Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Testosterone causes both prosocial and antisocial status-enhancing behaviors in human males

Significance Although in several species of bird and animal, testosterone increases male–male aggression, in human males, it has been suggested to instead promote both aggressive and nonaggressive behaviors that enhance social status. However, causal evidence distinguishing these accounts is lacking. Here, we tested between these hypotheses in men injected with testosterone or placebo in a double-blind, randomized design. Participants played a modified Ultimatum Game, which included the opportunity to punish or reward the other player. Administration of testosterone caused increased punishment of the other player but also, increased reward of larger offers. These findings show that testosterone can cause prosocial behavior in males and provide causal evidence for the social status hypothesis in men. Although popular discussion of testosterone’s influence on males often centers on aggression and antisocial behavior, contemporary theorists have proposed that it instead enhances behaviors involved in obtaining and maintaining a high social status. Two central distinguishing but untested predictions of this theory are that testosterone selectively increases status-relevant aggressive behaviors, such as responses to provocation, but that it also promotes nonaggressive behaviors, such as generosity toward others, when they are appropriate for increasing status. Here, we tested these hypotheses in healthy young males by injecting testosterone enanthate or a placebo in a double-blind, between-subjects, randomized design (n = 40). Participants played a version of the Ultimatum Game that was modified so that, having accepted or rejected an offer from the proposer, participants then had the opportunity to punish or reward the proposer at a proportionate cost to themselves. We found that participants treated with testosterone were more likely to punish the proposer and that higher testosterone levels were specifically associated with increased punishment of proposers who made unfair offers, indicating that testosterone indeed potentiates aggressive responses to provocation. Furthermore, when participants administered testosterone received large offers, they were more likely to reward the proposer and also chose rewards of greater magnitude. This increased generosity in the absence of provocation indicates that testosterone can also cause prosocial behaviors that are appropriate for increasing status. These findings are inconsistent with a simple relationship between testosterone and aggression and provide causal evidence for a more complex role for testosterone in driving status-enhancing behaviors in males.
Complementary and alternative asthma treatments and their association with asthma control: a population-based study

Objectives Many patients with asthma spend time and resources consuming complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs). This study explores whether CAM utilisation is associated with asthma control and the intake of asthma controller medications. Design Population-based, prospective cross-sectional study. Setting General population residing in two census areas in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Recruitment was based on random-digit dialling of both landlines and cell phones. Participants 486 patients with self-reported physician diagnosis of asthma (mean age 52 years; 67.3% woman). Primary and secondary outcome measures We assessed CAM use over the previous 12 months, level of asthma control as defined by the Global Initiative for Asthma and the self-reported intake of controller medications. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to study the relationship between any usage of CAMs (outcome), asthma control and controller medication usage, adjusted for potential confounders. Results A total of 179 (36.8%) of the sample reported CAM usage in the past 12 months. Breathing exercises (17.7%), herbal medicines (10.1%) and vitamins (9.7%) were the most popular CAMs reported. After adjustment, female sex (OR 1.66; 95% CI 1.09 to 2.52) and uncontrolled asthma (vs controlled asthma, OR 2.25, 95% CI 1.30 to 3.89) were associated with a higher likelihood of using any CAMs in the past 12 months. Controller medication use was not associated with CAM usage in general and in the subgroups defined by asthma control. Conclusions Clinicians and policy makers need to be aware of the high prevalence of CAM use in patients with asthma and its association with lack of asthma control.
Not Always Hyperactive?

