Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
d-Chiro-inositol and its significance in polycystic ovary syndrome: a systematic review

Background. The pathogenesis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has been linked to the development of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of insulin sensitising agents such as d-chiro-inositol (DCI) on ovulation and insulin resistance in women with PCOS. Methods. This was a systematic review done in an Academic Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the UK of all studies published on PCOS and DCI up till May 2010. Patients were women with PCOS receiving DCI or where the relationship between insulin resistance and DCI had been investigated. Ovulation rates and changes in insulin sensitivity were the main outcome measures. Results. Less DCI-IPG was released in PCOS women compared to controls and this seems to correlate positively with insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia evident in these patients. DCI administration had beneficial effects on ovulation, anthropometric and metabolic markers in PCOS women by enhancing insulin. The effects of metformin in improving insulin action in PCOS women was achieved though the release of DCI-IPG mediators. Conclusions. Heterogeneity observed in the methodologies of each study, the scarcity of relevant studies and the small sample sizes used prohibit reliable conclusions to be drawn. Therefore, more studies must be conducted in the future to evaluate accurately the effects of DCI in PCOS.
Diving and Pregnancy: What Do We Really Know?

&NA; Exercise during pregnancy has been advocated by many professional organizations to promote fetal heath and maternal well-being. Those same professional organizations do not recommend diving during pregnancy because of the potential adverse outcomes that have been observed in the animal model. In nonpregnant women, diving becomes problematic at depth as the ambient pressure increases and more gases become dissolved in the bloodstream. This can result in oxygen toxicity and nitrogen narcosis. Too rapid an ascent from depth can cause nitrogen emboli that can lodge in joints and tissue, resulting in decompression sickness, known as “the bends. ” The best animal model to study the effects of diving on pregnancy is the sheep model. Bubbling has been observed in both ewes and their fetuses, with bubbles more common in the ewes. Repeated decompressions done improperly can lead to fetal death. Information on pregnancy outcomes in humans is more limited, with inconsistent data on diving and birth defects, spontaneous abortions, and stillbirth. Even in the face of overall increased resistance in the maternal or fetal placental circulations, the total placental blood flow is usually maintained, preventing adverse outcomes. It appears that the safest choice during pregnancy is to avoid diving; however, if the woman dove when she did not know she was pregnant, there is usually a normal outcome. If a women insists on diving during pregnancy, she should go to a depth of only 60 ft, and duration of her dive should be half that recommended by Navy dive table times. Target Audience Obstetricians and gynecologists, family physicians Learning Objectives After completing this CME activity, physicians should be better able to describe the normal physiologic changes encountered in the descent and ascent from a dive, to counsel patients who are interested in diving.
Protein domains involved in both in vivo and in vitro interactions between human T-cell leukemia virus type I tax and CREB

Gene expression from the human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) long terminal repeat (LTR) is mediated by three cis-acting regulatory elements known as 21-bp repeats and the transactivator protein Tax. The 21-bp repeats can be subdivided into three motifs known as A, B, and C, each of which is important for maximal gene expression in response to Tax. The B motif contains nucleotide sequences known as a cyclic AMP response element (CRE) or tax-response element which binds members of the ATF/CREB family of transcription factors. Though mutations of this element in the HTLV-I LTR eliminate tax activation, Tax will not activate most other promoters containing these CRE sites. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which Tax activates gene expression in conjunction with members of the ATF/CREB family. We found that Tax enhanced the binding of one member of the ATF/CREB family, CREB 1, to each of the three HTLV-I LTR 21-bp repeats but not another member designated CRE-BP1 or CREB2. Tax enhanced the binding of CREB1 to nonpalindromic CRE binding sites such as those found in the HTLV-I LTR, but Tax did not enhance the binding of CREB1 to palindromic CRE binding sites such as found in the somatostatin promoter. This finding may help explain the failure of Tax to activate promoters containing consensus CRE sites. These studies were extended by use of the mammalian two-hybrid system. Tax was demonstrated to interact directly with CREB1 but not with other bZIP proteins, including CREB2 and Jun. Site-directed mutagenesis of both Tax and CREB1 demonstrated that the amino terminus of Tax and both the basic and the leucine zipper regions of CREB1 were required for direct interactions between these proteins both in vivo and in vitro. This interaction occurred in vivo and thus did not require the presence of the HTLV-I 21-bp repeats, as previously suggested. These results define the domains required for interaction between Tax and CREB that are likely critical for the activation of HTLV-I gene expression.
Alphaviruses in Gene Therapy

