Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transcriptomic changes following valproic acid treatment promote neurogenesis and minimize secondary brain injury

BACKGROUND Early treatment with valproic acid (VPA) has demonstrated benefit in preclinical models of traumatic brain injury, including smaller brain lesion size, decreased edema, reduced neurologic disability, and faster recovery. Mechanisms underlying these favorable outcomes are not fully understood. We hypothesized that VPA treatment would upregulate genes involved in cell survival and proliferation and downregulate those associated with cell death and the inflammatory response. METHODS Ten female swine were subjected to a protocol of traumatic brain injury and hemorrhagic shock. They were assigned to two groups (n = 5): normal saline (NS; 3× volume of shed blood), or NS + VPA (150 mg/kg). Following 6 hours of observation, brain tissue was harvested to evaluate lesion size and edema. Brain tissue was processed for RNA sequencing. Gene set enrichment and pathway analysis was performed to determine the differential gene expression patterns following injury. RESULTS Animals treated with VPA were noted to have a 46% reduction in brain lesion size and a 57% reduction in ipsilateral brain edema. Valproic acid significantly upregulated genes involved in morphology of the nervous system, neuronal development and neuron quantity. The VPA treatment downregulated pathways related to apoptosis, glial cell proliferation, and neuroepithelial cell differentiation. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis identified VPA as the top upstream regulator of activated transcription, supporting it as a direct cause of these transcriptional changes. Master transcriptional regulator NEUROD1 was also significantly upregulated, suggesting that VPA may induce additional transcription factors. CONCLUSION Administration of VPA attenuated brain lesion size, reduced brain edema, and induced significant changes in the transcriptome of injured brain within 6 hours. Patterns of differential expression were consistent with the proposed neurogenic and prosurvival effects of VPA treatment.
Neuropathological basis of nonmotor manifestations of Parkinson's disease

Nonmotor manifestations of Parkinson's disease (PD) can begin well before motor PD begins. It is now clear, from clinical and autopsy studies, that there is significant Lewy‐type α‐synucleinopathy present outside the nigro‐striatal pathway and that this may underlie these nonmotor manifestations. This review discusses neuropathological findings that may underlie nonmotor symptoms that either predate motor findings or occur as the disease progresses. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Location-based prospective memory

This study explores location-based prospective memory. People often have to remember to do things when in a particular location, such as buying tissues the next time they are in the supermarket. For event cognition theory, location is important for structuring events. However, because event cognition has not been used to examine prospective memory, the question remains of how multiple events will influence prospective memory performance. In our experiments, people delivered messages from store to store in a virtual shopping mall as an ongoing task. The prospective tasks were to do certain activities in certain stores. For Experiment 1, each trial involved one prospective memory task to be done in a single location at one of three delays. The virtual environment and location cues were effective for prospective memory, and performance was unaffected by delay. For Experiment 2, each trial involved two prospective memory tasks, given in either one or two instruction locations, and to be done in either one or two store locations. There was improved performance when people received instructions from two locations and did both tasks in one location relative to other combinations. This demonstrates that location-based event structure influences how well people perform on prospective memory tasks.
Effect of Sun‐Dried Raisins (Vitis vinifera L.) on the In Vitro Composition of Gut Microbiota

Our aim was to investigate the effect of sun‐dried raisins on the colonic microbiota using an in vitro batch culture seeded with representative human gut bacteria. A model of gastric and small intestinal digestion was used to simulate the upper gastrointestinal digestion. Samples collected during a time course at 0, 4, 8 and 24h were analyzed for microbial composition and organic acid concentrations by 16S V4 rDNA analysis and high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), respectively.
TRANSPAPILLARY BILIARY FORCEPS BIOPSY TO DISTINGUISH BENIGN BILIARY STRICTURE FROM MALIGNANCY: HOW MANY TISSUE SAMPLES SHOULD BE OBTAINED?

Background: The sensitivity of transpapillary biliary forceps biopsy for malignancy has been reported as varying from 43–81%. Therefore, there are false negatives in more than 20% of patients, which makes it difficult to diagnose benign biliary stricture as benignancy in a clinical setting.
Agency Beliefs Over Time and Across Cultures: Free Will Beliefs Predict Higher Job Satisfaction

In three studies, we examined the relationship between free will beliefs and job satisfaction over time and across cultures. Study 1 examined 252 Taiwanese real-estate agents over a 3-months period. Study 2 examined job satisfaction for 137 American workers on an online labor market over a 6-months period. Study 3 extended to a large sample of 14,062 employees from 16 countries and examined country-level moderators. We found a consistent positive relationship between the belief in free will and job satisfaction. The relationship was above and beyond other agency constructs (Study 2), mediated by perceived autonomy (Studies 2-3), and stronger in countries with a higher national endorsement of the belief in free will (Study 3). We conclude that free-will beliefs predict outcomes over time and across cultures beyond other agency constructs. We call for more cross-cultural and longitudinal studies examining free-will beliefs as predictors of real-life outcomes.
Smoking and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a pooled analysis of 5 prospective cohorts.

