Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
No Effect of Subthalamic Deep Brain Stimulation on Intertemporal Decision-Making in Parkinson Patients

Abstract Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a widely used treatment for the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). DBS or pharmacological treatment is believed to modulate the tendency to, or reverse, impulse control disorders. Several brain areas involved in impulsivity and reward valuation, such as the prefrontal cortex and striatum, are linked to the STN, and activity in these areas might be affected by STN-DBS. To investigate the effect of STN-DBS on one type of impulsive decision-making—delay discounting (i.e., the devaluation of reward with increasing delay until its receipt)—we tested 40 human PD patients receiving STN-DBS treatment and medication for at least 3 months. Patients were pseudo-randomly assigned to one of four groups to test the effects of DBS on/off states as well as medication on/off states on delay discounting. The delay-discounting task consisted of a series of choices among a smaller. sooner or a larger, later monetary reward. Despite considerable effects of DBS on motor performance, patients receiving STN-DBS did not choose more or less impulsively compared with those in the off-DBS group, as well as when controlling for risk attitude. Although null results have to be interpreted with caution, our findings are of significance to other researchers studying the effects of PD treatment on impulsive decision-making, and they are of clinical relevance for determining the therapeutic benefits of using STN-DBS.
Levofloxacin-associated Achilles Tendon Rupture and Tendinopathy

Fluoroquinolones have a documented ability to induce Achilles tendinopathy. Hitherto, few published reports have implicated levofloxacin. This article reports 5 cases of Achilles tendon disorders, including 3 complicated by rupture of the tendon, during levofloxacin treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
GluA2 is rapidly edited at the Q/R site during neural differentiation in vitro

The majority of AMPA receptors in the adult brain contain GluA2 subunits, which can be edited at the Q/R site, changing a glutamine to an arginine within the ion pore. Q/R editing renders AMPARs virtually Ca2+-impermeable, which is important for normal AMPA receptor function. Thus, all GluA2 subunits are Q/R-edited in the adult brain. However, it has remained controversial precisely when editing sets in during development. In the present study, we show that GluA2 mRNA is very rapidly Q/R-edited immediately after its appearance, which is after 4.5 days of differentiation from 46C embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to neuroepithelial precursor cells (NEPs). At this time point, most of the GluA2 transcripts were already edited, with only a small fraction remaining unedited, and half a day later all GluA2 transcripts were edited. This can be explained by the observation that the enzyme that Q/R-edits GluA2 transcripts, ADAR2, is already expressed in the cell well before GluA2 transcription starts, and later is not significantly upregulated any more. Editing at another site works differently: The R/G site within the ligand-binding domain was never completely edited at any of the developmental stages tested, and the enzyme that performs this editing, ADAR1, was significantly upregulated during neural differentiation. This confirms previous data suggesting that R/G editing, in contrast to Q/R editing, progresses gradually during development.
Role of von Willebrand factor in the haemostasis.

von Willebrand factor (VWF) is an adhesive and multimeric glycoprotein that found its historical origin in 1924, when the Finnish physician Erik von Willebrand first reported a family with a serious hereditary bleeding affecting consanguineous families1. The proband was a five years old girl with severe bleeding since birth. Three sisters had died before the age of four, one living sister, aged three, also was severely affected. von Willebrand had thought that it was a disorder of platelet function or a vascular defect as a possible cause of the bleeding. Since the original observations by Erik von Willebrand, the disease has been extensively studied and it was shown in the mid 1950s that impaired haemostasis was because of lack or an abnormality of a plasmatic factor - the von Willebrand factor - necessary for normal hemostasis2,3.
Efficient Reinforcement Learning for High Dimensional Linear Quadratic Systems

We study the problem of adaptive control of a high dimensional linear quadratic (LQ) system. Previous work established the asymptotic convergence to an optimal controller for various adaptive control schemes. More recently, for the average cost LQ problem, a regret bound of ${O}(\sqrt{T})$ was shown, apart form logarithmic factors. However, this bound scales exponentially with $p$, the dimension of the state space. In this work we consider the case where the matrices describing the dynamic of the LQ system are sparse and their dimensions are large. We present an adaptive control scheme that achieves a regret bound of ${O}(p \sqrt{T})$, apart from logarithmic factors. In particular, our algorithm has an average cost of $(1+\eps)$ times the optimum cost after $T = \polylog(p) O(1/\eps^2)$. This is in comparison to previous work on the dense dynamics where the algorithm requires time that scales exponentially with dimension in order to achieve regret of $\eps$ times the optimal cost. We believe that our result has prominent applications in the emerging area of computational advertising, in particular targeted online advertising and advertising in social networks.
The plasticity–pathology continuum: Defining a role for the LTP phenomenon