Alphaviruses are enveloped single stranded RNA viruses, which as gene therapy vectors provide high-level transient gene expression. Semliki Forest virus (SFV), Sindbis virus (SIN) and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE) virus have been engineered as efficient replication-deficient and -competent expression vectors. Alphavirus vectors have frequently been used as vehicles for tumor vaccine generation. Moreover, SFV and SIN vectors have been applied for intratumoral injections in animals implanted with tumor xenografts. SIN vectors have demonstrated natural tumor targeting, which might permit systemic vector administration. Another approach for systemic delivery of SFV has been to encapsulate replication-deficient viral particles in liposomes, which can provide passive targeting to tumors and allow repeated administration without host immune responses. This approach has demonstrated safe delivery of encapsulated SFV particles to melanoma and kidney carcinoma patients in a phase I trial. Finally, the prominent neurotropism of alphaviruses make them attractive for the treatment of CNS-related diseases.
Shock Acceleration of Solar Energetic Protons: The First 10 Minutes

Proton acceleration at a parallel coronal shock is modeled with self-consistent Alfvén wave excitation and shock transmission. 18-50 keV seed protons at 0.1% of plasma proton density are accelerated in 10 minutes to a power-law intensity spectrum rolling over at 300 MeV by a 2500 km s−1 shock traveling outward from 3.5 r☉, for typical coronal conditions and low ambient wave intensities. Interaction of high-energy protons of large pitch angles with Alfvén waves amplified by low-energy protons of small pitch angles is key to rapid acceleration. Shock acceleration is not significantly retarded by sunward streaming protons interacting with downstream waves. There is no significant second-order Fermi acceleration.
Comparative analysis of the parameters affecting AED rhythm analysis algorithm applied to pediatric and adult Ventricular Tachycardia

In this study pediatric and adult Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) are used to test the efficiency of an AED analysis algorithm. Statistical assessment of the four significant parameters that define the shock-noshock classification algorithm has been performed. The following parameters are considered: Pulse Rate (PR), Waveform Power Ratio (WPR), and two morphological parameters, Baseline Content (BC) and Probability Distribution Width (PDW). A set of 76 adult and 55 pediatric shockable VT episodes is considered to measure the sensitivity of the classification algorithm originally developed for adult patients (100% for rapid adult VT). The sensitivity for the whole pediatric set is 96.36 %, but increases to 100% for the 1-8 years of age subgroup.
Sarcastic Soulmates: Intimacy and irony markers in social media messaging

Verbal irony, or sarcasm, presents a significant technical and conceptual challenge when it comes to automatic detection. Moreover, it can be a disruptive factor in sentiment analysis and opinion mining, because it changes the polarity of a message implicitly. Extant methods for automatic detection are mostly based on overt clues to ironic intent such as hashtags, also known as irony markers. In this paper, we investigate whether people who know each other make use of irony markers less often than people who do not know each other. We trained a machinelearning classifier to detect sarcasm in Twitter messages (tweets) that were addressed to specific users, and in tweets that were not addressed to a particular user. Human coders analyzed the top-1000 features found to be most discriminative into ten categories of irony markers. The classifier was also tested within and across the two categories. We find that tweets with a user mention contain fewer irony markers than tweets not addressed to a particular user. Classification experiments confirm that the irony in the two types of tweets is signaled differently. The within-category performance of the classifier is about 91% for both categories, while cross-category experiments yield substantially lower generalization performance scores of 75% and 71%. We conclude that irony markers are used more often when there is less mutual knowledge between sender and receiver. Senders addressing other Twitter users less often use irony markers, relying on mutual knowledge which should lead the receiver to infer ironic intent from more implicit clues. With regard to automatic detection, we conclude that our classifier is able to detect ironic tweets addressed at another user as reliably as tweets that are not addressed at at a particular person.
Predictive value of plasma copeptin level for the risk and mortality of heart failure: a meta‐analysis

