Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary and Secondary Features of Parkinson's Disease Improve with Strategic Exposure to Bright Light: A Case Series Study

The antagonism of melatonin in models of Parkinson's disease (PD) can reduce the severity of motor impairment associated with dopamine (DA) degeneration. In consideration of the potent antidepressant effects of bright light therapy (LT), that LT suppresses melatonin secretion, that depression is commonly observed in PD, and that exposure to constant light facilitates recovery from experimental PD, the object of the present study was to strategically administer LT to PD patients and observe the effects on depression, insomnia, and motor performance. Twelve patients diagnosed with PD were exposed to white fluorescent light for 1–1.5 h at an intensity of 1000 to 1500 lux once daily commencing 1 h prior to the usual time of sleep onset, ∼22:00 h in most patients. All patients were assessed before LT commenced and at two weeks, five weeks, and regular intervals thereafter. Within two weeks after commencing LT, marked improvement in bradykinaesia and rigidity was observed in most patients. Tremor was not affected by LT treatment; however, agitation, dyskinaesia, and psychiatric side effects were reduced, as verified by decreased requirement for DA replacement therapy. Elevated mood, improved sleep, decreased seborrhea, reduced impotence, and increased appetite were observed after LT. LT permitted the reduction of the dose of L‐dopa, bromocriptine, or deprenyl in some patients by up to 50% without loss of symptom control. Factors limiting the efficacy of LT included multiple disease states, treatment compliance, polypharmacy, emotional stress, advanced age, and predominance of positive symptoms. The results of this case series study confirms previous work describing light as efficacious in the treatment of PD and suggest that controlled trials may help to elucidate how LT might be used strategically as an adjunct therapy to improve the morbidity of PD patients.
School-Based Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Programs: Moving Toward Resiliency-Informed Evaluation

Although recent years have seen an increase in the range of child sexual abuse prevention programs delivered in schools, there have been relatively few efficacy studies. Those conducted have focused primarily on intrinsic child factors and have often lacked an explicit theoretical framework. We offer resiliency theory as a useful and apposite theoretical framework for program evaluation. Resiliency theory suggests that a wider range of factors should be considered, including intrinsic (personal characteristics) and extrinsic (environmental) factors. Such factors may increase risk or, alternatively, protect children from the negative effects of adversity. We argue that a resiliency perspective to efficacy studies should recognize a long-term view on children’s capacity to cope and can employ both standardized and contextual resiliency-informed measures.
Grant-Free Massive NOMA: Outage Probability and Throughput

In this paper, we consider a massive uncoordinated non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme where devices have strict latency requirements and no retransmission opportunities are available. Each device chooses a pilot sequence from a predetermined set as its signature and transmits its selected pilot and data simultaneously. A collision occurs when two or more devices choose the same pilot sequence. Collisions are treated as interference to the remaining received signals. We consider successive joint decoding (SJD) and successive interference cancellation (SIC) under a Rayleigh fading and path loss channel model. We first derive the expression for the outage probability for the case where devices transmit at the same fixed rate. Then, we derive the expression for the maximum achievable throughput for the case where devices transmit with rateless codes. Thus, their code rate is adaptive to the system conditions, i.e., load, received powers, and interference. Numerical results verify the accuracy of our analytical expressions. For low data rate transmissions, results show that SIC performs close to that of SJD in terms of outage probability for packet arrival rates up to 10 packets per slot. However, SJD can achieve almost double the throughput of SIC and is, thus, far more superior.
Comparing 18F-AV-1451 with CSF t-tau and p-tau for diagnosis of Alzheimer disease