Objectives: To investigate the presence of apathy symptoms in adolescents and adults with ADHD as a behavioral manifestation of underlying motivational deficits and to determine whether apathy symptoms were associated with a specific neuropsychological profile. Method: A total of 38 ADHD participants (28 of the combined subtype [ADHD/C] and 10 of the inattentive subtype [ADHD/I]) and 30 healthy controls (Ctrl) were assessed on two measures of apathy administered to subjects and informants. As well, ADHD participants completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Results: ADHD participants presented elevated scores on measures of apathy relative to controls (ADHD/I > ADHD/C > Ctrl). Informant-based ratings of apathy correlated significantly with behavioral measures of inattention. Apathy measures correlated significantly with executive tests, working memory, verbal fluency, and general intellectual abilities, only in the inattentive sample. Conclusions: This study stresses the relevance of motivational deficits in adult ADHD as a significant clinical dimension closely linked to inattention and executive difficulties.
Urinary C-Peptide Creatinine Ratio Is a Practical Outpatient Tool for Identifying Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1-α/Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4-α Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young From Long-Duration Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Hepatocyte nuclear factor 1-α (HNF1A)/hepatocyte nuclear factor 4-α (HNF4A) maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is frequently misdiagnosed as type 1 diabetes, and patients are inappropriately treated with insulin. Blood C-peptide can aid in the diagnosis of MODY, but practical reasons limit its widespread use. Urinary C-peptide creatinine ratio (UCPCR), a stable measure of endogenous insulin secretion, is a noninvasive alternative. We aimed to compare stimulated UCPCR in adults with HNF1A/4A MODY, type 1 diabetes, and type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Adults with diabetes for ≥5years, without renal impairment, were studied (HNF1A MODY [n = 54], HNF4A MODY [n = 23], glucokinase MODY [n = 20], type 1 diabetes [n = 69], and type 2 diabetes [n = 54]). The UCPCR was collected in boric acid 120 min after the largest meal of the day and mailed for analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to identify optimal UCPCR cutoffs to differentiate HNF1A/4A MODY from type 1 and type 2 diabetes. RESULTS UCPCR was lower in type 1 diabetes than HNF1A/4A MODY (median [interquartile range]) (<0.02 nmol/mmol [<0.02 to <0.02] vs. 1.72 nmol/mmol [0.98–2.90]; P < 0.0001). ROC curves showed excellent discrimination (area under curve [AUC] 0.98) and identified a cutoff UCPCR of ≥0.2 nmol/mmol for differentiating HNF1A/4A MODY from type 1 diabetes (97% sensitivity, 96% specificity). UCPCR was lower in HNF1A/4A MODY than in type 2 diabetes (1.72 nmol/mmol [0.98–2.90] vs. 2.47 nmol/mmol [1.4–4.13]); P = 0.007). ROC curves showed a weak distinction between HNF1A/4A MODY and type 2 diabetes (AUC 0.64). CONCLUSIONS UCPCR is a noninvasive outpatient tool that can be used to discriminate HNF1A and HNF4A MODY from long-duration type 1 diabetes. To differentiate MODY from type 1 diabetes of >5 years’ duration, UCPCR could be used to determine whether genetic testing is indicated.
Construction and Maintenance of a Mobile Backbone for Wireless Networks

We study a novel hierarchical wireless networking approach in which some of the nodes are more capable than others. In such networks, the more capable nodes can serve as Mobile Backbone Nodes and provide a backbone over which end-toend communication can take place. Our approach consists of controlling the mobility of the Backbone Nodes in order to maintain connectivity. We formulate the problem of minimizing the number of backbone nodes and refer to it as the Connected Disk Cover problem. We show that it can be decomposed into the Geometric Disk Cover (GDC) problem and the Steiner Tree Problem with Minimum Number of Steiner Points (STP-MSP). We prove that if these subproblems are solved separately by - and �-approximation algorithms, the approximation ratio of the joint solution is +�. Then, we focus on the two subproblems and present a number of distributed approximation algorithms that maintain a solution to the GDC problem under mobility. A new approach to the solution of the STP-MSP is also described. We show that this approach can be extended in order to obtain a joint approximate solution to the Connected Disk Cover problem. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the algorithms via simulation and show that the proposed GDC algorithms perform very well under mobility and that the new approach for the joint solution can significantly reduce the number of required Mobile Backbone Nodes.
Fractal prefetching B+-Trees: optimizing both cache and disk performance

B+-Trees have been traditionally optimized for I/O performance with disk pages as tree nodes. Recently, researchers have proposed new types of B+-Trees optimized for CPU cache performance in main memory environments, where the tree node sizes are one or a few cache lines. Unfortunately, due primarily to this large discrepancy in optimal node sizes, existing disk-optimized B+-Trees suffer from poor cache performance while cache-optimized B+-Trees exhibit poor disk performance. In this paper, we propose fractal prefetching B+-Trees (fpB+-Trees), which embed "cache-optimized" trees within "disk-optimized" trees, in order to optimize both cache and I/O performance. We design and evaluate two approaches to breaking disk pages into cache-optimized nodes: disk-first and cache-first. These approaches are somewhat biased in favor of maximizing disk and cache performance, respectively, as demonstrated by our results. Both implementations of fpB+-Trees achieve dramatically better cache performance than disk-optimized B+-Trees: a factor of 1.1-1.8 improvement for search, up to a factor of 4.2 improvement for range scans, and up to a 20-fold improvement for updates, all without significant degradation of I/O performance. In addition, fpB+-Trees accelerate I/O performance for range scans by using jump-pointer arrays to prefetch leaf pages, thereby achieving a speed-up of 2.5-5 on IBM's DB2 Universal Database.
DIFFERENTIATION OF CUTICULAR STRUCTURES DURING THE GROWTH OF THE THIRD-STAGE LARVA OF ASCARIS SUUM (NEMATODA, ASCARIDOIDEA) AFTER EMERGING FROM THE EGG

