Based on pharmacological and behavioral data, we propose that miR-16 contributes to the therapeutic action of SSRI antidepressants in monoaminergic neurons.
The organization of the central control of micturition in cats and humans

Experiments in the cat have led to a concept on how the central nervous system controls micturition. In a previous study (Brain 1997; 120: 111-121) this concept was tested in a PET study in male volunteers. It was demonstrated that specific brainstem and forebrain areas are activated during micturition. It was unfortunate that this study did not involve women, because the results are important for understanding urge incontinence, which occurs more frequently in women than in men. Therefore, a similar study was done in eighteen right handed women, who were scanned during the following four conditions: (1) 15 minutes prior to micturition (urine withholding); (2) during micturition; (3) 15 minutes after micturition, and (4) 30 minutes after micturition. Of the eighteen volunteers ten were able to micturate during scanning, eight were not, despite trying vigorously. Micturition appeared to be associated with significantly increased blood flow in the right dorsal pontine tegmentum and the right inferior frontal gyrus. Decreased blood flow was found in the right anterior cingulate gyrus during urine withholding. The eight volunteers, who were not able to micturate during scanning, did not show significantly increased rCBF in the right dorsal, but in the right ventral pontine tegmentum. In the cat this region controls the motoneurons of the pelvic floor. In the same unsuccessful micturition group increased blood flow was also found in the right inferior frontal gyrus. In all eighteen volunteers, during the period they had to withhold their urine prior to the micturition condition, decreased blood flow in the right anterior cingulate gyrus was found. The re-sults suggest that in men as well as in women the same specific nuclei exist in the pontine tegmentum responsible for the control of micturition. The results also indicate that the cortical and pontine micturition sites are more active on the right than on the left side.
Poverty, politics, and preferences: Field experiments and survey data from Vietnam

We conducted field experiments to investigate how wealth, political history, occupation, and other demographic variables (from a comprehensive earlier household survey) are correlated with risk, time discounting and trust in Vietnam. Our experiments suggest risk and time preferences depend on the stage of economic development. In wealthier villages, people are less loss-averse and more patient. Our research also shows people who participate in ROSCAs (rotating credit associations) are more patient than non-participant, but those who participate in bidding ROSCAs are less patient and more risk averse than those who participate in fixed ROSCAs. Results from a trust game demonstrate both positive and negative effects of communism. Villagers in the South tend to invest more in low-income partners without expecting repayment. On the other hand, people in the north are more trustworthy but do not pass on more money to the poor. Our findings also suggest market activities, like starting a small trade business, are correlated with trust and trustworthiness. We also contribute to experimental methodology by using choices that separate different aspects of risk aversion and time preferences in behavioral economics specifications.
Visual Perception of Incomplete Human-Like Body Postures: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

Previous studies have reported that the mirror neuron system plays a crucial role in social cognition. We examined whether the higher-order cognitive functions are involved in the activations in the mirror neuron area when we perceive simplified pseudo-postures. We measured 14 participants’ brain activation during the posture-recognition task using near-infrared spectroscopy. The participants’ task was to observe five sequentially presented target pseudo-postures and judge whether a test pseudo-posture was identical to one of the preceding five target pseudo-postures. The results in the majority of participants (n = 10/14) revealed that the activity in the inferior frontal mirror neuron area is modulated by perception of human-likeness, but not in the remaining four participants (n = 4/14). These results suggest that the degree of the activation of higher-order cognitive functions, which may be engaged in the inhibitory and/or facilitative processing of human body or bodily movement, leads to the distinctive activities in the inferior frontal mirror neuron area.
ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DISABILITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS PATIENTS IN AHVAZ, IRAN

Introduction: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative and chronic disease of central nervous system which affected the middle aged people. The disabling nature of this disease can limit the daily activities, restrict the society roles, unemployment and finally lead to decline the quality of life (QoL) in MS patients. So, the main purpose of this study was to determine association between disability and quality of life among MS patients in Ahvaz, Iran. Materials and Methods: One hundred and one MS patients who living in Khouzestan participated in the cross-sectional study. Two questionnaires include the MSQoL-54 and World Health Organization disability assessment schedule 2.0 (WHODAS2.0) were used in order to measure the QoL and disability severity. Descriptive statistics as well as Pearson correlation coefficient and simple linear regression were used to analysis the data. Results: The respondent rate was 100 percent. The disability showed a large and negative association with QoL (p<0.001) but QoL was not significantly associated with EDSS score. Social participation and cognition subscales recognized as QoL predictors according to simple regression results. Conclusion: The cognition and participation, disability subscales, were the most important predicators for QoL. Therefore, increasing employment opportunities, changing society’s attitude and using the psychotherapy programs might improve the MS patient’s QoL.
Effect of pomegranate seed oil on hyperlipidaemic subjects: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial

In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that punicic acid, a type of conjugated fatty acid and the main constituent of pomegranate seed oil (PSO), has anti-atherogenic effects. The present study aimed at determining the effect of PSO treatment on serum lipid profiles. This double-blind placebo-controlled randomised clinical trial included fifty-one hyperlipidaemic subjects, diagnosed according to National Cholesterol Education Program definition, and randomly assigned to the PSO and the control groups. The PSO and placebo groups received 400 mg PSO and placebo twice daily, respectively and were followed up for 4 weeks. Serum concentrations of lipids and lipoproteins were measured before and 4 weeks after intervention. Mean concentration of TAG and the TAG:HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio were significantly decreased after 4 weeks in the PSO group as compared with baseline values (2·75 (sd 1·40) v. 3·45 (sd 1·56) mmol/l, P = 0·009 and 5·7 (sd 4·6) v. 7·5 (sd 5·0), P = 0·031, respectively). The treatment effect was statistically significant in the PSO group as compared with controls in diminution of cholesterol:HDL-C ratio (5·4 (sd 1·5) v. 5·9 (sd 1·4), P < 0·05) adjusted for baseline values. We found a mean difference for PSO v. placebo in HDL-C concentration (0·13 v. − 0·02 mmol/l) and cholesterol:HDL-C ratio ( − 0·42 v. 0·01, P < 0·05). Serum cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and glucose concentrations and body composition variables remained unchanged. It is concluded that administration of PSO for 4 weeks in hyperlipidaemic subjects had favourable effects on lipid profiles including TAG and TAG:HDL-C ratio.
Redox active motifs in selenoproteins

Significance In redox biology, the chemistry performed by proteins that contain the rare amino acid selenocysteine is frequently critical to the detoxification of reactive species that are harmful to cellular function. Selenocysteine and cysteine partner to form a motif featuring a sulfur–selenium covalent bond in many selenoproteins. This work demonstrates that selenium NMR, when paired with calculations, can provide critical insight concerning the local environment of these enigmatic redox motifs. It details how redox potentials, conformational preferences, and mobilities of such redox motifs change when the local environment of the selenocysteine is varied. Surprisingly, reverting selenocysteine to cysteine exerts only minor effects on redox potential. These new approaches deepen our understanding of the chemical reactivity and thermodynamic properties of selenoenzymes. Selenoproteins use the rare amino acid selenocysteine (Sec) to act as the first line of defense against oxidants, which are linked to aging, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Many selenoproteins are oxidoreductases in which the reactive Sec is connected to a neighboring Cys and able to form a ring. These Sec-containing redox motifs govern much of the reactivity of selenoproteins. To study their fundamental properties, we have used 77Se NMR spectroscopy in concert with theoretical calculations to determine the conformational preferences and mobility of representative motifs. This use of 77Se as a probe enables the direct recording of the properties of Sec as its environment is systematically changed. We find that all motifs have several ring conformations in their oxidized state. These ring structures are most likely stabilized by weak, nonbonding interactions between the selenium and the amide carbon. To examine how the presence of selenium and ring geometric strain governs the motifs’ reactivity, we measured the redox potentials of Sec-containing motifs and their corresponding Cys-only variants. The comparisons reveal that for C-terminal motifs the redox potentials increased between 20–25 mV when the selenenylsulfide bond was changed to a disulfide bond. Changes of similar magnitude arose when we varied ring size or the motifs’ flanking residues. This suggests that the presence of Sec is not tied to unusually low redox potentials. The unique roles of selenoproteins in human health and their chemical reactivities may therefore not necessarily be explained by lower redox potentials, as has often been claimed.
Religion as Social Capital: Producing the Common Good

While Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone (2000) highlighted the notion of volunteerism, little attention has been paid to religion's role in generating social capitalan ironic omission since religion constitutes the most common form of voluntary association in America today. Featuring essays by prominent social scientists, this is the first book-length systematic examination of the relationship between religion and social capital and what effects religious social capital has on democratic life in the United States.
Phase diagram of a model protein derived by exhaustive enumeration of the conformations

