Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is polycystic ovary syndrome an exception for reproductive aging?

BACKGROUND Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) is increased in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), suggesting a delay in ovarian aging. We examined AMH levels in PCOS and normo-ovulatory women in a population-based cohort over a period of 10 years and used this information to estimate their menopausal age. METHODS Of a subset of 1002 non-menopausal women randomly selected from the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study, 85 cases of PCOS were diagnosed. We frequency-matched our control subjects with PCOS cases based on age and BMI. AMH levels were assessed at the time of recruitment (T1) and twice after that (T2 and T3). AMH levels were then plotted against age of the individual at the time of the measurement and the most appropriate model was selected. Menopause was calculated based on AMH levels below 0.2 ng/ml. RESULTS AMH levels were significantly higher in PCOS cases compared with controls at the beginning of the study (5.58 +/- 3.64 versus 4.35 +/- 2.90 ng/ml, P = 0.03), but the difference diminished considerably in subsequent assessments. The rate of AMH decline in PCOS cases decreased in the second compared with the first interval; however, no apparent change in the rate of decline was observed in controls. Estimated ages at menopause were 51 [95% confidence interval (CI), 34-81] and 49 (95% CI, 38-63) years in PCOS cases and controls, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The reproductive lifespan of PCOS women extends on average 2 years beyond that of normo-ovulatory women.
GermaNER: Free Open German Named Entity Recognition Tool

With this paper, we release a freely available statistical German Named Entity Tag-ger based on conditional random ﬁelds (CRF). The tagger is trained and evaluated on the GermEval 2014 dataset for named entity recognition and comes close to the performance of the best (proprietary) system in the competition with 76% F-measure test set performance on the four standard NER classes. We describe a range of features and their inﬂuence on German NER classiﬁcation and provide a comparative evaluation and some analysis of the results. The software components, the training data and all data used for feature generation are distributed under permissive licenses, thus this tagger can be used in academic and commercial settings without restrictions or fees. The tagger is available as a command-line tool and as an Apache UIMA component.
Bioactive compounds and antioxidants from a Mediterranean garland harvested at two stages of maturity

Abstract Chrysanthemum coronarium L. (garland) is an herbaceous plant rich in bioactive compounds. The chemical composition, bioactive compounds and antioxidant properties of a Mediterranean garland population were investigated in different organs at two phenological stages. Antioxidant capacity varied from 7.9 (vegetative) to 14.4 (flowering) mmol Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity 100 g−1 dry weight (DW). A significant correlation between antioxidant capacity and total phenolics and total flavonoids was found at flowering stage. LC-MS/MS analysis revealed that chlorogenic acid reached a maximum of 4.7 μg g−1 DW in leaves; flowers were high in luteolin (2.37 μg g−1 DW), whereas leaves showed a remarkable content of rutin (1.78 μg g−1 DW). Results highlight differences in bioactive compound levels and antioxidant capacity related to plant stages and organs. This research provides new insights into antioxidant activities and chemistry of garland, in view of its exploitation in areas of fodder resources, functional foods and natural antioxidants.
Evaluation of the Convergence Region of an Automated Registration Method for 3D Laser Scanner Point Clouds

Using three dimensional point clouds from both simulated and real datasets from close and terrestrial laser scanners, the rotational and translational convergence regions of Geometric Primitive Iterative Closest Points (GP-ICP) are empirically evaluated. The results demonstrate the GP-ICP has a larger rotational convergence region than the existing methods, e.g., the Iterative Closest Point (ICP).
Repeat Polymorphisms in the Low-Complexity Regions of Plasmodium falciparum ABC Transporters and Associations with In Vitro Antimalarial Responses