BACKGROUND Cigarette smoking has been proposed as a risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but epidemiological studies supporting this hypothesis have been small and mostly retrospective. OBJECTIVE To prospectively examine the relation between smoking and ALS in 5 well-established large cohorts. DESIGN Five prospective cohorts with study-specific follow-up ranging from 7 to 28 years. SETTING Academic research. PATIENTS Participants in the Nurses' Health Study, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort, the Multiethnic Cohort, and the National Institutes of Health-AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) Diet and Health Study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis deaths identified through the National Death Index. In the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, confirmed nonfatal incident ALS was also included. RESULTS A total of 832 participants with ALS were documented among 562,804 men and 556,276 women. Smokers had a higher risk of ALS than never smokers, with age- and sex-adjusted relative risks of 1.44 (95% confidence interval, 1.23-1.68; P < .001) for former smokers and 1.42 (95% confidence interval, 1.07-1.88; P = .02) for current smokers. Although the risk of ALS was positively associated with pack-years smoked (P < .001), duration of smoking (9% increase for each 10 years of smoking, P = .006), and the number of cigarettes smoked per day (10% increase for each increment of 10 cigarettes smoked per day, P < .001), these associations did not persist when never smokers were excluded. However, among ever smokers, the risk of ALS increased as age at smoking initiation decreased (P = .03). CONCLUSIONS Results of this large longitudinal study support the hypothesis that cigarette smoking increases the risk of ALS. The potential importance of age at smoking initiation and the lack of a dose response deserve further investigation.
Diagnostic and therapeutic cholangioscopy in biliary diseases: a prospective study in Peru.

INTRODUCTION Cholangioscopy is a test that allows the evaluation of the biliary epithelium. It is used for diagnosis and management of biliary diseases. OBJECTIVES Determine the success rate of complete removal of difficult stones with the use of laser lithotripsy through cholangioscopy as well as its complications. Determine the visual impression accuracy of bile duct injuries. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a prospective and descriptive study. We included 39 patients between July 2016 and July 2017 with diagnosis of difficult stones in the biliary tract and indeterminate stenosis of the biliary tract that were submitted to cholangioscopy. RESULTS Success rate of complete removal of difficult stones was 65.3%, there was one complication. Two laser sessions were required in 4 of the 17 patients who obtained complete removal of the stones. The visual impression accuracy of lesions in the bile duct to determine malignancy coincided in all cases with the final diagnosis of the patient. CONCLUSIONS Laser lithotripsy allows a safe and effective treatment of the difficult stones of the bile duct. Precession of visual impression of lesions in the bile duct is very high.
Dual LABA/LAMA bronchodilators in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: why, when, and how

Dual bronchodilation therapy is the cornerstone for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [1]. Combining a long-acting β2 adrenoceptor (β2-AR) agonist (LABA) with a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) in a fixed-dose combination (FDC) improves lung function, dyspnea, quality of life, and exercise tolerance and reduces the risk of exacerbations of COPD, thus leading to unquestionable clinical benefits compared with monocomponents [2–4]. The rationale for combining two bronchodilators with different mechanisms of actions should be (1) to induce synergism in therapeutic efficacy; (2) to reduce the overall risk of adverse events; and (3) to allow significant dose reductions for a given effect. Furthermore, the toxicities of the drugs should not overlap [5]. Combining two different drugs may lead to additive, synergistic, and antagonistic interaction. Overall, synergism is an effect that is more than additive, whereas antagonism is an effect that is less than additive. Thus, the main criterion for identifying synergism and/or antagonism is to quantify the additive effect. While the Bliss independence equation and unified theory are validated methods to identify the additive effect in vitro, only the Bliss independence approach represents a suitable method to be applied in clinical trials [6]. A large body of evidence demonstrates that LABA/LAMA combinations induce a strong synergistic bronchorelaxant effect in human isolated airways [7,8], and such a favorable interaction has been further confirmed in clinical trials [9,10]. Moreover, a recent post hoc analysis has demonstrated the clinical synergism between LABAs and LAMAs and that it not only induces a synergistic improvement in lung function, but also a synergistic improvement of dyspnea in COPD patients [11]. Nevertheless, recent findings suggested that the simple addition of a LABA to a LAMA in a FDC may be not sufficient to exceed the expected additive effect to induce synergistic interaction [1,12]. Therefore, considering that the mechanisms leading to the pharmacological interaction between LABAs and LAMAs have been at least partially elucidated [8,13,14], why, when, and how LABA/LAMA bronchodilators should be administered to patients with COPD are the key questions that remain to be clarified.
Evidence that Myotis lucifugus “Subspecies” are Five Nonsister Species, Despite Gene Flow

