Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Teriparatide vs. Alendronate as a treatment for osteoporosis: Changes in biochemical markers of bone turnover, BMD and quality of life

Summary Background We studied the use of teriparatide in postmenopausal women with severe osteoporosis. Material/Methods Two groups (A and B) of patients affected by severe osteoporosis (T-score ⩽−2.5 at bone mineral density were analyzed and 2 vertebral fractures on radiograph). Group A was treated for 18 months with 20 μg/day of teriparatide. Group B was treated with bisphosphonates 70 mg/week. Every woman assumed 1 g of calcium and 800 IU of vitamin D3 daily. We evaluated the effects of therapy after 18 months (T18) from the beginning with bone turnover markers (alkaline phosphatase, procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide, and N-telopeptide cross-links) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results Group A, at T18 procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide levels, increased 127%; bone alkaline phosphatase levels increased to 65%; N-telopeptide cross-links levels increased to 110%. Group B, at T18 procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide levels, decreased to 74%; bone alkaline phosphatase levels decreased to 41%; N-telopeptide cross-links levels decreased to 72%. After 18 months, lumbar bone mineral density increased to 12.4% and femoral bone mineral density increased to 5.2% in group A. Group B lumbar bone mineral density increased to 3.85% and femoral bone mineral density increased to 1.99%. Only a new vertebral fracture occurred in group A (2.4%), whereas 6 fractures occurred in group B (15.7%). The quality of life questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis (QUALEFFO) revealed a significant improvement in daily living, performed domestic jobs, and locomotor function in groups A and B. Conclusions The use of rhPTH in patients with severe osteoporosis offers more protection against fractures and improves the QoL more than bisphosphonates.
Hippocampal Tissue Transplants Reverse Lesion-Induced Spatial Memory Deficits in Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

The avian hippocampal formation (Hf) plays an important role in spatial memory for food storing. Here we examined the effects of excitotoxic lesions of the Hf and subsequent neural transplantation on a one-trial associative memory task in zebra finches. The results showed (1) that small ibotenic acid lesions of the dorsal Hf of zebra finches produced significant spatial memory impairments compared with controls, sham-lesioned birds, and prelesion performance; and (2) that Hf-lesioned birds given transplants of embryonic hippocampal (H) tissue, but not those given transplants of embryonic anterior telencephalon (AT) tissue, showed a significant reversal of the performance deficits on the spatial memory task. Lesioned-only birds and lesioned birds given H or AT transplants that did not survive did not show behavioral improvement. Sham-lesioned and untreated control birds maintained good performance throughout the experiment. The H and AT transplants were found to be growing partially within the Hf and partially within the underlying ventricle. The transplants appeared healthy and contained neurons with beaded and unbeaded fibers (shown by immunohistochemistry with antibodies to parvalbumin, substance P, and a 200 kDa neurofilament protein). Blood vessels and erythrocytes were also present within the transplants. The results show that neural transplants can survive within the bird brain and that small lesions of the Hf produce significant spatial memory deficits that can only be reversed by surviving homologous H transplants, and not by heterologous telencephalon transplants.
Non‐parametric Threshold Estimation for Models with Stochastic Diffusion Coefficient and Jumps

Abstract. We consider a stochastic process driven by diffusions and jumps. Given a discrete record of observations, we devise a technique for identifying the times when jumps larger than a suitably defined threshold occurred. This allows us to determine a consistent non‐parametric estimator of the integrated volatility when the infinite activity jump component is Lévy. Jump size estimation and central limit results are proved in the case of finite activity jumps. Some simulations illustrate the applicability of the methodology in finite samples and its superiority on the multipower variations especially when it is not possible to use high frequency data.
Hydrological hysteresis and its value for assessing process consistency in catchment conceptual models