ABSTRACT The Plasmodium falciparum genome is rich in regions of low amino acid complexity which evolve with few constraints on size. To explore the extent of diversity in these loci, we sequenced repeat regions in pfmdr1, pfmdr5, pfmdr6, pfmrp2, and the antigenic locus pfmsp8 in laboratory and cultured-adapted clinical isolates. We further assessed associations between the repeats and parasite in vitro responses to 7 antimalarials to determine possible adaptive roles of these repeats in drug tolerance. Our results show extensive repeat variations in the reference and clinical isolates in all loci. We also observed a modest increase in dihydroartemisinin activity in parasites harboring the pfmdr1 sequence profile 7-2-10 (reflecting the number of asparagine repeats, number of aspartate repeats, and number of asparagine repeats in the final series of the gene product) (P = 0.0321) and reduced sensitivity to chloroquine, mefloquine, quinine, and dihydroartemisinin in those with the 7-2-11 profile (P = 0.0051, 0.0068, 0.0011, and 0.0052, respectively). Interestingly, we noted an inverse association between two drugs whereby isolates with 6 asparagine repeats encoded by pfmdr6 were significantly more susceptible to piperaquine than those with 8 (P = 0.0057). Against lumefantrine, those with 8 repeats were, however, more sensitive (P = 0.0144). In pfmrp2, the 7-DNNNTS/NNNNTS (number of DNNNTS or NNNNTS motifs; underlining indicates dimorphism) repeat group was significantly associated with a higher lumefantrine 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) (P = 0.008) than in those without. No associations were observed with pfmsp8. These results hint at the probable utility of some repeat conformations as markers of in vitro antimalarial response; hence, biochemical functional studies to ascertain their role in P. falciparum are required.
Involvement of glutamate in rest‐stimulus interaction between perigenual and supragenual anterior cingulate cortex: A combined fMRI‐MRS study

The brain shows a high degree of activity at rest. The significance of this activity has come increasingly into focus. At present, however, the interaction between this activity and stimulus‐induced activity is not well defined. The interaction between a task‐negative (perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, pgACC) and task‐positive (supragenual anterior cingulate cortex, sgACC) region during a simple task was thus investigated using a combination of fMRI and MRS. Negative BOLD responses in the pgACC were found to show a unidirectional effective connectivity with task‐induced positive BOLD responses in the sgACC. This connectivity was shown to be related specifically with glutamate levels in the pgACC. These results demonstrate an interaction between deactivation from resting‐state and resting‐state glutamate levels in a task‐negative region (pgACC), and task‐induced activity in a task‐positive region (sgACC). This provides insight into the neuronal and biochemical mechanisms by means of which the resting state activity of the brain potentially impacts upon subsequent stimulus‐induced activity. Hum Brain Mapp, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Connexin57 is expressed in dendro‐dendritic and axo‐axonal gap junctions of mouse horizontal cells and its distribution is modulated by light

Mouse horizontal cells are coupled by gap junctions composed of connexin57. These gap junctions are regulated by ambient light via multiple neuromodulators including dopamine. In order to analyze the distribution and structure of horizontal cell gap junctions in the mouse retina, and examine the effects of light adaptation on gap junction density, we developed antibodies that detect mouse retinal connexin57. Using immunohistochemistry in retinal slices, flat‐mounted retinas, and dissociated retinal cells, we showed that connexin57 is expressed in the dendrites and axon terminal processes of mouse horizontal cells. No staining was found in retinas of connexin57‐deficient mice. Significantly more connexin57‐positive puncta were found in the distal than in the proximal outer plexiform layer, indicating a higher level of expression in axon terminal processes than in the dendrites. We also examined the gap junctions using immunoelectron microscopy and showed that connexin57 does not form hemichannels in the horizontal cell dendritic tips. Light adaptation resulted in a significant increase in the number of connexin57‐immunoreactive plaques in the outer plexiform layer, consistent with previously reported effects of light adaptation on connexin57 expression in the mouse retina. This study shows for the first time the detailed location of connexin57 expression within mouse horizontal cells, and provides the first ultrastructural data on mouse horizontal cell gap junctions. J. Comp. Neurol. 513:363–374, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Representativeness and climatology of carbon monoxide and ozone at the global GAW station Mt. Kenya in equatorial Africa