Long‐term potentiation (LTP) is the most widely studied form of neuroplasticity and is believed by many in the field to be the substrate for learning and memory. For this reason, an understanding of the mechanisms underlying LTP is thought to be of fundamental importance to the neurosciences, but a definitive linkage of LTP to learning or memory has not been achieved. Much of the correlational data used to support this claim is ambiguous and controversial, precluding any solid conclusion about the functional relevance of this often artificially induced form of neuroplasticity. In spite of this fact, the belief that LTP is a mechanism subserving learning and/or memory has become so dominant in the field that the investigation of other potential roles or actions of LTP‐like phenomena in the nervous system has been seriously hindered. The multiple subtypes of the phenomena and the myriad molecules apparently involved in these subtypes raise the possibility that observed forms of LTP may represent very different types of modification events, with vastly different consequences for neural function and survival. A relationship between LTP and neuropathology is suggested in part by the fact that many of the molecular processes involved in LTP induction or maintenance are the same as those activated during excitotoxic events in neurons. In addition, some LTP subtypes are clearly induced by pathological stimuli, e.g., anoxic LTP. Such data raise the possibility that LTP is part of a continuum of types of neural modification, some leading to beneficial alterations such as may occur in learning and others that may be primarily pathological in nature, as in kindling and excitotoxicity. In this article, we introduce a plasticity–pathology continuum model that is designed to place the various forms of neural modification into proper context. In vitro and kindling receptor regulation studies are used to provide a basis for evaluating the specific synaptic/cellular response modification along the continuum of events, from beneficial to detrimental, that will be induced by a particular stimulus. J. Neurosci. Res. 58:42–61, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
How did we get there? : supporting older adults' spatial orientation within the built environment

Older adults exhibit marked declines in navigation skills; these difficulties become worse if individuals are showing early signs of cognitive impairment, which often results in disorientation, particularly in unfamiliar environments. Many of these individuals eventually face the challenge of having to learn their way around new surroundings e.g. with potential increased visits to hospitals or when moving into retirement housing or care-home environments. This PhD thesis aims to develop a clearer understanding of older adults’ route learning and route knowledge when learning routes through built environments. To gain a more complete understanding of the experiences typical and early atypical ageing adults encounter, I adopted a mixed- methods approach. Chapters 3, 4 and 8 report on data following a quantitative experimental psychology approach to measure route learning and route knowledge in virtual and real environments, whilst Chapters 6 and 7 report on data using a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis to gain an understanding of the lived orientation experiences people living in and visiting retirement settings encounter. The findings from the data chapters are discussed in relation to existing theory and literature surrounding the effects that typical and early atypical ageing has on the abilities to learn and remember routes. In particular this thesis contributes towards the understanding of how typical and atypical ageing affects route learning and route knowledge, and how the findings can be applied to critically improve the suggestions made in dementia friendly design guidelines. The thesis concludes that simplistic VR environments do reliably capture real world navigation performance, but are additionally beneficial in that they detect the earliest symptoms of early atypical ageing more so than real world navigation. This can have benefits in detecting and diagnosing early atypical ageing in a clinical setting.
Role of Rabeprazole on Chest Discomfort of Uncertain Origin.

Chest discomfort is a common challenge to clinicians; conditions vary from benign to life threatening. The differential diagnosis includes and overlaps cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, neuromusculoskeletal & psychiatric problems, all requiring careful history and thorough investigations. However, a significant number of cases remain undiagnosed despite meticulous investigations and thus require empirical therapy (Fagring et al, 2005; Thomas, 2012). The present study was aimed to find the effect of one of the Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs; Rabeprazole) on patients having non-traumatic, non severe chest discomfort, diagnosis of which could not be confirmed. Forty eight eligible patients were divided into 2 groups: PPI group and placebo group. Before and after 4 weeks of therapy, they were studied with visual analog scale for pain and its frequency, duration and intensity. Rabeprazole treated patients responded much better than the placebo group. Seventy five percent were pain free or had appreciable relief in pain intensity after 4 weeks. In contrast to Rabeprazole group, in placebo group none became pain free; 45 % had marginal relief while 55 % derived no benefit. Proton-pump inhibitors are of value in the treatment of non specific chest discomfort.
School instructional program coherence: Benefits and challenges.