While most hydrological models reproduce the general flow dynamics, they frequently fail to adequately mimic system-internal processes. In particular, the relation- ship between storage and discharge, which often follows annual hysteretic patterns in shallow hard-rock aquifers, is rarely considered in modelling studies. One main reason is that catchment storage is difficult to measure, and another one is that objective functions are usually based on individ- ual variables time series (e.g. the discharge). This reduces the ability of classical procedures to assess the relevance of the conceptual hypotheses associated with models. We analysed the annual hysteric patterns observed be- tween stream flow and water storage both in the saturated and unsaturated zones of the hillslope and the riparian zone of a headwater catchment in French Brittany (Environmen- tal Research Observatory ERO AgrHys (ORE AgrHys)). The saturated-zone storage was estimated using distributed shal- low groundwater levels and the unsaturated-zone storage us- ing several moisture profiles. All hysteretic loops were char- acterized by a hysteresis index. Four conceptual models, pre- viously calibrated and evaluated for the same catchment, were assessed with respect to their ability to reproduce the hysteretic patterns. The observed relationship between stream flow and satu- rated, and unsaturated storages led us to identify four hydro- logical periods and emphasized a clearly distinct behaviour between riparian and hillslope groundwaters. Although all the tested models were able to produce an annual hystere- sis loop between discharge and both saturated and unsatu- rated storage, the integration of a riparian component led to
Longevity Among Hunter‐ Gatherers: A Cross‐Cultural Examination

Post-reproductive longevity is a robust feature of human life and not only a recent phenomenon caused by improvements in sanitation, public health, and medical advances. We argue for an adaptive life span of 68-78 years for modern "Homo sapiens" based on our analysis of mortality profiles obtained from small-scale hunter-gatherer and horticultural populations from around the world. We compare patterns of survivorship across the life span, rates of senescence, modal ages at adult death, and causes of death. We attempt to reconcile our results with those derived from paleodemographic studies that characterize prehistoric human lives as "nasty, brutish, and short," and with observations of recent acculturation among contemporary subsistence populations. We integrate information on age-specific dependency and resource production to help explain the adaptive utility of longevity in humans from an evolutionary perspective. Copyright 2007 The Population Council, Inc.
Vascular anastomotic complications in lung transplantation: a single institution's experience.

OBJECTIVES Lung transplant recipients were reviewed to compare our early and current experience of vascular complications. Since 1995, we have had a policy of early identification and intervention. METHODS We undertook a retrospective review of all adult lung transplants performed at our centre. Patients with pulmonary vascular complications before and after 1995 were identified and reviewed to determine changes in management and outcome. RESULTS We identified a total of 13 patients with either pulmonary artery or venous obstruction out of a total of 720 adult lung transplants (1.8%). There were 9 females and 4 males with an age range of 25-64 years. Complications were more common in patients with fibrotic lung disease and involved 15 vascular anastomoses, most commonly the pulmonary arterial anastomosis. Prior to 1995, 5 cases were identified, all postoperatively. In this group, the mean time for identification of the complication was 9.4 (range 4-14) days. Only 1 patient survived to discharge. After 1995, vascular complications were identified intraoperatively in 4 cases and corrected immediately. Four cases were identified postoperatively (at <1-17 days) by a computed tomography pulmonary angiogram. Three were treated surgically within 24 h of diagnosis (using cardiopulmonary bypass with cold preservation). One patient was managed conservatively. Among patients identified after 1995, 5 survived to discharge. CONCLUSIONS Though rare, pulmonary vascular complications after lung transplantation carry high mortality. In our opinion, early identification and intervention improves outcome. Intraoperative assessment by pressure gradient measurement and transoesophageal echocardiography is recommended. Despite this, mortality remains high and prevention is better than cure.
Good Listeners, Wise Crowds, and Parasitic Experts

Abstract This article comments on the article of Thorn and Schurz in this volume and focuses on, what we call, the problem of parasitic experts. We discuss that both meta- induction and crowd wisdom can be understood as pertaining to absolute reliability rather than comparative optimality, and we suggest that the involvement of reliability will provide a handle on this problem.
Within-Individual Associations Among Third-Party Intervention Strategies: Third-Party Helpers, But Not Punishers, Reward Generosity