The tropics strongly influence the global atmospheric chemistry budget. However, continuous in-situ observations of trace gases are rare especially in equatorial Africa. The WMO Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme aimed to close this gap with the installation of the Mt. Kenya (MKN) baseline station. Here, the first continuous measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O 3 ) at this site covering the period June 2002 to June 2006 are presented. The representativeness of the site was investigated by means of statistical data analysis, air mass trajectory clustering, interpretation of biomass burning variability and evaluation of O 3 -CO relationships. Because of its location in eastern equatorial Africa, the site was rarely directly influenced by biomass burning emissions, making it suitable for background observations. Located at 3678 m above sea level the night-time (21:00–04:00 UTC) measurements of CO and O 3 were in general representative of the free troposphere, while day-time measurements were influenced by atmospheric boundary layer air. Increased night-time concentrations were observed in 25% of all nights and associated with residual layers of increased CO and water vapour in the free troposphere. Six representative flow regimes towards Mt. Kenya were determined: eastern Africa (21% of the time), Arabian Peninsula and Pakistan (16%), northern Africa free tropospheric (6%), northern Indian Ocean and India (17%), south-eastern Africa (18%) and southern India Ocean (21%) flow regimes. The seasonal alternation of these flow regimes was determined by the monsoon circulation and caused a distinct semi-annual cycle of CO with maxima during February (primary) and August (secondary, annually variable) and with minima in April (primary) and November (secondary, annually variable). O 3 showed a weaker annual cycle with a minimum in November and a broad summer maximum. Inter-annual variations were explained with differences in southern African biomass burning and transport towards MKN. Although biomass burning had little direct influence on the measurements at MKN it introduces inter-annual variability in the background concentrations of the southern hemisphere that subsequently reaches Kenya. The measurements at MKN were representative of air masses with little photochemical activity as indicated by weak O 3 -CO correlations, underlining the baseline character of the site. Inter-comparison of O 3 at MKN with sounding data from Nairobi revealed a positive offset of the sounding data, most likely due to additional photochemical production of O 3 in the Nairobi city plume. Future extensions of the measurement programme will provide better understanding of the atmospheric chemistry of this globally important region.
Personality, Preferred Values, Sense of Coherence and Attitude towards Death among Policemen - Antiterrorists

The present study was aimed at identifying the personality traits, preferred values, sense of coherence and attitude towards death of Polish policemen - antiterrorists. Group of antiterrorists consisted of 44 policemen who represented the special units (Mage = 31.5yr., SD=5.81). Control group consisted of 40 policemen preferred sedentary or routine patrol jobs (Mage=33.3yr., SD=5.10). Subjects were administrated the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire – ZKPQ, the Value Survey of Schwartz, the Sense of Coherence Scale and the Death Attitude Questionnaire. It was found that the antiterrorists policemen group scored significantly lower on Neuroticism than the control group and scored significantly higher on Sensation Seeking. The antiterrorists were characterized also with significantly higher result in comparison to the control group in such value scale as: Stimulation. In other scales of values policemen don’t differed. The antiterrorists group scored significantly higher on: the Comprehensibility, the Manageability, Meaningfulness and global Sense of Coherence scales than the control policemen group. Besides, antiterrorists policemen also scored significantly higher on Preferred Fast Kind of Death than the control group. Unexpectedly, anxiety towards death in both groups of policemen was similar.
Rate Allocation for Cooperative Orthogonal-Division Channels with Dirty-Paper Coding

This paper investigates how much the rate region of the two-user Gaussian interference channel can be enlarged by allowing the two source nodes to cooperate. Two cooperative transmission schemes are proposed, based on dirty-paper coding and the assumption that the radio bandwidth is partitioned into two parts, and each part is utilized by one source node. The achievable rate regions and the outage performance of these two schemes are compared with the simplified Han-Kobayashi scheme, which is an efficient coding scheme for the interference channel. Simulation results show that in some channel realizations, the rate region of the Han-Kobayashi scheme is a subset of the rate regions of our two proposed cooperative transmission schemes. Furthermore, a significant gain in outage performance can be obtained, as the cooperative schemes have twice the diversity order of the simplified Han-Kobayashi scheme. While both cooperative schemes are able to yield large diversity gain, one of them can be implemented by simple decoder. Besides, it has an efficient algorithm for maximizing its weighted sum rate, and can be extended easily to the multi-channel case.
Learning circuits with few negations