Executive Summary A large array of urban school improvement grants, programs, and partnerships enables schools to embrace multiple improvement initiatives in an effort to improve student achievement. This report discusses an important reason why schools involved in many reform efforts do not always improve their stu-dents' achievement. We introduce the concept of instructional program coherence and explain why schools whose improvement efforts show strong coherence are more likely to advance. We present new evidence showing that students in Chi-cago elementary schools with stronger program coherence show higher gains in student achievement. We also share observations on how, in specific schools, principals, external partners, and other agencies direct, or fail to direct key school resources toward more coherent instruction. In closing , we discuss factors within the educational system that discourage instructional program coherence, and suggest ways in which school leaders, school improvement partners, and policy makers can act to bring about the instructional coherence that will reward their school improvement efforts. 5 Foreword I n 1993, Ambassador Walter Annenberg announced a $500 million challenge grant to improve public education in the United States. Cities wishing to receive a portion of that grant were invited to submit proposals describing how the funds would be used to stimulate educational innovation and collaboration in their public school systems. A group of Chicago school reform activists and education stakeholders, including parents, teachers, principals, community leaders, and foundation officers, organized to write a proposal to include Chicago among the sites receiving a grant. They were successful. In January 1995, the Annenberg Foundation awarded a five-year grant of $49.2 million to establish the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. An additional $100 million in matching funds was pledged by local donors. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was organized to distribute and manage these monies among networks of schools and external partners throughout the city. Its mission is to improve student learning by supporting intensive efforts to reconnect schools to their communities , restructure education, and improve classroom teaching. The Chi-cago Challenge funds networks and external partners that seek to develop successful, community-based schools that address three critical education issues through whole-school change: school and teacher isolation, school size and personalism, and time for learning and improvement. More than half of Chicago's public schools will have participated in an Annenberg-supported improvement effort by the end of the grant period in 2001. This report is part of a series of special topic …
Molecular and genetic association of interleukin-6 in tacrine-induced hepatotoxicity

Background Tacrine, an anticholinesterase used to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD), leads to an increase in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels. The factors determining individual susceptibility are largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate genetic predisposition. Methods Rats were administered single dose tacrine (3–40 mg/kg). After 6 and 24 h, hepatic gene expression was determined using the affymetrix rat U34A microarray. On the basis of the gene expression data, the IL6 gene was identified as a potential candidate for tacrine transaminitis susceptibility. Sixty-nine patients with AD on tacrine with or without transaminitis were genotyped for 17 IL6 polymorphisms. Results Serum aspartate aminotransferase levels in rats increased after tacrine (40 mg/kg) administration. Forty-six and 29 genes showed significant upregulation at 6 and 24 h, respectively, after administration, including the IL-6-regulated acute phase response genes &agr;2-macroglobulin, fibronectin and haptoglobin. Five of the 17 IL6 polymorphisms studied in AD patients showed an association (P<0.05) with transaminitis [ALT>2× upper limit of normal (ULN)]. An association existed between maximum ALT and area under curve for ALT over 15 weeks and an intronic polymorphism (P<0.01) and a 3′-variable nucleotide tandem repeat (P<0.05). Multilocus haplotype analysis showed one haplotype (which included the –597A, –572G, –174G and variable nucleotide tandem repeat-D alleles) had a frequency of 0.1 in patients with ALT values >2×ULN, whereas it was absent in patients with ALT less than 2×ULN (P=0.0093, Pcorrected=0.049). Conclusion The IL6 genotype may act as a predisposing factor for tacrine transaminitis. This, however, requires further confirmatory functional studies. The role of acute dosing rodent models in identifying candidate genes associated with drug-induced liver injury in man deserves further study.
No increases in the rate of undescended testis in Hungary during the last 50 years: A population‐based study

Undescended testis (cryptorchidism) is a common structural birth defect, i.e. congenital abnormality of the male genital organs and increasing trend in its birth prevalence was reported in some countries. The aim of this study was to analyze the recorded annual birth prevalence of isolated undescended testis (IUT) in the population‐based large dataset of the Hungarian Congenital Abnormality Registry for the period between 1962 and 2011, i.e. during the last 50 years. Cases with IUT reported after births were evaluated, and their annual rate per 1000 live‐births was calculated. The rates of cases with IUT were compared with the so‐called true rate of IUT measured in a previous clinical‐epidemiological study based on the personal examination of 10 203 newborn infants. The birth prevalence of cases with recorded IUT in Hungary was lower than expected based on the true rate of IUT. Thus the two waves in the rate of IUT were connected with the different completeness of reporting. In conclusion the birth prevalence of cases with IUT in Hungary did not indicate a real increasing trend during the last 50 years.
Extramural cross‐validation of the mayo primary biliary cirrhosis survival model establishes its generalizability

The generalizability of the Mayo model for predicting survival in individual primary biliary cirrhosis patients without liver transplantation was tested and confirmed. The model was applied to a data base of patients from the New England Medical Center Hospitals (n = 141) and the Scott and White Clinic (n = 35) and found to predict their survival accurately. It was also shown to be accurate for Mayo primary biliary cirrhosis patients with very advanced disease (n = 30), those with less than a 33% chance of surviving 12 months. The analyses confirmed that the addition of histologic stage did not significantly improve the predictive power of the model (p > 0.10). We suggest that the Mayo model is a practical tool for clinical management and decision making.
IEEE Body Area Networks for Medical Applications