Third parties intervene in others’ behaviors in various ways, such as punishing a harmdoer and/or helping a victim. Moreover, third parties may reward generous altruists. As such, various types of third-party intervention strategies are conceivable. Nevertheless, researchers have disproportionately focused on third-party punishment. In the present study, 87 undergraduate students were exposed to unfair, fair, and generous allocators and their recipients, and were allowed to punish, help, and/or reward the players. The results indicated that participants were more likely to punish unfair allocators than fair allocators; more likely to help recipients of unfair allocators than those of fair allocators; and more likely to reward generous allocators than fair allocators. Examinations of intraindividual associations of these strategies revealed that 2 prosocial strategies (third-party help and third-party reward) were strongly tied to each other (i.e., participants who helped victims of unfair allocators were more likely to reward generous allocators). However, third-party punishment was not significantly associated with the other 2 strategies. The emotional correlates of the 3 intervention strategies were also investigated. Third-party punishment was correlated with moral outrage and reduced empathic concern for unfair allocators. Third-party help was correlated with empathic concern for the victim. Third-party reward was correlated with empathic concern for generous allocators.
High-frequency electrical stimulation in the nucleus accumbens of morphine-treated rats suppresses neuronal firing in reward-related brain regions

Summary Background Previous studies have reported that high-frequency stimulation (HFS) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a potential treatment modality for drug craving and relapse. We aimed to explore the electrophysiological changes in reward-related brain regions during NAc stimulation and reveal the effects of stimulation frequency and target changes on NAc neuronal activities. Material/Methods Twenty-eight rats were randomized into saline (n=8) and morphine (n=20) groups. The morphine group was further divided into core (n=10, only the core of the NAc was stimulated) and shell (n=10, only the shell of the NAc was stimulated) subgroups. Conditioned place preference (CPP) behavior of the rats was evaluated to confirm morphine preference after morphine injection and CPP training for 10 days. We recorded NAc neuronal responses to NAc core stimulation at different frequencies, as well as changes in VP and VTA neuronal firing during NAc core stimulation, and changes in NAc neuronal firing during NAc shell stimulation. Results The results indicate that high frequency stimulation was more effective in suppressing NAc neuronal activities than low frequency stimulation and that core stimulation was more effective than shell stimulation. Most VP neurons were inhibited by NAc core stimulation, while VTA neurons were not. Conclusions The results suggest that electrical stimulation in the NAc can suppress neuronal firing in reward-related brain regions. The stimulation might be frequency- dependent in suppressing neuronal firing. The core and shell of the NAc play different roles in suppressing NAc neuronal firing as 2 stimulating targets.
Hyperhomocysteinemia results from and promotes hepatocellular carcinoma via CYP450 metabolism by CYP2J2 DNA methylation

Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) can result from liver disease or dysfunction and further alters intracellular lipid metabolism. Cytochrome P450 (CYP) arachidonic acid epoxygenases are expressed in human cancers and promote cancer metastasis. This study explored the interaction of Hcy and CYP450 metabolism in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The levels of 4-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET) isomers and their generative enzyme CYP2J2 level as well as intracellular Hcy level were higher in 42 cases of HCC than in paired non-tumor tissue. Elevated Hcy-decreased DNA methylation on SP1/AP1 binding motifs and enhancement on the CYP2J2 promoter via ERK1/2 signaling was essential for CYP2J2 upregulation and EET metabolism. Increased Hcy level enhanced the neoplastic cellular phenotype, which was reversed by CYP2J2 knockdown in vitro. Furthermore, tumor growth and size as well as patterns of CYP2J2 expression and DNA demethylation were increased with HHcy in mice induced orthotopically by 2% (wt/wt) L-methionine with or without folate deficiency. Moreover, the effect was attenuated by shRNA knockdown of CYP2J2. Thus, HHcy results from but can also promote hepatocarcingenesis via CYP450-EET metabolism by crosstalk of DNA demethylation of CYP2J2 and ERK1/2 signaling.
Clinical Factors Associated With Dose Escalation of Solifenacin for the Treatment of Overactive Bladder in Real Life Practice