Monotone Boolean functions, and the monotone Boolean circuits that compute them, have been intensively studied in complexity theory. In this paper we study the structure of Boolean functions in terms of the minimum number of negations in any circuit computing them, a complexity measure that interpolates between monotone functions and the class of all functions. We study this generalization of monotonicity from the vantage point of learning theory, giving near-matching upper and lower bounds on the uniform-distribution learnability of circuits in terms of the number of negations they contain. Our upper bounds are based on a new structural characterization of negation-limited circuits that extends a classical result of A. A. Markov. Our lower bounds, which employ Fourier-analytic tools from hardness amplification, give new results even for circuits with no negations (i.e. monotone functions).
Fungal Lipid Accumulation and Development of Mycelial Structures by Two Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi

ABSTRACT We monitored the development of intraradical and extraradical mycelia of the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi Scutellospora calospora and Glomus intraradices when colonizing Plantago lanceolata. The occurrence of arbuscules (branched hyphal structures) and vesicles (lipid storage organs) was compared with the amounts of signature fatty acids. The fatty acid 16:1ω5 was used as a signature for both AM fungal phospholipids (membrane constituents) and neutral lipids (energy storage) in roots (intraradical mycelium) and in soil (extraradical mycelium). The formation of arbuscules and the accumulation of AM fungal phospholipids in intraradical mycelium followed each other closely in both fungal species. In contrast, the neutral lipids of G. intraradices increased continuously in the intraradical mycelium, while vesicle occurrence decreased after initial rapid root colonization by the fungus. S. calospora does not form vesicles and accumulated more neutral lipids in extraradical than in intraradical mycelium, while the opposite pattern was found for G. intraradices. G. intraradices allocated more of its lipids to storage than did S. calospora. Thus, within a species, the fatty acid 16:1ω5 is a good indicator for AM fungal development. The phospholipid fatty acid 16:1ω5 is especially suitable for indicating the frequency of arbuscules in the symbiosis. We propose that the ratio of neutral lipids to phospholipids is more important than is the presence of vesicles in determining the storage status of AM fungi.
Caspase 2 is both required for p53-mediated apoptosis and downregulated by p53 in a p21-dependent manner

Upon treatment with some DNA damaging agents, human H1299 tumor-derived cells expressing inducible versions of wild-type or mutant p53 with inactive transactivation domain I (p53Q22/S23) undergo apoptosis. In cells expressing either version of p53, caspase 2 activation is required for release of cytochrome c and cell death. Furthermore, silencing of PIDD (a factor previously shown to be required for caspase 2 activation) by siRNA suppresses apoptosis by both wild-type p53 and p53Q22/S23. Despite the finding that caspase 2 is essential for DNA damage-facilitated, p53-mediated apoptosis, induction of wild-type p53 (with or without DNA damage) resulted in a reduction of caspase 2 mRNA and protein levels. In this study we sought to provide a mechanism for the negative regulation of caspase 2 by p53 as well as provide insight as to why p53 may repress a key mediator of p53-dependent apoptosis. Mechanistically, we show that DNA binding and/or transactivation domains of p53 are crucial for mediating transrepression. Further, expression of p21 (in p53-null cells inducibly expressing p21) is sufficient to mediate repression of caspase 2. Deletion of p21 or E2F-1 not only abrogated repression of caspase 2, but also stimulated the expression of caspase 2 above basal levels, implicating the requirement for an intact p21/Rb/E2F pathway in the down-regulation of caspase 2. As this p53/p21-dependent repression of caspase 2 can occur in the absence of DNA damage, caspase 2 repression does not simply seem to be a consequence of the apoptotic process. Down-regulation of caspase 2 levels by p53 may help to determine cell fate by preventing cell death when unnecessary.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) X gene diversity and evidence of recombination in HBV/HIV co‐infected persons