Abstract. — While genetic exchange between nonsister species was traditionally considered to be rare in mammals, analyses of molecular data in multiple systems suggest that it may be common. Interspecific gene flow, if present, is problematic for phylogenetic inference, particularly for analyses near the species level. Here, we explore how to detect and account for gene flow during phylogeny estimation using data from a clade of North American Myotis bats where previous results have led researchers to suspect that gene flow among lineages is present. Initial estimates of phylogenetic networks and species trees indicate that subspecies described within Myotis lucifugus are paraphyletic. In order to explore the extent to which gene flow is likely to interfere with phylogeny estimation, we use posterior predictive simulation and a novel Approximate Bayesian Computation approach based on gene tree distances. The former indicates that the species tree model is a poor fit to the data, and the latter provides evidence that a species tree with gene flow is a better fit. Taken together, we present evidence that the currently recognized M. lucifugus subspecies are paraphyletic, exchange alleles with other Myotis species in regions of secondary contact, and should be considered independent evolutionary lineages despite their morphological similarity.
Stressful life events and severity of alcohol consumption in male psychiatric inpatients

Aim: To assess the levels of alcohol consumption and the level of stress faced by male patients hospitalized with psychiatric disorders in a military hospital. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 consecutive patients admitted to a tertiary care psychiatric center and 100 controls. The patients with psychiatric ailments were first stabilized mentally and physically and then assessed. For the collection of demographic data, a questionnaire was prepared which was administered to all patients. The Armed Forces Medical College Life Events scale was used for the assessment of stressful life events. The Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST) was applied as a screening procedure for alcohol use disorder. For assessing the severity of alcohol consumption, the Hilton Drinking Behavior Questionnaire (HDBQ) was utilized. Results: Analysis revealed that 16% of the psychiatric patients scored above the cutoff score on the MAST compared to 2% of controls. On the HDBQ, 22% of the psychiatric patients had a significant score compared to 4% of controls. Patients with psychiatric disorders experienced significantly more number of life events compared to the controls irrespective of the length of service. The Psychiatric group experienced significantly more life change units both in 1-year prior and in lifetime period. Conclusion: Psychiatric patients face significantly higher stressful life events, experience significantly more life changes, and consume significantly more alcohol as compared to healthy participants.
PHENOTYPIC DIFFERENTIATION AT SOUTHERN LIMIT BORDERS: THE CASE STUDY OF TWO FUCOID MACROALGAL SPECIES WITH DIFFERENT LIFE‐HISTORY TRAITS 1

Marginal populations are often geographically isolated, smaller, and more fragmented than central populations and may frequently have to face suboptimal local environmental conditions. Persistence of these populations frequently involves the development of adaptive traits at phenotypic and genetic levels. We compared population structure and demographic variables in two fucoid macroalgal species contrasting in patterns of genetic diversity and phenotypic plasticity at their southern distribution limit with a more central location. Models were Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jol. (whose extreme longevity and generation overlap may buffer genetic loss by drift) and Fucus serratus L. (with low genetic diversity at southern margins). At edge locations, both species exhibited trends in life‐history traits compatible with population persistence but by using different mechanisms. Marginal populations of A. nodosum had higher reproductive output in spite of similar mortality rates at all life stages, making edge populations denser and with smaller individuals. In F. serratus, rather than demographic changes, marginal populations differed in habitat, occurring restricted to a narrower vertical habitat range. We conclude that persistence of both A. nodosum and F. serratus at the southern‐edge locations depends on different strategies. Marginal population persistence in A. nodosum relies on a differentiation in life‐history traits, whereas F. serratus, putatively poorer in evolvability potential, is restricted to a narrower vertical range at border locations. These results contribute to the general understanding of mechanisms that lead to population persistence at distributional limits and to predict population resilience under a scenario of environmental change.
Conceptualizing Internet use disorders: Addiction or coping process?