Objective To compare PET imaging of tau pathology with CSF measurements (total tau [t-tau] and phosphorylated tau [p-tau]) in terms of diagnostic performance for Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods We compared t-tau and p-tau and 18F-AV-1451 in 30 controls, 14 patients with prodromal AD, and 39 patients with Alzheimer dementia, recruited from the Swedish BioFINDER study. All patients with AD (prodromal and dementia) were screened for amyloid positivity using CSF β-amyloid 42. Retention of 18F-AV-1451 was measured in a priori specified regions, selected for known associations with tau pathology in AD. Results Retention of 18F-AV-1451 was markedly elevated in Alzheimer dementia and moderately elevated in prodromal AD. CSF t-tau and p-tau was increased to similar levels in both AD dementia and prodromal AD. 18F-AV-1451 had very good diagnostic performance for Alzheimer dementia (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC] ∼1.000), and was significantly better than t-tau (0.876), p-tau (0.890), hippocampal volume (0.824), and temporal cortical thickness (0.860). For prodromal AD, there were no significant AUROC differences between CSF tau and 18F-AV-1451 measures (0.836–0.939), but MRI measures had lower AUROCs (0.652–0.769). Conclusions CSF tau and 18F-AV-1451 have equal performance in early clinical stages of AD, but 18F-AV-1451 is superior in the dementia stage, and exhibits close to perfect diagnostic performance for mild to moderate AD. Classification of evidence This study provides Class III evidence that CSF tau and 18F-AV-1451 PET have similar performance in identifying early AD, and that 18F-AV-1451 PET is superior to CSF tau in identifying mild to moderate AD.
Role of Protein Glycosylation in Candida parapsilosis Cell Wall Integrity and Host Interaction

Candida parapsilosis is an important, emerging opportunistic fungal pathogen. Highly mannosylated fungal cell wall proteins are initial contact points with host immune systems. In Candida albicans, Och1 is a Golgi α1,6-mannosyltransferase that plays a key role in the elaboration of the N-linked mannan outer chain. Here, we disrupted C. parapsilosis OCH1 to gain insights into the contribution of N-linked mannosylation to cell fitness and to interactions with immune cells. Loss of Och1 in C. parapsilosis resulted in cellular aggregation, failure of morphogenesis, enhanced susceptibility to cell wall perturbing agents and defects in wall composition. We removed the cell wall O-linked mannans by β-elimination, and assessed the relevance of mannans during interaction with human monocytes. Results indicated that O-linked mannans are important for IL-1β stimulation in a dectin-1 and TLR4-dependent pathway; whereas both, N- and O-linked mannans are equally important ligands for TNFα and IL-6 stimulation, but neither is involved in IL-10 production. Furthermore, mice infected with C. parapsilosis och1Δ null mutant cells had significantly lower fungal burdens compared to wild-type (WT)-challenged counterparts. Therefore, our data are the first to demonstrate that C. parapsilosis N- and O-linked mannans have different roles in host interactions than those reported for C. albicans.
Novel insights into bat influenza A viruses

In 2012 and 2013, influenza virus genome sequences of two new influenza A virus (IAV) subtypes were discovered in bat specimens, but further characterization was largely impeded by the lack of infectious virus. With the identification of highly susceptible cell lines, reconstitution of infectious bat IAV by reverse genetics recently succeeded and allowed a first insight into the life cycle of these viruses. Although there is a certain degree of functional compatibility between bat and conventional influenza A virus proteins, there are striking differences, including receptor usage, polarity of infection and reassortment potential.
State Sequence Analysis in Hidden Markov Models

Given a discrete time finite state hidden Markov model (HMM) and a sequence of observations, there are different ways to estimate the hidden behavior of the system. In this paper, the problem of finding the most probable state sequence is considered. The state sequence, as opposed to the state trajectory, specifies the sequence of states that the HMM visits but does not specify the dwelling times in these states. This inference problem is relevant in a variety of domains, like text analysis, speech recognition, or behavior recognition, where the exact timing of hidden state transitions is not nearly as important as the sequence of states visited. No existing algorithm addresses this inference question adequately. Leveraging previous work on continuous time Markov chains, we develop a provably correct algorithm, called state sequence analysis, that addresses this inference question in HMMs. We discuss and illustrate empirically the differences between finding the most probable state sequence directly and doing so through running the Viterbi algorithm and collapsing repetitive state visitations. Experimental results in two synthetic domains demonstrate that the Viterbi-based approach can be significantly suboptimal compared to state sequence analysis. Further, we demonstrate the benefits of the proposed approach on a real activity recognition problem.
Otopathology in Idiopathic Dandy’s Syndrome

