Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Gulf War Illness Revealed by 31Phosphorus Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: A Case-Control Study

Background Approximately 1/3 of 1990-1 Gulf War veterans developed chronic multisymptom health problems. Implicated exposures bear mechanisms that adversely affect mitochondria. Symptoms emphasize fatigue, cognition and muscle (brain and muscle are aerobically demanding); with protean additional domains affected, compatible with mitochondrial impairment. Recent evidence supports treatments targeting cell bioenergetics (coenzyme10) to benefit Gulf War illness symptoms. However, no evidence has directly documented mitochondrial or bioenergetic impairment in Gulf War illness. Objective We sought to objectively assess for mitochondrial dysfunction, examining post-exercise phosphocreatine-recovery time constant (PCr-R) using 31Phosphorus Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (31P-MRS), in Gulf War veterans with Gulf War illness compared to matched healthy controls. PCr-R has been described as a “robust and practical” index of mitochondrial status. Design and Participants Case-control study from 2012–2013. Fourteen community-dwelling Gulf War veterans and matched controls from the San Diego area comprised 7 men meeting CDC and Kansas criteria for Gulf War illness, and 7 non-deployed healthy controls matched 1∶1 to cases on age, sex, and ethnicity. Outcome Measure Calf muscle phosphocreatine was evaluated by 31P-MRS at rest, through 5 minutes of foot pedal depression exercise, and in recovery, to assess PCr-R. Paired t-tests compared cases to matched controls. Results PCr-R was significantly prolonged in Gulf War illness cases vs their matched controls: control values, mean±SD, 29.0±8.7 seconds; case values 46.1±18.0 seconds; difference 17.1±14.9 seconds; p = 0.023. PCr-R was longer for cases relative to their matched controls for all but one pair; moreover while values clustered under 31 seconds for all but one control, they exceeded 35 seconds (with a spread up to 70 seconds) for all but one case. Discussion These data provide the first direct evidence supporting mitochondrial dysfunction in Gulf War illness. Findings merit replication in a larger study and/or corroboration with additional mitochondrial assessment tools.
More than Meets the Eye: Functionally Salient Changes in Internal Bone Architecture Accompany Divergence in Cichlid Feeding Mode

African cichlids have undergone extensive and repeated adaptive radiations in foraging habitat. While the external morphology of the cichlid craniofacial skeleton has been studied extensively, biomechanically relevant changes to internal bone architecture have been largely overlooked. Here we explore two fundamental questions: (1) Do changes in the internal architecture of bone accompany shifts in foraging mode? (2) What is the genetic basis for this trait? We focus on the maxilla, which is an integral part of the feeding apparatus and an element that should be subjected to significant bending forces during biting. Analyses of μCT scans revealed clear differences between the maxilla of two species that employ alternative foraging strategies (i.e., biting versus suction feeding). Hybrids between the two species exhibit maxillary geometries that closely resemble those of the suction feeding species, consistent with a dominant mode of inheritance. This was supported by the results of a genetic mapping experiment, where suction feeding alleles were dominant to biting alleles at two loci that affect bone architecture. Overall, these data suggest that the internal structure of the cichlid maxilla has a tractable genetic basis and that discrete shifts in this trait have accompanied the evolution of alternate feeding modes.
Teaching basic life support algorithms by either multimedia presentations or case based discussion equally improves the level of cognitive skills of undergraduate medical students

Background: There is no evidence on the best method for teaching Basic Life Support (BLS). Aims: To compare two methods for teaching BLS, assessing the level of cognitive skills. Methods: Randomized, prospective study including 68 medical students. BLS algorithms were taught for 60 minutes using either a multimedia presentation (Group I, n = 34) or case based discussion (Group II, n = 34). Assessments included a scenario-based quiz test and an error-pinpointing video, which the students completed before (T1) and after (T2) teaching. Comparisons between both groups were made on scores of the assessments, actual increases in scores (final value–initial value) and score gains (actual increase/potential increase). Results: No significant differences were found between the groups in any of the recorded scores. Both groups improved their T2 scores (p values <0.001). The actual increases in scores and the score gains were similar in both groups. Test scores improved in 55.9% of students in Group I and 58.8% in Group II; video scores improved in 85.3% of Group I and in 82.3% of Group II. Conclusions: BLS teaching by either multimedia presentations or case based discussion equally improves the level of cognitive skills among medical students.
Moments of Joy and Sorrow An Empirical Assessment of the Complementary Values of Critical Incidents in Understanding Customer Service Evaluations