IEEE 802.15 working group established a new study group, body area network (SG-BAN), to develop short range wireless communication technology in and around human body recently. Wearable healthcare is an important category of potential applications of BAN. This paper introduces the IEEE SG-BAN and investigates the performance of 802.15. 4b and 802.15. 4a for wearable healthcare applications in the heterogeneous networks environment. The object is better understanding of healthcare requirement of BAN and how and where BAN works to be started. In addition to the scalability issue, we found asymmetric clear channel assessment (CCA) abilities among different types of wireless technology. The asymmetric CCA has significant impact on system performance.
Modeling the Altitude Distribution of Meteor Head Echoes Observed with HPLA Radars: Implications for the Radar Detectability of Meteoroid Populations

The altitude distribution of meteors detected by a radar is sensitive to the instrument’s response function and can thus provide insight into the physical processes involved in radar measurements. This, in turn, can be used to determine the rate of ablation and ionization of the meteoroids and ultimately the input flux on Earth. In this work, we model the radar meteor head echo altitude distribution for three High Power and Large Aperture radar systems, by considering meteoroid populations from the main cometary family sources. In this simulation, we first use the results of a dynamical model of small meteoroids impacting Earth’s upper atmosphere to model the incoming mass, velocity, and entry angular distributions. We then combine these with the Chemical Ablation Model and establish the meteoroid ionization rates as a function of mass, velocity, and entry angle in order to determine the altitude at which these radars should detect the produced meteors and the portion of produced meteors from each population that are detected by these radars. We explore different sizes of head plasma as well as the possible effects on radar scattering of the head echo aspect sensitivity. We find that the modeled altitude distributions are generally in good agreement with measurements, particularly for ultra-high-frequency radars. In addition, our results indicate that the number of particles from Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs) required to fit the observations is lower than predicted by astronomical models. It is not clear yet if this discrepancy is due to the overprediction of JFC meteoroids by dynamical models or due to unaccounted physical processes in the treatment of ablation, ionization, and detections of meteoroids as they pass through Earth’s atmosphere.
Subperiosteal vs Subdural Drain After Burr-Hole Drainage of Chronic Subdural Hematoma: A Randomized Clinical Trial (cSDH-Drain-Trial).

BACKGROUND The use of a subdural drain (SDD) after burr-hole drainage of chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) reduces recurrence at 6 mo. Subperiosteal drains (SPDs) are considered safer, since they are not positioned in direct contact to cortical structures, bridging veins, or hematoma membranes. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the recurrence rate after insertion of a SPD is noninferior to the insertion of a more commonly used SDD. METHODS Multicenter, prospective, randomized, controlled, noninferiority trial analyzing patients undergoing burr-hole drainage for cSDH aged 18 yr and older. After hematoma evacuation, patients were randomly assigned to receive either a SDD (SDD-group) or a SPD (SPD-group). The primary endpoint was recurrence indicating a reoperation within 12 mo, with a noninferiority margin of 3.5%. Secondary outcomes included clinical and radiological outcome, morbidity and mortality rates, and length of stay. RESULTS Of 220 randomized patients, all were included in the final analysis (120 SPD and 100 SDD). Recurrence rate was lower in the SPD group (8.33%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.28-14.72) than in the SDD group (12.00%, 95% CI 6.66-19.73), with the treatment difference (3.67%, 95% CI -12.6-5.3) not meeting predefined noninferiority criteria. The SPD group showed significantly lower rates of surgical infections (P = .0406) and iatrogenic morbidity through drain placement (P = .0184). Length of stay and mortality rates were comparable in both groups. CONCLUSION Although the noninferiority criteria were not met, SPD insertion led to lower recurrence rates, fewer surgical infections, and lower drain misplacement rates. These findings suggest that SPD may be warranted in routine clinical practice.
Routine vaccinations for HIV-1 infected adults

1. In general, HIV-1 infected individuals should not receive any live viral or bacterial vaccines (eg. Measles/Mumps/Rubella, monovalent Rubella, BCG, yellow fever, oral Typhoid Ty21a, varicella-zoster, oral Polio, vaccinia). There have been instances of lethal infections with live vaccinia vaccines following vaccination of HIV-infected persons. (3) This principle however applies particularly to HIV-infected individuals with evidence of severe immunosuppression. Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine for example is recommended for those without evidence of severe immunosuppression, and a recent update on recommendations for the use of yellow fever vaccine in asymptomatic HIV-infected individuals has recently been published. (4-6)