In order to monitor the early phases of the development of Ascaris suum from domestic pigs, third-stage larvae, retrieved from the liver and the lungs, were studied by analyzing worm growth and length increase of individual transverse annuli in the cuticle. Material for study using light and scanning electron microscopy was obtained from experimental infections. The results show that the third-stage larva (not the second-stage) after emergence from the egg grows continuously, without an ecdysis in the liver. During growth, each annulus is split into a complex of 2 subannuli, each of which attains a bimodal appearance and is a prominent feature during a late phase of the third-stage larva. The results suggest that the first 2 molts occur inside the egg, a synapomorphic feature of the Ascaridoidea. The third-stage larvae of ascaridoids, with some functional similarities of the dauer-larva stage of Caenorhabditis sp. , facilitate transmission of these parasitic worms to the digestive tract of the vertebrate final host (utilizing the tracheal route in A. suum), where the third and the fourth molts take place.
An Annual Midterm Energy Forecasting Model Using Fuzzy Logic

The objective of this paper is to present a new fuzzy logic method for midterm energy forecasting. The proposed method properly transforms the input variables to differences or relative differences, in order to predict energy values not included in the training set and to use a minimal number of patterns. The input variables, the number of the triangular membership functions and their base widths are simultaneously selected by an optimization process. The standard deviation is calculated analytically by mathematical expressions based on the membership functions. Results from an extensive application of the method to the Greek power system and for different categories of customers are compared to those obtained from the application of standard regression methods and artificial neural networks (ANN).
Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 1 DNA Administration Inhibits Inflammatory and Pathogenic Responses in Autoimmune Myocarditis

Myocarditis and subsequent dilated cardiomyopathy are major causes of heart failure in young adults. Myocarditis in humans is highly heterogeneous in etiology. Recent studies have indicated that a subgroup of myocarditis patients may benefit from immune-targeted therapies, because autoimmunity plays an important role in myocarditis as well as contributing to the progression to cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) 1 plays a key role in the negative regulation of both TLR- and cytokine receptor-mediated signaling, which is involved in innate immunity and subsequent adaptive immunity. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effect of SOCS1 DNA administration on experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) in mice. EAM was induced by s.c. immunization with cardiac-specific peptides derived from α myosin H chain in BALB/c mice. In contrast to control myocarditis mice, SOCS1 DNA-injected mice were protected from development of EAM and heart failure. SOCS1 DNA administration was effective for reducing the activation of autoreactive CD4+ T cells by inhibition of the function of Ag-presenting dendritic cells. Our findings suggest that SOCS1 DNA administration has considerable therapeutic potential in individuals with autoimmune myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy.
Asymptotic confidence interval construction for proportion difference in medical studies with bilateral data

Bilateral dichotomous data are very common in modern medical comparative studies (e.g. comparison of two treatments in ophthalmologic, orthopaedic and otolaryngologic studies) in which information involving paired organs (e.g. eyes, ears and hips) is available from each subject. In this article, we study various confidence interval estimators for proportion difference based on Wald-type statistics, Fieller theorem, likelihood ratio statistic, score statistics and bootstrap resampling method under the dependence or/and independence models for bilateral binary data. Performance is evaluated with respect to the coverage probability and expected width via simulation studies. Our empirical results show that (1) ignoring the dependence feature of bilateral data could lead to severely incorrect coverage probabilities; and (2) Wald-type, score-type and bootstrap confidence intervals based on the dependence model perform satisfactorily for small to large sample sizes in the sense that their empirical coverage probabilities are close to the pre-specified nominal confidence level and are hence recommended. A real data from an otolaryngologic study is used to illustrate the proposed methods.
Development of multi CA model of 4-way road intersection

We describe our development of a road traffic multi CA (Cellular Automata) model of the four most common types of 4-way intersection (Yield-controlled intersections, Stop-controlled intersections, Signal-controlled intersections, and Roundabout-based intersection). We developed this model to study how these four different types of 4-way intersection affect road traffic flow & congestion in general and “travel time” in particular. In this paper, we focus in particular on the mathematical algorithm, on the model abstractions, and on the simulator architecture. We adhere as much as possible to the CA paradigm as a way of avoiding hard to detect inconsistencies that could invalidate the model and the results obtained by using it.
GHTorrent: Github's data from a firehose

A common requirement of many empirical software engineering studies is the acquisition and curation of data from software repositories. During the last few years, GitHub has emerged as a popular project hosting, mirroring and collaboration platform. GitHub provides an extensive REST API, which enables researchers to retrieve both the commits to the projects' repositories and events generated through user actions on project resources. GHTorrent aims to create a scalable off line mirror of GitHub's event streams and persistent data, and offer it to the research community as a service. In this paper, we present the project's design and initial implementation and demonstrate how the provided datasets can be queried and processed.
How the Cell Copes with Stress and the Function of Heat Shock Proteins