This paper problematizes the tendency to study Internet use disorders from a perspective of addiction. It is argued that an addiction perspective, grounded in our understanding of substance use disorders, has not contributed much to an improved understanding of the antecedents and etiology of Internet use disorders. Despite this, researchers continue to frame Internet use disorders as an addiction, recently exemplified by the inclusion of Internet gaming disorder in the DSM‐5 research appendix as a behavioral addiction. This paper claims that the decision to use an addiction framework to study Internet use disorders has consequences for the way in which results are interpreted, which impacts the potential for theoretical and etiological contributions negatively. The paper argues that a perspective of addiction may not be the most useful approach because it causes a mismatch between theory and findings in empirical work: it is not uncommon to find that a study is positioned as a study of addiction, but presents findings more illustrative of coping behaviors. The paper draws on two examples from the literature to illustrate this mismatch and discusses how this hinders theoretical and etiological development. The question that is asked going forward is what alternative explanations we might identify by not exclusively adhering to an addiction framework for purposes of research. Recommendations are given for how to usefully approach the study of Internet use disorders outside a framework of addiction. It also discusses how scholars who still prefer a framework of addiction might strengthen their conceptual position to ensure improved contributions to etiology and theoretical development.
The health of immigrant children who live in areas with high immigrant concentration

ABSTRACT Objectives. Our objective is to contribute to the literature regarding the association between immigrant children's health, their ethnicity and their living in neighbourhoods with a high ethnic concentration of one's own ethnicity. Using data from families from five ethnic groups who all immigrated to Vancouver metropolitan region in Canada, our research question asks: How ethnicity, ethnic concentration and living in a neighbourhood with others of the same ethnic background contribute to the health of immigrant children? Design. Two data sets are integrated in our study. The first is the New Canadian Children and Youth Study, which collected original data from five ethnic groups who immigrated to metropolitan Vancouver. The second data set, from which we derived neighbourhood data, is the Canadian census. The dependent variable is health status as reported by the parent. Independent variables are at both the individual and neighbourhood levels, including ethnicity, sex and the percentage of people living in the neighbourhood of the same ethnic background. Analysis was completed using hierarchical linear modelling. Results. Children (n = 759) from 24 neighbourhoods were included in the analyses. Health status varied by ethnicity and ethnic concentration, indicating the heterogeneity of immigrant populations. Conclusion. With the lack of research on the health of immigrant children and youth living in ethnic concentrations, our findings make an important contribution to understanding the influences on the well-being of immigrant populations.
Scripted GUI Testing of Android Apps: A Study on Diffusion, Evolution and Fragility

Background. Evidence suggests that mobile applications are not thoroughly tested as their desktop counterparts. In particular GUI testing is generally limited. Like web-based applications, mobile apps suffer from GUI test fragility, i.e. GUI test classes failing due to minor modifications in the GUI, without the application functionalities being altered. Aims. The objective of our study is to examine the diffusion of GUI testing on Android, and the amount of changes required to keep test classes up to date, and in particular the changes due to GUI test fragility. We define metrics to characterize the modifications and evolution of test classes and test methods, and proxies to estimate fragility-induced changes. Method. To perform our experiments, we selected six widely used open-source tools for scripted GUI testing of mobile applications previously described in the literature. We have mined the repositories on GitHub that used those tools, and computed our set of metrics. Results. We found that none of the considered GUI testing frameworks achieved a major diffusion among the open-source Android projects available on GitHub. For projects with GUI tests, we found that test suites have to be modified often, specifically 5%--10% of developers' modified LOCs belong to tests, and that a relevant portion (60% on average) of such modifications are induced by fragility. Conclusions. Fragility of GUI test classes constitute a relevant concern, possibly being an obstacle for developers to adopt automated scripted GUI tests. This first evaluation and measure of fragility of Android scripted GUI testing can constitute a benchmark for developers, and the basis for the definition of a taxonomy of fragility causes, and actionable guidelines to mitigate the issue.
SILICA FUME CONCRETE IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

The significant benefits and potential of silica fume concrete (SFC) are noted, and its development for a variety of applications in Australia is described. Papers presented at the Concrete Institute of Australia (CIA) Conference on Supplementary Cementing Materials in Sydney, in 1988, highlighted these aspects. Condensed silica fume properties are tabulated and discussed, as well as mix proportions of SF. Field trials are described, and it is noted that significant opportunities exist for SFC. Various construction projects in Melbourne are described. Mix design and production control are discussed.
Population Control Policies and Fertility Convergence.

Rapid population growth in developing countries in the middle of the 20th century led to fears of a population explosion and motivated the inception of what effectively became a global population-control program. The initiative, propelled in its beginnings by intellectual elites in the United States, Sweden, and some developing countries, mobilized resources to enact policies aimed at reducing fertility by widening contraception provision and changing family-size norms. In the following five decades, fertility rates fell dramatically, with a majority of countries converging to a fertility rate just above two children per woman, despite large cross-country differences in economic variables such as GDP per capita, education levels, urbanization, and female labor force participation. The fast decline in fertility rates in developing economies stands in sharp contrast with the gradual decline experienced earlier by more mature economies. In this paper, we argue that population-control policies likely played a central role in the global decline in fertility rates in recent decades and can explain some patterns of that fertility decline that are not well accounted for by other socioeconomic factors.