Purpose To determine the baseline clinical characteristics associated with dose escalation of solifenacin in patients with overactive bladder (OAB). Methods We analyzed the data of patients with OAB (micturition frequency ≥8/day and urgency ≥1/day) who were treated with solifenacin and followed up for 24 weeks. According to our department protocol, all the patients kept voiding diaries, and OAB symptom scores (OABSS) were monitored at baseline and after 4, 12, and 24 weeks of solifenacin treatment. Results In total, 68 patients (mean age, 60.8±10.0 years) were recruited. The dose escalation rate by the end of the study was 41.2%, from 23.5% at 4 weeks and 17.6% at 12 weeks. At baseline, the dose escalator group had significantly more OAB wet patients (53.6% vs. 20.0%) and higher total OABSS (10.2±2.4 vs. 7.9±3.5, P=0.032) than the nonescalator group. OAB wet (odds ratio [OR], 4.615; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.578-13.499; P<0.05) and total OABSS (OR, 1.398; 95% CI, 1.046-1.869; P<0.05) were found to be independently associated with dose escalation. Conclusions Patients who have urgency urinary incontinence and high total OABSS have a tendency for dose escalation of solifenacin.
Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 Is Associated With Carotid Plaque Presence and Area: The Northern Manhattan Study

Objective—Elevated fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), a hormone that regulates phosphate homeostasis, has been associated with mortality, cardiovascular events, and stroke, and to arterial calcification in chronic kidney disease, but its role in atherosclerosis is unclear and population-based studies are lacking. We hypothesized that elevated FGF23 would associate with carotid plaque presence, area, and echogenicity in the race/ethnically diverse community-based Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS) sample. Approach and Results—There were 1512 stroke-free NOMAS participants with FGF23 and 2-dimensional carotid ultrasound data (mean age, 68±9 years; 61% women; 62% Hispanic, 18% black, and 18% white). We used multivariable linear and logistic regression to evaluate FGF23, continuously and by quintiles, as a correlate of carotid plaque, plaque area (cubic root transformed), and echogenicity adjusting for sociodemographic and vascular risk factors. Participants with FGF23 levels in the top quintile were more likely to have carotid plaque (odds ratio, 1.49; 95% confidence interval, 1.02–2.19; P=0.04) and larger plaque area (&bgr;=0.32 mm2, 95% confidence interval, 0.10–0.53 mm2; P=0.004) than those in the lowest quintile, adjusting for estimated glomerular filtration rate, demographics, and vascular risk factors. Linear regression models also showed that log transformed FGF23 (LnFGF23) associated with greater odds of plaque presence (odds ratio, 1.26 per LnFGF23; 95% confidence interval, 1.01–1.58; P=0.04), and plaque area (&bgr;=0.19 mm2 per LnFGF23; 95% confidence interval, 0.07–0.31 mm2; P=0.002). Conclusions—Higher FGF23 associated with greater likelihood and burden of carotid atherosclerosis independent of CKD. Atherosclerosis may be a mechanism through which FGF23 increases cardiovascular events and stroke.
A training method for hidden Markov model with maximum model distance and genetic algorithm

Maximum model distance (MMD) is a discriminative algorithm developed for training the whole HMM models. It differs from the traditional maximum-likelihood (ML) approach through comparing the likelihood against those similar utterances and maximizes their likelihood differences. Combined with MMD, this paper proposes a hybrid training method based on the genetic algorithm (GA). Experimental results from the TI46-Word alphabet database show that this algorithm has better performance than MMD. The reason is that the MMD algorithm is exploring only one local maximum in practice while the GA operations in the hybrid algorithm provide the ability to explore several local maximums and hopefully the global maximum.
Choosing the Right Words: Characterizing and Reducing Error of the Word Count Approach

Social scientists are increasingly using the vast amount of text available on social media to measure variation in happiness and other psychological states. Such studies count words deemed to be indicators of happiness and track how the word frequencies change across locations or time. This word count approach is simple and scalable, yet often picks up false signals, as words can appear in different contexts and take on different meanings. We characterize the types of errors that occur using the word count approach, and find lexical ambiguity to be the most prevalent. We then show that one can reduce error with a simple refinement to such lexica by automatically eliminating highly ambiguous words. The resulting refined lexica improve precision as measured by human judgments of word occurrences in Facebook posts.
Gesture reconfiguration from joint failure using genetic algorithm