An understanding of the various states available to a polypeptide chain is important for a description of the protein folding process. We use a 16‐monomer chain on a two‐dimensional square lattice to model a protein. This makes it possible to enumerate all self‐avoiding conformations from which any equilibrium thermodynamic quantity can be calculated. By varying the external conditions of temperature and average attraction, we construct a phase diagram for the model protein. It is found to have an extended coil state, a homopolymer‐like disorganized globule state, and an organized frozen globule state that corresponds to the lowest energy (native) conformation. The exact model results agree well with analytical heteropolymer theory.
COEVOLUTION AND BIOGEOGRAPHY AMONG NEMATODIRINAE (NEMATODA: TRICHOSTRONGYLINA) LAGOMORPHA AND ARTIODACTYLA (MAMMALIA): EXPLORING DETERMINANTS OF HISTORY AND STRUCTURE FOR THE NORTHERN FAUNA ACROSS THE HOLARCTIC

Nematodes of the subfamily Nematodirinae are characteristic components of a Holarctic fauna. The topology of a generic-level phylogenetic hypothesis, patterns of diversity, and geographic distributions for respective nematode taxa in conjunction with data for host occurrence are consistent with primary distributions determined across Beringia for species of Murielus, Rauschia, Nematodirus, and Nematodirella. Ancestral hosts are represented by Lagomorpha, with evidence for a minimum of 1 host-switching-event and subsequent radiation in the Artiodactyla. Diversification may reflect vicariance of respective faunas along with episodic or cyclical range expansion and isolation across Beringia during the late Tertiary and Quaternary. Secondarily, species of Nematodirus attained a distribution in the Neotropical region with minimal diversification of an endemic fauna represented by Nematodirus molini among tayassuids, Nematodirus lamae among camelids and Nematodirus urichi in cervids during the Pleistocene. Nematodirines are a core component of an Arctic-Boreal fauna of zooparasitic nematodes (defined by latitude and altitude) adapted to transmission in extreme environments characterized by seasonally low temperatures and varying degrees of desiccation. The history and distribution of this fauna is examined in the context of biotic and abiotic determinants for geographic colonization and host switching with an exploration of predicted responses of complex host–parasite systems to ecological perturbation under a regime of global climate change.
Solvation energy density occlusion approximation for evaluation of desolvation penalties in biomolecular interactions

In calculations involving many displacements of an interacting pair of biomolecules, such as brownian dynamics, the docking of a substrate/ligand to an enzyme/receptor, or the screening of a large number of ligands as prospective inhibitors for a particular receptor site, there is a need for rapid evaluation of the desolvation penalties of the interacting pair. Although continuum electrostatic treatments with distinct dielectric constants for solute and solvent provide an account of the electrostatics of solvation and desolvation, it is necessary to re‐solve the Poisson equation, at considerable computational cost, for each displacement of the interacting pair. We present a new method that uses a formulation of continuum electrostatic solvation in terms of the solvation energy density and approximates desolvation in terms of the occlusion of this density. We call it the SEDO approximation. It avoids the need to re‐solve the Poisson equation, as desolvation is now estimated by an integral over the occluded volume. Test calculations are presented for some simple model systems and for some real systems that have previously been studied using the Poisson equation approach: MHC class I protein–peptide complexes and a congeneric series of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) protease–ligand complexes. For most of the systems considered, the trends and magnitudes of the desolvation component of interaction energies obtained using the SEDO approximation are in reasonable correlation with those obtained by re‐solving the Poisson equation. In most cases, the error introduced by the SEDO approximation is much less than that of the often‐used test‐charge approximation for the charge–charge components of intermolecular interactions. Proteins 2001;43:12–27. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
C-Arm Flat Detector CT Parenchymal Blood Volume Thresholds for Identification of Infarcted Parenchyma in the Neurointerventional Suite