Background Dandy’s syndrome, or bilateral vestibular hypofunction and oscillopsia, may cause chronic disequilibrium aggravated by head movement or in the presence of reduced light. It may be secondary to ototoxicity, central nervous system tumors, Ménière’s syndrome, infections, or trauma or may be idiopathic. Objective To describe the temporal bone histopathology in one individual with idiopathic Dandy’s syndrome. Materials and Methods Temporal bones from 1 individual were removed at autopsy and studied using light and Nomarski microscopy. Results In this case, the otopathology demonstrated vestibular atelectasis of the membranous labyrinth of the superior, lateral, and posterior semicircular canals but not the utricle or saccule bilaterally. The findings also included mild hair cell loss in the cristae of all semicircular canals and of the utricular and saccular maculae and severely reduced neuronal count in Scarpa’s ganglion bilaterally. There was also a scattered loss of inner and outer hair cells throughout the cochlea and moderate-to-severe loss of cochlear neurons bilaterally. Conclusion We have reported the histopathologic findings in a case of idiopathic Dandy’s syndrome. Both temporal bones showed vestibular atelectasis of all three semicircular canals, preservation of normal saccule and utricle, and severe reduction of the neuronal population in Scarpa’s ganglion bilaterally. Both ears also showed substantial degeneration of the spiral ganglion of the cochleas. Severe Scarpa’s ganglion degeneration was also noted in the only other case of idiopathic Dandy’s Syndrome in the literature. However, that other case had no evidence of vestibular atelectasis and had normal hearing.
Hypoxemia after myocardial revascularization: analysis of risk factors.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Severe hypoxemia is complication frequently seen in the immediate postoperative period of myocardial revascularization (MR), increasing the duration of mechanical ventilation, the incidence of pulmonary infections, hospital costs, and mortality. The objective of this study was to identify predictive factors of severe hypoxemia in patients undergoing MR. METHODS Four-hundred and eighty-one adult patients undergoing elective MR between October 2003 and March 2004 were enrolled in this study. Severe hypoxemia was defined as PaO2/FiO2 < 150 upon admission to the ICU. The Chi-square test, Student's t or Wilcoxon test, followed by multivariate analysis and logistic regression (LR) for parameters with p < 0.25 in the univariate analysis, were used for the statistical analysis. A p > 0.2 was required to exclude the parameter from the LR model, and a p < 0.1 was considered significant. RESULTS Time for extubation was greater in patients with severe hypoxemia (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified age (p = 0.081), weight (p = 0.001), need of prolonged CBP (p = 0.033), and left ventricular dysfunction (p = 0.082) as independent predictors of severe hypoxemia. CONCLUSIONS Older and overweighted patients, those with left ventricular dysfunction, and those who needed CPB presented an increased risk of severe hypoxemia after MR. In those patients, the use of perioperative ventilatory strategies, with elevated positive expiratory pressures and alveolar recruitment maneuver should be considered to prevent postoperative pulmonary dysfunction.
From hemorheology to microcirculation and regenerative medicine: Fåhraeus Lecture 2009.

It is a great honor for me to receive the Fahraeus Award and I would like to thank the European Society very much for this. The medal represents an important milestone in my life and to have achieved it fills me with immense joy. I was especially pleased that my laudation was held by Mike Rampling – whom I had the pleasure of presenting the Fahraeus medal in Dresden – and that this year it was his turn to present it to me. Mike is a very good friend of mine and an outstanding personality. I have always enjoyed the articles he has published and the lectures he has given over the past years. To be honored with the Fahraeus medal as a non-physician was only possible due to my close collaborative research relationship with many clinicians within a vast network. Therefore, my most sincere thanks go to all with whom I had the pleasure of working during the past 25 years. As has been the tradition for many years, I would now like to present some of the most important of my work projects. My first work in the field of hemorheology was to investigate under which conditions the HagenPoiseuille Law is valid. This question can be answered straightforwardly by continuum physics. General mass and impulse balance equations form coupled systems of partial differential equations that are not directly solvable with respect to the associated exit, transient and boundary conditions.
Activities of 1-(2-deoxy-2-fluoro-beta-D-arabinofuranosyl)-5-iodocytosine and its metabolites against herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 in cell culture and in mice infected intracerebrally with herpes simplex virus type 2

