Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neocortical Cholinergic Enzyme and Receptor Activities in the Human Fetal Brain

Abstract In the human fetus, obtained postmortem at estimated gestational ages of 8–22 weeks, biochemical activities of cortical choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcho‐linesterase (AChE) were comparable to those of adult brain tissue. In contrast cholinergic receptor binding, including muscarinic Ml and M2 subtypes (measured by displacement of [3H]N‐methylscopolamine with, respectively, pirenzepine and carbachol) and [3H]nicotine (putative nicotinic) binding were undetectable before 13–14 weeks and even at 22 weeks were substantially (three‐ to fourfold) below the respective adult values. Cortical ChAT activity decreased significantly with gestational age whereas binding to the three receptors, including the proportion M1/M2, increased significantly. AChE was present at all ages investigated as the two molecular monomeric (G1) and tetrameric (G4) forms. The proportion of G4, which was much more soluble in fetal compared with adult cortex, increased approximately threefold. Histochemically AChE, although intense in the nucleus of Meynert, was generally confined to subcortical white matter at early fetal developmental periods, appearing later in the cortex localized to nerve fibres and occasional cell bodies. These observations suggest that during the second trimester of human fetal development, cortical cholinergic function may be preceded by relatively high ChAT activity and paralleled not only by increasing receptor binding but also by a proportional increase in the tetrameric form and histochemical reactivity of AChE.
Carbohydrate Mouth Rinsing Enhances High Intensity Time Trial Performance Following Prolonged Cycling

There is good evidence that mouth rinsing with carbohydrate (CHO) solutions can enhance endurance performance (≥30 min). The impact of a CHO mouth rinse on sprint performance has been less consistent, suggesting that CHO may confer benefits in conditions of ‘metabolic strain’. To test this hypothesis, the current study examined the impact of late-exercise mouth rinsing on sprint performance. Secondly, we investigated the effects of a protein mouth rinse (PRO) on performance. Eight trained male cyclists participated in three trials consisting of 120 min of constant-load cycling (55% Wmax) followed by a 30 km computer-simulated time trial, during which only water was provided. Following 15 min of muscle function assessment, 10 min of constant-load cycling (3 min at 35% Wmax, 7 min at 55% Wmax) was performed. This was immediately followed by a 2 km time trial. Subjects rinsed with 25 mL of CHO, PRO, or placebo (PLA) at min 5:00 and 14:30 of the 15 min muscle function phase, and min 8:00 of the 10-min constant-load cycling. Magnitude-based inferential statistics were used to analyze the effects of the mouth rinse on 2-km time trial performance and the following physiological parameters: Maximum Voluntary Contract (MVC), Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), Heart Rate (HR), and blood glucose levels. The primary finding was that CHO ‘likely’ enhanced performance vs. PLA (3.8%), whereas differences between PRO and PLA were unclear (0.4%). These data demonstrate that late-race performance is enhanced by a CHO rinse, but not PRO, under challenging metabolic conditions. More data should be acquired before this strategy is recommended for the later stages of cycling competition under more practical conditions, such as when carbohydrates are supplemented throughout the preceding minutes/hours of exercise.
Information Systems Research in China: An Empirical Study

The study aims to develop an overview of information systems (IS) research in China in recent years and to identify the similarities and the differences between North American and Chinese IS research from four perspectives: reference discipline, research topics, research methods, and unit/level of analysis. A total of 604 research papers published in 18 leading Chinese academic journals from 1999 to 2003 were identified and reviewed. A categorization approach developed in previous studies was adopted to classify the IS research. The results show: 1) IS itself represented the major reference discipline used as the theoretical basis for the studies, and IS research in China does not demonstrate reliance on a single theory; 2) IS researchers in China have been clearly focused on organizational and system/software issues; 3) Non-Empirical Study was dominant in the field of IS research in China; 4) the majority of studies were conducted at the organization and system level. Group/team and individual level issues were not studied extensively.
Psychological stress detection from cross-media microblog data using Deep Sparse Neural Network

Long-term stress may lead to many severe physical and mental problems. Traditional psychological stress detection usually relies on the active individual participation, which makes the detection labor-consuming, time-costing and hysteretic. With the rapid development of social networks, people become more and more willing to share moods via microblog platforms. In this paper, we propose an automatic stress detection method from cross-media microblog data. We construct a three-level framework to formulate the problem. We first obtain a set of low-level features from the tweets. Then we define and extract middle-level representations based on psychological and art theories: linguistic attributes from tweets' texts, visual attributes from tweets' images, and social attributes from tweets' comments, retweets and favorites. Finally, a Deep Sparse Neural Network is designed to learn the stress categories incorporating the cross-media attributes. Experiment results show that the proposed method is effective and efficient on detecting psychological stress from microblog data.
Genetic Deletion of A2A Adenosine Receptors in the Striatum Selectively Impairs Habit Formation