Humanoid robot consists of many degrees of freedom to perform various tasks in the same way as human. However, most robots lost its abilities when the joint failure problem occurs. In order to keep its basic function when the robot suffered joint failures, we proposed the algorithm which applied basic concepts of genetic algorithm optimization for generating new configuration from the remaining joints so that the robot can continue to perform its task. In this paper, we showed the experimental results which applied the proposed gesture reconfiguration using genetic algorithm optimization method to the semi-humanoid reception robot named "Namo" when the joint failure occurred. This robot has two 7 dofs arms which are used for performing emblematic gestures when interacts with human. The joint failure causes the robot not to be able to perform these predefined emblematic gestures. The proposed algorithm will generate a set of new gestures from the remaining working joints, which can still be recognized by human as the original gestures.
Chronotype is associated with the timing of the circadian clock and sleep in toddlers

Chronotype is a construct reflecting individual differences in diurnal preference. Although chronotype has been studied extensively in school‐age children, adolescents and adults, data on young children are scarce. This study describes chronotype and its relationship to the timing of the circadian clock and sleep in 48 healthy children aged 30–36 months (33.4 ± 2.1 months; 24 males). Parents completed the Children's Chronotype Questionnaire (CCTQ) ~2 weeks before the start of the study. The CCTQ provides three measures of chronotype: midsleep time on free days, a multi‐item morningness/eveningness score and a single item chronotype score. After 5 days of sleeping on their habitual schedule (assessed with actigraphy and sleep diaries), children participated in an in‐home salivary dim light melatonin onset assessment. Average midsleep time on free days was 1:47 ± 0:35, and the average morningness/eveningness score was 26.8 ± 4.3. Most toddlers (58.4%) were rated as ‘definitely a morning type’ or ‘rather morning than evening type’, while none (0%) were rated as ‘definitely evening type’. More morning types (midsleep time on free days and morningness/eveningness score, respectively) had earlier melatonin onset times (r = 0.45, r = 0.26), earlier habitual bedtimes (r = 0.78, r = 0.54), sleep onset times (r = 0.80, r = 0.52), sleep midpoint times (r = 0.90, r = 0.53) and wake times (r = 0.74, r = 0.34). Parent ratings using the single‐item chronotype score were associated with melatonin onset (r = 0.32) and habitual bedtimes (r = 0.27), sleep onset times (r = 0.33) and sleep midpoint times (r = 0.27). Morningness may best characterize circadian preference in early childhood. Associations between chronotype and circadian physiology and sleep timing suggest adequate validity for the CCTQ in this age group. These findings have important implications for understanding the marked variability in sleep timing during the early years of life.
Sleep Promotes the Extraction of Grammatical Rules

Grammar acquisition is a high level cognitive function that requires the extraction of complex rules. While it has been proposed that offline time might benefit this type of rule extraction, this remains to be tested. Here, we addressed this question using an artificial grammar learning paradigm. During a short-term memory cover task, eighty-one human participants were exposed to letter sequences generated according to an unknown artificial grammar. Following a time delay of 15 min, 12 h (wake or sleep) or 24 h, participants classified novel test sequences as Grammatical or Non-Grammatical. Previous behavioral and functional neuroimaging work has shown that classification can be guided by two distinct underlying processes: (1) the holistic abstraction of the underlying grammar rules and (2) the detection of sequence chunks that appear at varying frequencies during exposure. Here, we show that classification performance improved after sleep. Moreover, this improvement was due to an enhancement of rule abstraction, while the effect of chunk frequency was unaltered by sleep. These findings suggest that sleep plays a critical role in extracting complex structure from separate but related items during integrative memory processing. Our findings stress the importance of alternating periods of learning with sleep in settings in which complex information must be acquired.