As measured by plaque and yield reduction assays, several metabolites of 1-(2-deoxy-2-fluoro-beta-D-arabinofuranosyl)-5-iodocytosine (FIAC) were highly active against herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2. These metabolites included the 2'-deoxy-2'-fluoroarabinosyl derivatives of 5-iodouracil (FIAU), cytosine (FAC), uracil (FAU), and thymine (FMAU). In mice inoculated intracerebrally with herpes simplex virus type 2, the relative order of potency of these compounds and licensed antiviral drugs was as follows: FMAU much greater than FIAC approximately equal to FIAU greater than acyclovir approximately equal to vidarabine much greater than FAC approximately equal to FAU. One of the main metabolites of FMAU, 2'-fluoro-5-hydroxymethyl-arabinosyluracil, was essentially inactive in vivo. FIAC-, FIAU-, FMAU-, FAC-, and FAU-resistant herpes simplex virus variants prepared in cell culture were found to be (i) devoid of viral thymidine kinase, (ii) cross-resistant to one another and resistant to drugs requiring viral thymidine kinase for activation, and (iii) sensitive to vidarabine or phosphonoformate. These results indicate that FIAC, FIAU, and FMAU require the virally encoded thymidine kinase for activation and suggest that the antiviral activity of FAU and FAC in cell cultures is also mediated by this enzyme. The interaction of the fluoroarabinosyl pyrimidine nucleosides with herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase in a cell-free system is also described.
Effect of thermoplastic toughening agent on phase separation and physicochemical properties of bismaleimide resin

The modified resin system of 4, 4'-bismaleimidodiphenylmethane ((BDM)/ortho-diallyl bisphenol A(DBA)(BMI)/reactive groups-terminated polyethersulfone (rPESU) (BMI/P)was prepared by melting pre-polymerization. Typical properties (The gelation time, mechanism, phase structure and thermal stability) of the BMI/P resin were systematically investigated, and their origins were discussed. The results show that the addition of rPESU into BMI resin not only significantly improves the impact toughness and the strength, but also effectively improves the thermal stability although the glass transition temperature is reduced slightly. However the reaction rate of BMI/P resin is accelerated and the gelation time is shortened because of the presence of reactive groups. And then, the cured BMI/P resin has a more complex multi-stage phase structure. Those are the difference with the polyethersulfone (PES) without terminated by reactive groups.
Reconciling isothermal titration calorimetry analyses of interactions between complexin and truncated SNARE complexes

Neurotransmitter release depends on the SNARE complex formed by syntaxin-1, synaptobrevin and SNAP-25, as well as on complexins, which bind to the SNARE complex and play active and inhibitory roles. A crystal structure of a Complexin-I fragment bearing a so-called 'superclamp' mutation bound to a truncated SNARE complex lacking the C-terminus of the synaptobrevin SNARE motif (SNAREΔ60) suggested that an 'accessory' α-helix of Complexin-I inhibits release by inserting into the C-terminus of the SNARE complex. Previously, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) experiments performed in different laboratories yielded apparently discrepant results in support or against the existence of such binding mode in solution (Trimbuch et al., 2014; Krishnakumar et al., 2015). Here, ITC experiments performed to solve these discrepancies now show that the region containing the Complexin-I accessory helix and preceding N-terminal sequences does interact with SNAREΔ60, but the interaction requires the polybasic juxtamembrane region of syntaxin-1 and is not affected by the superclamp mutation within the experimental error of these experiments.
Conservative versus operative treatment for hip fractures.