Epidemiologic studies are inconsistent regarding the association between plasma copeptin level and heart failure (HF). The aim of this study was to perform a meta‐analysis to determine whether high level of copeptin is correlated with incidence of HF and mortality in patients with HF. We searched PUBMED and EMBASE databases for studies conducted from 1966 through May 2016 to identify studies reporting hazard ratio (HR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between plasma copeptin level and HF. A random‐effects model was used to combine study‐specific risk estimates. A total of 13 studies were included in the meta‐analysis, with five studies on the incidence of HF and eight studies on the mortality of patients with HF. For incidence of HF, the summary HR indicated a borderline positive association of high plasma copeptin level with HF risk (HR, 1.60; 95% CI, 0.90–2.85). Furthermore, an increase of 1 standard deviation in log copeptin level was associated with a 17% increase in the risk of incident HF (HR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.02–1.33). For all‐cause mortality of patients with HF, we also found a significant association between elevated plasma copeptin level and increased mortality of HF (HR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.33–2.33). Our dose–response analysis indicated that an increment in copeptin level of 1 pmol/l was associated with a 3% increase in all‐cause mortality (HR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01–1.05). In conclusion, our results suggest that elevated plasma copeptin level is associated with an increased risk of HF and all‐cause mortality in patients with HF.
Modelling (D022) Precipitate nucleation, growth and coarsening in the nickel-base superalloy 625

Although typically thought of as a solid solution strengthened material, Alloy 625 is susceptible to significant precipitation hardening through the formation of γʺ (D022 ) precipitates. These particles can form both during manufacture and in high temperature service and, consequently, the accurate prediction of their behaviour is crucial. To this end, a model is developed in this work which describes γʺ precipitation in Alloy 625, encompassing the concurrent homogeneous nucleation, growth and coarsening of different particles and allowing for them to be shape changing. Based on the Svoboda-Fischer-Fratzl-Kozeschnik (SFFK) framework, the model is calibrated with respect to experimental measurements of aspect ratio evolution at 650°C, with the statistics were acquired through a novel analysis methodology. The outputs generated by the model for interfacial energy, particle size distribution and number density are in excellent agreement with experimental data for a simulation of 1000 hours at 650°C, however beyond this point a divergence is introduced by the phenomenon of precipitate “encounter" (described by Davis et al. [1]). Following suitable changes for descriptions including precipitation driving force and material elastic constants, application of the model to the evolution of γʺ precipitates in Alloy 718 at 700°C measured by Han et al. [2] reveals reasonable agreement. Whilst the results presented in this paper are predicated on a homogeneous microstructure and the formation of exclusively γʺ precipitates, the underlying frame work outlined is flexible enough for inhomogeneous and competitive precipitation to be included at a later date. Furthermore, through the application of an addition class management mechanism the model is likely applicable to a large range of ageing temperatures and durations.
Pitfalls in the Determination of Optical Cross Sections From Surface Integral Equation Simulations

Calculation of electromagnetic cross sections from surface integral equation simulations, a popular approach in microwave studies and recently also in optics and plasmonics, requires only a single post-processing step, which can, however, be very sensitive to the precision of the simulation result. We investigate the accuracy and robustness of two methods for cross section calculation, displaying when and why errors may occur, in certain cases even unphysical behavior. A calculation recipe which avoids unphysical results is given, ensuring convergence of all obtained cross sections. This study will help judge the accuracy of performed simulations and can prevent misinterpretation of modeling results.
The Extrinsic Noise Effect on Lateral Inhibition Differentiation Waves