ABSTRACT: Virtually all cells, including the prokaryotic microorganisms and the highly differentiated eukaryotic cells in human tissues, contain a small set of normally silent genes that are rapidly activated by a heat shock that raises the temperature only 5 to 10% above that of the normal physiologic range for that organism. Concomitantly, many active genes are turned off. Other kinds of stress, such as exposure to alcohol or other organic agents, heavy metals, oxidants, and agents capable of perturbing protein structure, produce a similar response, and many of these activate the same set of genes. The proteins encoded by these stress-activated genes are called heat shock proteins (hsp). They are strongly conserved in structure among widely divergent biologic species, and many function as “molecular chaperones” by forming transient complexes with partially folded or misfolded polypeptides so as to prevent their irreversible denaturation. Most hsp are members of gene/protein families, and isoforms are frequently found under normal physiologic conditions in many compartments of the cell where they act also as chaperones, binding to a variety of polypeptides to facilitate folding, oligomerization, transport, metabolic activity, and degradation. Few of the polypeptide “targets” that complex with stress-induced forms of hsp have been identified, but a number of cellular components have been shown to be particularly stress sensitive. They include macromolecular complexes involved in the maintenance of chromosome replication and transcription, mRNA splicing, and ribosome assembly. Mitochondria and the intermediate filament network are also highly sensitive, whereas the protein synthetic machinery and vesicles of the secretory pathway are relative stable to physiologic stress. The factors regulating heat shock genes in the eukaryote are highly conserved among widely divergent species and include promoters consisting of arrays of short, inverted sequences in the DNA, called the heat shock element, and heat shock factors, which are large polypeptides that occupy these promoters soon after the cell senses the temperature shift. The sensor(s) that signal the cell to initiate binding of heat shock factors to the heat shock element, thereby activating gene transcription, have not been identified, but misfolded proteins are postulated to play a key role in this event. The response is also transient, and other factors down-regulate the system. Cells that have been mildly prestressed so that they contain significant levels of the hsp become tolerant to stress conditions that would normally kill the cell. In this way, organisms survive environmental conditions that might otherwise prove fatal.
Distribution and Acute Stressor‐Induced Activation of Corticotrophin‐Releasing Hormone Neurones in the Central Nervous System of Xenopus laevis

In mammals, corticotrophin‐releasing hormone (CRH) and related peptides are known to play essential roles in the regulation of neuroendocrine, autonomic and behavioural responses to physical and emotional stress. In nonmammalian species, CRH‐like peptides are hypothesized to play similar neuroendocrine and neurocrine roles. However, there is relatively little detailed information on the distribution of CRH neurones in the central nervous system (CNS) of nonmammalian vertebrates, and there are currently no comparative data on stress‐induced changes in CRH neuronal physiology. We used a specific, affinity‐purified antibody raised against synthetic Xenopus laevis CRH to map the distribution of CRH in the CNS of juvenile South African clawed frogs. We then analysed stress‐induced changes in CRH immunoreactivity (CRH‐ir) throughout the CNS. We found that CRH‐positive cell bodies and fibres are widely distributed throughout the brain and rostral spinal cord of juvenile X. laevis. Strong CRH‐immunoreactovity (ir) was found in cell bodies and fibres in the anterior preoptic area (POA, an area homologous to the mammalian paraventricular nucleus) and the external zone of the median eminence. Specific CRH‐ir cell bodies and fibres were also identified in the septum, pallium and striatum in the telencephalon; the amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and various hypothalamic and thalamic nuclei in the diencephalon; the tectum, torus semicircularis and tegmental nuclei of the mesencephalon; the cerebellum and locus coeruleus in the rhombencephalon; and the ventral horn of the rostral spinal cord. To determine if exposure to an acute physical stressor alters CRH neuronal physiology, we exposed juvenile frogs to shaking/handling and conducted morphometric analysis. Plasma corticosterone was significantly elevated by 30 min after exposure to the stressor and continued to increase up to 6 h. Morphometric analysis of CRH‐ir after 4 h of stress showed a significant increase in CRH‐ir in parvocellular neurones of the anterior preoptic area, the medial amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, but not in other brain regions. The stress‐induced increase in CRH‐ir in the POA was associated with increased Fos‐like immunoreactivity (Fos‐LI), and confocal microscopy showed that CRH‐ir colocalized with Fos‐LI in a subset of Fos‐LI‐positive neurones. Our results support the view that the basic pattern of CNS CRH expression arose early in vertebrate evolution and lend further support to earlier studies suggesting that amphibians may be a transitional species for descending CRH‐ergic pathways. Furthermore, CRH neurones in the frog brain exhibit changes in response to a physical stressor that parallel those seen in mammals, and thus are likely to play an active role in mediating neuroendocrine, behavioural and autonomic stress responses.