BACKGROUND Until operative treatment involving the use of various implants was introduced in the 1950s, hip fractures were managed using conservative methods based on traction and bed rest. OBJECTIVES To compare conservative with operative treatment for fractures of the proximal femur (hip) in adults. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Injuries Group trials register and bibliographies of published papers, and contacted trialists. Date of the most recent search: August 1999. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised and quasi-randomised trials comparing these two treatment methods in adults with hip fracture. Outcomes sought fell into four categories: a) fracture fixation complications, b) post-operative or clinical complications, c) anatomical restoration and d) final outcome measures including mortality. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two reviewers independently assessed trial quality, by use of an twelve item scale, and extracted data. Additional information was sought from trialists. After grouping by fracture type, comparable groups of trials were subgrouped by implant type and where appropriate, data were pooled using the fixed effects model. MAIN RESULTS The five randomised trials identified involved only 425 elderly patients. One small and potentially biased trial of 23 patients with undisplaced intracapsular fracture showed a reduced risk of non-union for those fractures treated operatively. The four identified studies on extracapsular fractures tested a variety of surgical techniques and implant devices and only one trial involving 106 patients can be considered to test current practice. In this trial, no differences were found in medical complications, mortality and long-term pain. However, operative treatment was more likely to result in the fracture healing without leg shortening, a shorter hospital stay and a statistically non-significant increase in the return of patients back to their original residence. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS Given the lack of available evidence to inform practice and the continued variation in practice, good quality randomised trials of operative versus conservative treatment for undisplaced intracapsular fractures are warranted. The limited available evidence from randomised trials does not suggest major differences in outcome between conservative and operative management programmes for extracapsular femoral fractures, but operative treatment appears to be associated with a reduced length of hospital stay and improved rehabilitation. However these results are derived mainly from one study. Conservative treatment will be acceptable where modern surgical facilities are unavailable, and will result in a reduction in complications associated with surgery, but rehabilitation is likely to be slower and limb deformity more common. Although further randomised trials would provide more robust data, they may be difficult to mount.
Effect of engagement and collaborative learning on satisfaction through the use of social media on Malaysian higher education

As social networks continue to proliferate, the question arises as to how to attract students and researchers to different online sites. In this regard, the present study focused on the interactivity of social networks and their role in satisfying students. Accordingly, this study proposed a model comprising of factors that assist in answering the study questions. A developed questionnaire was then distributed to 132 students and users' of social media websites that obtains relevant information regarding technology acceptance, interactivity and satisfaction of students. The findings suggested that both Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) related factors as well as interactivity affect the satisfaction and academic performance of students.
Perceived risk: effects on reaching and placing performance in persons with cerebrovascular accident.

OBJECTIVE Developing useful movement with the affected extremity in persons with cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs) is a common occupational therapy goal. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perceived risk in an occupational form on upper-extremity movement dynamics in persons who have had CVAs. METHOD Twenty-eight persons (M = 69.6 years, SD = 15.6 years) with post-CVA participated in the randomly assigned, repeated measures counterbalanced study. In the higher risk condition, participants reached for and grasped a raw egg in an egg carton, transported it, and placed it in a bowl with other raw eggs. The same procedure was completed in the lower risk condition with weight-matched plastic eggs. Participants completed both conditions with their affected and unaffected upper extremities. Dependent variables included total movement time and movement units. RESULTS The higher risk condition produced statistically significantly longer movement times (p < or = .001), but no difference in movement units (p > .05) compared to the lower risk condition. The affected extremity had significantly longer overall movement times (p < or = .001), but no difference in movement units (p > .05) compared to the unaffected extremity. CONCLUSION When higher levels of perceived risk are present in an occupational form, slower movements are elicited among persons who have had a CVA. The occupational therapist can grade tasks from relatively lower risk to tasks with relatively higher risk to help patients achieve desired variability in their movement patterns. By doing this, the patient will be better prepared for everyday situations that vary widely in degree of risk.