Multipotent differentiation, where cells adopt one of several cell fates, is a determinate and orchestrated procedure that often incorporates stochastic mechanisms in order to diversify cell types. How these stochastic phenomena interact to govern cell fate is poorly understood. Nonetheless, cell fate decision-making procedure is mainly regulated through the activation of differentiation waves and associated signaling pathways. In the current work, we focus on the Notch/Delta signaling pathway, which is not only known to trigger such waves but also is used to achieve the principle of lateral inhibition (i.e., a competition for exclusive fates through cross-signaling between neighboring cells). Such a process ensures unambiguous stochastic decisions influenced by intrinsic noise sources, such as those found in the regulation of signaling pathways, and extrinsic stochastic fluctuations attributed to microenvironmental factors. However, the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic noise on cell fate determination is an open problem. Our goal is to elucidate how the induction of extrinsic noise affects cell fate specification in a lateral inhibition mechanism. Using a stochastic Cellular Automaton with continuous state space, we show that extrinsic noise results in the emergence of steady-state furrow patterns of cells in a “frustrated/transient” phenotypic state.
Female rats learn trace memories better than male rats and consequently retain a greater proportion of new neurons in their hippocampi

Learning increases the survival of new cells that are generated in the hippocampal formation before the training experience, especially if the animal learns to associate stimuli across time [Gould E, Beylin A, Tanapat P, Reeves A, Shors TJ (1999) Nat Neurosci 2:260–265]. All relevant studies have been conducted on male rats, despite evidence for sex differences in this type of learning. In the present study, we asked whether sex differences in learning influence the survival of neurons generated in the adult hippocampus. Male and female adult rats were injected with one dose of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU; 200 mg/kg), to label one population of dividing cells. One week later, half of the animals were trained with a temporal learning task of trace eyeblink conditioning, while the other half were not trained. Animals were killed 1 day after training (12 days after the BrdU injection). Hippocampal tissue was stained for BrdU and a marker of immature neurons, doublecortin. Both sexes learned to emit the conditioned eyeblink response during the trace interval. As a consequence, more new neurons remained in their hippocampi than in sex-matched controls. In individual animals, the number of surviving cells correlated positively with asymptotic performance; those that expressed more learned responses retained more new neurons. However, animals that learned very well retained even more new cells if they required many trials to do so. Because females emitted more learned responses than males did, they retained nearly twice as many new cells per unit volume of tissue. This effect was most evident in the ventral region of the hippocampal formation. Thus, sex differences in learning alter the anatomical structure of the hippocampus. As a result, male and female brains continue to differentiate in adulthood.
A Trust Prediction Approach Capturing Agents' Dynamic Behavior

Predicting trust among the agents is of great importance to various open distributed settings (e.g., emarket, peer-to-peer networks, etc.) in that dishonest agents can easily join the system and achieve their goals by circumventing agreed rules, or gaining unfair advantages, etc. Most existing trust mechanisms derive trust by statistically investigating the target agent's historical information. However, even if rich historical information is available, it is challenging to model an agent's behavior since an intelligent agent may strategically change its behavior to maximize its profits. We therefore propose a trust prediction approach to capture dynamic behavior of the target agent. Specifically, we first identify features which are capable of describing/ representing context of a transaction. Then we use these features to measure similarity between context of the potential transaction and that of previous transactions to estimate trustworthiness of the potential transaction based on previous similar transactions' outcomes. Evaluation using real auction data and synthetic data demonstrates efficacy of our approach in comparison with an existing representative trust mechanism.
Constrained Adaptive Sensing