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: C-arm flat detector CT parenchymal blood volume imaging allows functional assessment of the brain parenchyma in the neurointerventional suite. This study aimed to determine the optimal C-arm flat detector CT parenchymal blood volume thresholds for demarcating irreversibly infarcted brain parenchyma by using areas of restricted diffusion on MR imaging as a surrogate marker for infarction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-six patients with delayed cerebral ischemia following aneurysmal SAH underwent research C-arm CT parenchymal blood volume scans by using a biplane angiography system and contemporaneous MR imaging. Infarct and peri-infarct tissue VOIs and their homologous VOIs in the contralateral uninvolved hemisphere were delineated on the basis of the review of DWI, PWI, and ADC images. Voxel-based receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to estimate the optimal absolute and normalized parenchymal blood volume values for demarcating the infarct voxels. RESULTS: For 12 patients with areas of restricted diffusion (infarct volume, 6.38 ± 7.09 mL; peri-infarct tissue volume, 22.89 ± 21.76 mL) based on the voxel-based receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, optimal absolute and normalized parenchymal blood volume thresholds for infarction were 2.49 mL/100 g (area under curve, 0.76; sensitivity, 0.69; specificity, 0.71) and 0.67 (area under curve, 0.77; sensitivity, 0.69; specificity, 0.72), respectively (P value < .01). For the moderate-to-severely ischemic peri-infarct zone, mean parenchymal blood volume values of the involved hemisphere VOIs were lower compared with the uninvolved hemisphere VOIs (P value < .01). However, for the mild-to-moderately ischemic peri-infarct zone, there was no statistically significant difference between the mean parenchymal blood volume values of the involved and uninvolved hemisphere VOIs (P value > .05). CONCLUSIONS: C-arm flat detector CT parenchymal blood volume maps in conjunction with optimal thresholds are sensitive and specific for the estimation of irreversibly infarcted parenchyma. Parenchymal blood volume maps allow reliable detection of moderate-to-severe ischemia; however, the potential for underestimation of mild-to-moderate ischemia exists.
Oral Health Knowledge and Attitude among Primary School Teachers of Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Effect of oral health knowledge and attitude has direct effect on school children so aim of this study is to know the oral health knowledge and attitude among primary school teachers. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a cross-sectional questionnaire based survey done in 2014. Four males and three females schools were selected using a convenience sampling method. Among them, three were private and the rest was government schools. Approval was obtained from the selected schools. One hundred twenty self-administered questionnaires in Arabic language were distributed among the primary school teachers. RESULTS Completed questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 95%. Among the teachers, 57% were males and rests were females. The mean age was 36.1 years (SD ± 6.9). Sixty-eight percent were between 31 and 40 years old and among them female showed high score for oral health knowledge (80%) p < 0.001 whereas male showed high score of attitude (82%) p < 0.05. Thirty-three percent had 5 and 10 years of teaching experience. Ninety-eight percent were graduate or above. Eighty-nine percent had used toothbrush. There was no significant relation between the teaching experience and the oral health knowledge (p = 0.14) but there was a significant relation between teaching experience and attitude (p = 0.001). In this sample, irrespective of their frequency of tooth brushing, a significant number had good knowledge (p < 0.001) and highly acceptable attitudes (p = 0.001) toward oral health. CONCLUSION Primary school teachers had acceptable knowledge and attitudes regarding their oral health. Further studies are needed to evaluate and compare their oral health status to their knowledge and attitudes and to determine whether they offer oral health education to the school children.
Modeling Word Meaning: Distributional Semantics and the Corpus Quality-Quantity Trade-Off

A BSTRACT Dictionaries constructed using distributional models of lexical semantics have a wide range of applications in NLP and in the modeling of linguistic cognition. However when constructing such a model, we are faced with range of corpora to choose from. Often there is a choice between small carefully constructed corpora of well-edited text, and very large heterogeneous collections harvested automatically from the web. There may also be differences in the distribution of genres and registers in such corpora. In this paper we examine these trade-offs by constructing a simple SVD-reduced word-collocate model, using four English corpora: the Google Web 5-gram collection, the Google Book 5-gram collection, the English Wikipedia, and collection of short social messages harvested from Twitter. Since these models need to encode semantics in a way that approximates the mental lexicon, we evaluate the felicity of the resulting semantic representations using a set of behavioral and neural-activity benchmarks that depend on word-similarity. We find that the quality of the input text has a very strong effect on the performance of the output model, and that a corpus of high quality at a small size can outperform a corpus of poor quality that is many orders of magnitude larger. We also explore the semantic closeness of the models using their mutual information overlap to interpret the similarity of corpus texts.
Rathke cleft cysts.

Rathke cleft cysts (RCCs) are benign, cystic remnants of the craniopharyngeal duct that are typically located in the sellar and suprasellar region. RCCs are often discovered incidentally; they have been identified in up to 22 % of the population according to routine autopsy specimens. Despite their relatively high prevalence, they produce clinical symptoms in a minority of patients, comprising only 2–9 % of all sellar lesions undergoing surgical resection. They show a slight female preponderance. The typical age at the time of clinical presentation is generally between 40 and 50 years.
Sensitivity of MRI parameters within intervertebral discs to the severity of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

To measure magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters including relaxation times (T1ρ, T2), magnetization transfer (MT) and diffusion parameters (mean diffusivity [MD], fractional anisotropy [FA]) of intervertebral discs in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis, and to investigate the sensitivity of these MR parameters to the severity of the spine deformities.