The high frequency of mutation during hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has resulted in 8 genotypes (A–H) with varying effects on disease severity and treatment efficacy. However, analysis of intrapatient HBV diversity is limited, especially during HIV co‐infection. Therefore, a preliminary study was performed to analyze HBV X gene diversity in 17 HBV/HIV co‐infected individuals. Phylogenetic analysis revealed HBV genotype A in 13 individuals (76.5%) or genotype E in 1 individual (5.9%). Additionally, 3 individuals were dually infected with HBV genotypes A and G (17.6%). Overall, higher genetic distance and entropy were observed in the X region and overlapping polymerase (Pol(X)) regions when compared to the PreS, S, and overlapping polymerase (Pol(PS) and Pol(S)) regions analyzed in the same patients as part of a previous study. In addition, multiple viral variants from 2 individuals with dual HBV infection did not group with either genotype A or G by phylogenetic analysis, indicating possible recombination. SimPlot bootscan analysis confirmed recombination breakpoints within the X gene in both individuals. Recombination between HBV genotypes may represent an important evolutionary strategy that enhances overall pathogenic potential and/or alters the downstream effects of the HBV X protein. J. Med. Virol. 83:1142–1150, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Accumulation of Copper in Different Tissues and Changes in Oxygen Consumption Rate in Indian Flying Barb , Esomus Danricus ( Hamilton-Buchanan ) Exposed to Sub-Lethal Concentrations of Copper

In the present work, the accumulation pattern of sub-lethal doses (0.005, 0.0025 and 0.001 µgl -1 ) of copper (Cu) in different tissues of Indian flying barb, Esomus danricus and its influence on the rate of oxygen consumption of this fish at the end of 28 days of exposure were studied. It was found that the pattern of accumulation changed with concentration. Cu concentration increased in all the tissues except bone and brain and the rate of uptake of Cu increased with time in the gill, liver and flesh but remained same in kidney. Treatment of 0.005 and 0.0025 µgl -1 of Cu produced significant decline in the rates of oxygen consumption of the fish at all exposure duration, while treatment of 0.001 µgl -1 produced similar decline only after 14 days of exposure when compared to control. Higher doses of exposure had more severe effects.
Optimal estimation of human body segments dynamics using realtime visual feedback

Mass parameters of the human body segments are mandatory when studying motion dynamics. In orthopedics, biomechanics and rehabilitation they are of crucial importance. Inaccuracies their value generate errors in the motion analysis, misleading the interpretation of results. No systematic method to estimate them has been proposed so far. Rather, parameters are scaled from generic tables or estimated with methods inappropriate for in-patient care. Based on our previous works, we propose a real-time software and its interface that allow to estimate the whole-body segment parameters, and to visualize the progresses of the completion of the identification. The visualization is used as a visual feedback to optimize the excitation and thus the identification results. The method is experimentally tested and obtained results are discussed.
Immunological changes in response to exercise: influence of age, puberty, and gender.

PURPOSE This study tested the hypothesis that exercise-induced perturbation and recovery of the immune system would vary with age, puberty, and gender in healthy children and adolescents. METHODS Twelve-year-old girls (YG; N = 14) and boys (YB; N = 20), and 14-yr-old girls (OG; N = 11) and boys (OB; N = 13) cycled for 60 min at 70% VO2max. Blood was collected before, at 30 and 60 min of exercise, and at 30 and 60 min of recovery to measure total leukocytes, leukocyte and lymphocyte subsets, and cytokines. Age and pubertal (Tanner stage) effects within genders and gender effects within age and pubertal groups were determined. RESULTS Exercise-induced increases in lymphocytes, CD3-CD16+CD56+ counts, and IL-6 were approximately 83, 90, and 390% greater in OG versus YG (P < 0.05). Recovery leukocytosis and neutrophilia were approximately 56 and 35% greater in OB versus YB (P < 0.05). Pubertal stage did not have a statistically significant influence on responses in girls, but the lowest pubertal stage consistently showed smaller changes in lymphocytes and CD3-CD16+CD56+ counts. Recovery neutrophilia was approximately 120% greater in postpubertal boys versus prepubertal or pubertal boys (P < 0.05). Responses of lymphocytes and CD3-CD16+CD56+ counts, respectively, were approximately 120 and 82% greater in OG versus OB (P < 0.05), with no differences between YG and YB. Exercise-induced increases in total leukocytes, lymphocytes, and CD3-CD16+CD56+ counts were at least 35% greater in girls versus boys of similar pubertal status (P < 0.05). Regardless of age, puberty, or gender, IL-8 levels were significantly higher during recovery versus rest (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION These results highlight the need to control for age, puberty, and gender when interpreting immunologic responses to exercise in a pediatric population.