Suppose that we wish to estimate a vector x ∈ Cn from a small number of noisy linear measurements of the form y = Ax + z, where z represents measurement noise. When the vector x is sparse, meaning that it has only s nonzeros with s ≪ n, one can obtain a significantly more accurate estimate of x by adaptively selecting the rows of A based on the previous measurements provided that the signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently large. In this paper, we consider the case where we wish to realize the potential of adaptivity but where the rows of A are subject to physical constraints. In particular, we examine the case where the rows of A are constrained to belong to a finite set of allowable measurement vectors. We demonstrate both the limitations and advantages of adaptive sensing in this constrained setting. We prove that for certain measurement ensembles, the benefits offered by adaptive designs fall far short of the improvements that are possible in the unconstrained adaptive setting. On the other hand, we also provide both theoretical and empirical evidence that in some scenarios, adaptivity does still result in substantial improvements even in the constrained setting. To illustrate these potential gains, we propose practical algorithms for constrained adaptive sensing by exploiting connections to the theory of optimal experimental design and show that these algorithms exhibit promising performance in some representative applications.
Spatial Orientation in 3-D Desktop Displays: Using Rooms for Organizing Information

Understanding how spatial knowledge is acquired is important for spatial navigation and for improving the design of 3-D perspective interfaces. Configural spatial knowledge of object locations inside rooms is learned rapidly and easily (Colle & Reid, 1998), possibly because rooms afford local viewing in which objects are directly viewed or, alternatively, because of their structural features. The local viewing hypothesis predicts that the layout of objects outside of rooms also should be rapidly acquired when walls are removed and rooms are sufficiently close that participants can directly view and identify objects. It was evaluated using pointing and sketch map measures of configural knowledge with and without walls by varying distance, lighting levels, and observation instructions. Although within-room spatial knowledge was uniformly good, local viewing was not sufficient for improving spatial knowledge of objects in different rooms. Implications for navigation and 3-D interface design are discussed. Actual or potential applications of this research include the design of user interfaces, especially interfaces with 3-D displays.
In Vivo Inhibition of Anti-Hepatitis B Virus Core Antigen (HBcAg) Immunoglobulin G Production by HBcAg-Specific CD4+ Th1-Type T-Cell Clones in a hu-PBL-NOD/SCID Mouse Model

ABSTRACT Hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen (HBcAg)-specific CD4+ T-cell responses are believed to play an important role in the control of human HBV infection. In the present study, HBcAg-specific, HLA-DR13*-restricted CD4+ Th1-type T-cell clones were generated which secreted both gamma interferon and tumor necrosis factor alpha after in vitro antigen stimulation. These HBcAg-specific CD4+ Th1-type T cells were able to lyse HBc peptide-loaded Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphoblastoid target cells in vitro. To examine whether these HLA-DR13*-restricted human CD4+ Th1 T cells also display the same cytotoxic effects in vivo, we transferred peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) derived from HBV-infected donors or an HBV-naı̈ve donor sharing the DR13*, together with the HBcAg-specific CD4+ Th1-type T cells and HBcAg, directly into the spleen of optimally conditioned Nod/LtSz-Prkdcscid/Prkdcscid (NOD/SCID) mice. The production of both secondary anti-HBc-immunoglobulin G (anti-HBc-IgG) and primary HBcAg-binding IgM in hu-PBL-NOD/SCID mice was drastically inhibited by HBcAg-specific CD4+ Th1-type T cells. No inhibition was observed when CD4+ Th1 cells and donor PBL did not share an HLA-DR13. These results suggest that HBcAg-specific CD4+ Th1 T cells may be able to lyse HBcAg-binding, or -specific, B cells that have taken up and presented HBcAg in a class II-restricted manner. Thus, HBcAg-specific CD4+ Th1-type T cells can modulate the function and exert a regulatory role in deleting HBcAg-binding, or -specific, human B cells in vivo, which may be of importance in controlling the infection.