A2A receptors are a major class of G-protein-coupled receptors for adenosine. Highly expressed in the striatum, on the projection neurons giving rise to the striatopallidal or “indirect” pathway, they have been implicated in sleep, addiction, and other processes, yet their role in the control of striatal circuits and behavior remains unclear. Using established assays from the instrumental learning paradigm, we showed that mice with striatum-specific deletion of A2A receptors were selectively impaired in habit formation. After training that generated habitual lever pressing in wild-type controls, the performance of striatum-specific A2A knock-out mice remained goal directed, being highly sensitive to outcome devaluation and reversal of the action–outcome contingency. These data demonstrate a critical role for A2A receptors on striatopallidal medium spiny projection neurons in shaping behavior and decision making, providing the first instance of a selective alteration in instrumental learning after striatum-specific genetic manipulations.
The role of the local microbial ecosystem in respiratory health and disease

Respiratory tract infections are a major global health concern, accounting for high morbidity and mortality, especially in young children and elderly individuals. Traditionally, highly common bacterial respiratory tract infections, including otitis media and pneumonia, were thought to be caused by a limited number of pathogens including Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. However, these pathogens are also frequently observed commensal residents of the upper respiratory tract (URT) and form—together with harmless commensal bacteria, viruses and fungi—intricate ecological networks, collectively known as the ‘microbiome’. Analogous to the gut microbiome, the respiratory microbiome at equilibrium is thought to be beneficial to the host by priming the immune system and providing colonization resistance, while an imbalanced ecosystem might predispose to bacterial overgrowth and development of respiratory infections. We postulate that specific ecological perturbations of the bacterial communities in the URT can occur in response to various lifestyle or environmental effectors, leading to diminished colonization resistance, loss of containment of newly acquired or resident pathogens, preluding bacterial overgrowth, ultimately resulting in local or systemic bacterial infections. Here, we review the current body of literature regarding niche-specific upper respiratory microbiota profiles within human hosts and the changes occurring within these profiles that are associated with respiratory infections.
Data Assimilation in Density‐Dependent Subsurface Flows via Localized Iterative Ensemble Kalman Filter

Parameter estimation in variable‐density groundwater flow systems is confronted with challenges of strong nonlinearity and heavy computational burden. Relying on a variant of the Henry problem, we evaluate the performance of a domain localization scheme of the iterative ensemble Kalman filter in the framework of data assimilation settings for variable‐density groundwater flows in a seawater intrusion scenario. The performance of the approach is compared against (a) the corresponding domain localization scheme of the ensemble Kalman filter in its standard formulation as well as (b) a covariance localization scheme of the latter. The equivalent freshwater head, hf, and salinity, Sa, are set as the target state variables. The randomly heterogeneous field of equivalent freshwater hydraulic conductivity, Kf, is considered as the system parameter field. Density‐independent and density‐driven flow settings are considered to evaluate the assimilation results using various methods and data. When only hf data are assimilated, all tested approaches perform generally well and a localization scheme embedded in the iterative ensemble Kalman filter appears to consistently outperform the domain localized version of the standard ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) in a density‐driven scenario; Dirichlet boundary conditions tend to show a more pronounced negative effect on estimating Kf for density‐independent than for density‐dependent flow conditions; hf data are more informative in a density‐dependent than in a density‐independent setting. The sole use of Sa information does not yield satisfactory updates of hf for the covariance localization scheme of the standard EnKF, while the sole use of hf does. The domain localization scheme leads to difficulties in the attainment of global filter convergence when only Sa data are used. A covariance localization scheme associated with a standard EnKF can significantly alleviate this issue.
Emergency Medical Service Hospital Prenotification Is Associated With Improved Evaluation and Treatment of Acute Ischemic Stroke

Background— The benefits of intravenous tissue-plasminogen activator (tPA) in acute ischemic stroke are time-dependent. Emergency medical services (EMS) hospital prenotification of an incoming patient with potential stroke may provide a means of reducing evaluation and treatment times and improving treatment rates; yet, available data are limited. Methods and Results— We examined 371 988 patients with acute ischemic stroke transported by EMS and enrolled in Get With The Guidelines–Stroke from April 1, 2003, to March 31, 2011. Prenotification occurred in 249 197 (67.0%) of EMS-transported patients. Among eligible patients arriving by 2 hours, patients with EMS prenotification were more likely to be treated with tPA within 3 hours (82.8% versus 79.2%, absolute difference +3.5%, P<0.0001, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale-documented cohort; 73.0% versus 64.0%, absolute difference +9.0%, P<0.0001, overall cohort). Patients with EMS prenotification had shorter door-to–imaging times (26 minutes versus 31 minutes, P<0.0001), shorter door-to–needle times (78 minutes versus 80 minutes, P<0.0001), and shorter symptom onset-to–needle times (141 minutes versus 145 minutes, P<0.0001). In multivariable and modified Poisson regression analyses accounting for the clustering of patients within hospitals, use of EMS prenotification was independently associated with greater likelihood of door-to–imaging times ⩽25 minutes, door-to–needle times for tPA ⩽60 minutes, onset-to–needle times ⩽120 minutes, and tPA use within 3 hours. Conclusions— EMS hospital prenotification is associated with improved evaluation, timelier stroke treatment, and more eligible patients treated with tPA. These results support the need for initiatives targeted at increasing EMS prenotification rates as a mechanism from improving quality of care and outcomes in stroke.
Business process redesign an information architecture: exploring the relationships

Business process redesign (BPR) and information architecture (IA) have been recognized as high priority agenda items in organizations during the 1990s. This paper explores the relationships between the two concepts. Specifically, this paper focuses on three main concerns: how IA supports BPR, how the lack of IA hinders BPR, and what approach to IA can facilitate BPR? The paper begins with a brief review of the development and implementation of each concept. This is followed by an examination of how IA and BPR are related to business processes, both existing and newly designed processes. This analysis, in conjunction with results from field research, provide the basis for nine propositions regarding the BPR and IA relationship. In support of BPR, IS professionals have the opportunity not only to contribute to a firm's business objectives, but also to begin to achieve IA's promise while avoiding some of IA's past implementation problems. It is hoped that further research based on these propositions will lead to more complete answers and perhaps more specific questions on the BPR/IA relationships.
Expression of functional CD40 by vascular endothelial cells

The interaction between activated vascular endothelium and T cells has been shown to play an important role in the recruitment and activation of T cells at sites of inflammation. Here we report the expression of CD40 by vascular endothelial cells and its regulation by inflammatory agents. Using the soluble recombinant CD40 ligand, sgp39, we show that the interaction of CD40 with its ligand can lead to endothelial cell activation, which in turn leads to leukocyte adhesion. This adhesion is partly mediated by the expression of E-selectin. In addition to E- selectin expression, sgp39 induces the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 and augments the tumor necrosis factor alpha- induced expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1. The effects of sgp39 on endothelial cells can be blocked with anti-gp39 monoclonal antibody (mAb), anti-CD40 mAb, or soluble CD40. Staining of tissues from healthy human skin using anti-CD40 mAb showed very weak expression of CD40 by the endothelium, while skin involved in inflammatory disease showed marked upregulation of CD40 expression. These studies suggest that interactions between cell surface proteins expressed by activated T cells with their receptors on vascular endothelium can stimulate the vasculature at sites of inflammation and may be involved in normal inflammatory responses and in inflammatory disease.
Sequential composition for control of underactuated systems

We present a new approach to developing hybrid feedback policies for the control of systems with nonholonomic constraints. We extend the idea of sequential composition and use it to to switch between controllers in a state based manner, resulting in a globally convergent, pure feedback policy. Individual controllers in the palette are inspired by variable constraint control. We solve a vision guided unicycle navigation problem and verify the result through simulation and experiment. This technical report presents a detailed description of results published in [10].
Beliefs, perceptions and health-seeking behaviours in relation to cervical cancer: a qualitative study among women in Uganda following completion of an HPV vaccination campaign

Background Cervical cancer remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Uganda. Despite earlier information campaigns to introduce human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination, which also targeted cervical cancer, misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the subject remain high. Women in Uganda present with cervical cancer at an advanced stage due to poor health-seeking behaviours, with an associated high mortality rate. This project explored beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and health-seeking behaviours in relation to cervical cancer among women in Uganda after an HPV vaccination project had been rolled out. Design A qualitative study design was used, with six focus group discussions (FGDs) that included 36 women, aged 25–49 years, with no previous history of cervical cancer symptoms or diagnosis. The women were interviewed in February and March 2013. The transcribed data was analysed using content analysis. Results Three themes emerged: feeling unprotected and unsafe, misbelief and wondering about cervical cancer, and fear of the testing procedure. Participating women had heard of cervical cancer but preferred to wait to access cervical cancer screening until symptom debut. Conclusions There are still barriers to cervical cancer screening among women in Uganda, where there is a need for culture-specific, sensitive information and interventions to address the issues of improving the cervical cancer screening uptake among these women. Societal context needs to be taken into account when implementing community-based health education.
Video data mining using configurations of viewpoint invariant regions

We describe a method for obtaining the principal objects, characters and scenes in a video by measuring the reoccurrence of spatial configurations of viewpoint invariant features. We investigate two aspects of the problem: the scale of the configurations, and the similarity requirements for clustering configurations. The problem is challenging firstly because an object can undergo substantial changes in imaged appearance throughout a video (due to viewpoint and illumination change, and partial occlusion), and secondly because configurations are detected imperfectly, so that inexact patterns must be matched. The novelty of the method is that viewpoint invariant features are used to form the configurations, and that efficient methods from the text analysis literature are employed to reduce the matching complexity. Examples of 'mined' objects are shown for a feature length film and a sitcom.
Distribution of SR protein exonic splicing enhancer motifs in human protein-coding genes

Exonic splicing enhancers (ESEs) are pre-mRNA cis-acting elements required for splice-site recognition. We previously developed a web-based program called ESEfinder that scores any sequence for the presence of ESE motifs recognized by the human SR proteins SF2/ASF, SRp40, SRp55 and SC35 (). Using ESEfinder, we have undertaken a large-scale analysis of ESE motif distribution in human protein-coding genes. Significantly higher frequencies of ESE motifs were observed in constitutive internal protein-coding exons, compared with both their flanking intronic regions and with pseudo exons. Statistical analysis of ESE motif frequency distributions revealed a complex relationship between splice-site strength and increased or decreased frequencies of particular SR protein motifs. Comparison of constitutively and alternatively spliced exons demonstrated slightly weaker splice-site scores, as well as significantly fewer ESE motifs, in the alternatively spliced group. Our results underline the importance of ESE-mediated SR protein function in the process of exon definition, in the context of both constitutive splicing and regulated alternative splicing.
An evaluation of 'Ribolola': a household tuberculosis contact tracing programme in North West Province, South Africa.

SETTING Rural/peri-urban community, South Africa. OBJECTIVES To examine the yield of tuberculosis (TB) cases, TB preventive therapy (TBPT) initiation and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnoses from household TB contact tracing. DESIGN Retrospective programme analysis. METHODS Households of index TB cases were visited and their contacts screened for TB and HIV. TB suspects provided sputum or were referred for assessment. Contacts aged <5 years were referred for assessment for TBPT initiation. RESULTS There were 732 index TB cases (67.1% HIV-positive). Among 3627 household contacts, 3573 (98.5%) had known outcomes, of which 183 (5.0%) were already on appropriate treatment. Among 3390 remaining contacts, 361 (10.6%) were aged <5 years, of whom 34 (9.4%) started anti-tuberculosis treatment and 286 (79.2%) started TBPT. Among 3029 contacts aged ≥5 years, 93 (3.1%) started anti-tuberculosis treatment: 19 (20.4%) were smear-positive and 71 (76.3%) were culture-positive. Among contacts aged ≥14 years, 794/2133 (37.2%) underwent HIV testing, of whom 208/794 (26.2%) tested positive. CONCLUSIONS Household active case finding in this high TB and HIV prevalence setting obtained high yields of TB, particularly in those aged <5 years, and facilitated assessment for TBPT. There was a good yield of new HIV diagnoses, and a gain in efficiency due to integration within one programme.
Aluminium in glacial meltwater demonstrates an association with nutrient export (Werenskiöldbreen, Svalbard)

The aluminium (Al) cycle in glacierised basins has not received a great deal of attention in studies of biogeochemical cycles. As Al may be toxic for biota, it is important to investigate the processes leading to its release into the environment. It has not yet been ascertained whether filterable Al (passing through a pore size of 0.45 μm) is incorporated into biogeochemical cycles in glacierised basins. Our study aims to determine the relationship between the processes bringing filterable Al and glacier‐derived filterable nutrients (particularly Fe and Si) into glacierised basins. We investigated the Werenskiöldbreen basin (44.1 km2, 60% glacierised) situated in SW Spitsbergen, Svalbard. In 2011, we collected meltwater from a subglacial portal at the glacier front and at a downstream hydrometric station throughout the ablation season. The Al concentration, unchanged between the subglacial system and proglacial zone, reveals that aluminosilicate weathering is a dominant source of filterable Al under subglacial conditions. By examining the Al:Fe ratio compared with pH and the sulphate mass fraction index, we found that the proton source for subglacial aluminosilicate weathering is mainly associated with sulphide oxidation and, to a lesser degree, with hydrolysis and carbonation. In subglacial outflows and in the glacial river, Al and Fe are primarily in the forms of Al(OH)4‐ and Fe(OH)3. The annual filterable Al yield (2.7 mmol m‐2) was of a magnitude similar to that of nutrients such as filterable Fe (3.0 mmol m‐2) and lower than that of dissolved Si (18.5 mmol m‐2). Our results show that filterable Al concentrations in meltwater are significantly correlated to filterable and dissolved glacier‐derived nutrients (Fe and Si, respectively) concentrations in glaciers worldwide. We conclude that a potential bioavailable Al pool derived from glacierised basins may be incorporated in biogeochemical cycles, as it is strongly related to the concentrations and yields of glacier‐derived nutrients.