It is commonly acknowledged that service quality can be measured by using attribute-based and incident-based measurements. Both methods are distinct in nature, but can be used complementary. However, in the literature a simultaneous empirical investigation of the power of critical incidents in relation to attribute scores is lacking. In this paper we merge both methods for assessing service quality in a professional services context. Subsequently, both measurements have been used to investigate the effect of service quality on short-term customer satisfaction and long-term trust in the service provider. The results of our study indicate that the combined approach adds value to single-method measurement for explaining customer satisfaction. Furthermore, negative incidents are more influential on satisfaction than positive experiences. However, the negative effect of a negative incident on satisfaction can be compensated by paying attention to particular dimensions of service quality. Critical incidents do not seem to have an impact on the apparently stable construct of trust.
Substance P receptor antagonists in the therapy of migraine

Clinical observations, the vascular component of migraine pain, its pulsating or throbbing pain character, have focused attention on the trigeminal innervation of pain-sensitive intracranial structures, such as the dura mater and large vessels. These intracranial structures are innervated by the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve, which is marked by the presence of vasoactive peptides, such as substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide. Substance P is a mediator of the sterile inflammation of the dura mater, which has been considered to be the source of migraine pain. Modern antimigraine drugs, such as 5-HT1B/D agonists (triptans), block this dural neurogenic inflammation dose-dependently in an animal model but their vasoconstrictor effects have led to a search for non-vasoconstrictor approaches. One such approach has been substance P (neurokinin-1) antagonists. These are highly effective in animal models of dural inflammation and have no significant vasoconstrictive effect. However, several NK1 antagonists failed to demonstrate any effect in acute migraine. Current clinical and experimental evidence therefore supports the view that NK1 receptor antagonists may have no significant antimigraine properties.
Evaluation of precise point positioning using MADOCA-LEX via Quasi-Zenith satellite system

This paper describes the evaluation of precise point positioning (PPP) using the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) L-band Experiment (LEX) signal. The first QZSS, the Japanese regional satellite navigation system, was launched from Japan in September 2010. QZSS transmits augmentation signals to enhance the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning accuracy. One of the QZSS augmentation signals is the LEX signal, the objective of which to realize centimeter-class positioning with its broadcasting data. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency began a test transmission of a MADOCA-LEX message, a new type of LEX message, in April 2013. MADOCA-LEX provides the satellite orbit and clock correction data of multi-GNSS using a statespace representation (SSR) format for real-time PPP. Unfortunately, the LEX signal cannot be received using the currently available commercial GNSS receivers. Moreover, for real-time applications, the LEX message contained in the LEX signal is required to be extracted for computing the user positions in real time. In this study, we have developed a novel technique for receiving and decoding the MADOCA-LEX message using a software GNSS receiver. We have developed a technique to decode the LEX messages without the use of an LEX signal tracking loop for estimating the code phase and the Doppler frequency of the LEX signal, however, with the aid of the conventional L1CA signal broadcasted simultaneously from the QZSS. We have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method through static and kinematic tests. We have determined the receiver positions with a distance rootmean-square error of within 10 cm, by using PPP with the MADOCA-LEX message in the real-time static test. We have also found that the proposed localization technique is effective for position estimation with the decimeterlevel accuracy through a kinematic test in the open-sky environment.
Does Exposure to Asbestos Cause Ovarian Cancer? A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis

Introduction: The asbestos and ovarian cancer relationship is not well understood because of small numbers of women exposed to asbestos, small numbers of cases, and misclassification of peritoneal mesothelioma as ovarian cancer on death certificates. The aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis to quantify the evidence that exposure to asbestos causes ovarian cancer. Methods: Fourteen cohort and two case-control studies were identified in Medline searches from 1950 to 2008. Results: Statistically significant excess mortality was reported in four of the cohort studies, all of which determined their outcomes from the death certificate. Peritoneal mesotheliomas were reported in these studies, two of which reexamined pathology specimens and reported disease misclassification. Exposure-response relationships were inconsistent. When all studies were included in a meta-analysis, the effect size was 1.75 (95% CI, 1.45–2.10) attenuating to 1.29 (95% CI, 0.97–1.73) in studies with confirmed ovarian cancers. Conclusion: Taken without further analysis, women thought to have ovarian cancer had an increased rate in the meta-analysis if reporting having been exposed to asbestos, compared with reference populations. This result may have occurred because of disease misclassification. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(7); 1287–95. ©2011 AACR.
Nuclear Factor E2-Related Factor 2-Dependent Antioxidant Response Element Activation by tert-Butylhydroquinone and Sulforaphane Occurring Preferentially in Astrocytes Conditions Neurons against Oxidative Insult

Binding of the transcription factor nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) to the antioxidant response element (ARE) in neural cells results in the induction of a battery of genes that can coordinate a protective response against a variety of oxidative stressors. In this study, tert-butylhydroquinone (tBHQ) and sulforaphane were used as activators of this pathway. Consistent with previous studies, treatment of primary cortical cultures from ARE reporter mice revealed selective promoter activity in astrocytes. This activation protected neurons from hydrogen peroxide and nonexcitotoxic glutamate toxicity. tBHQ treatment of cultures from Nrf2 knock-out animals resulted in neither ARE activation nor neuroprotection. By reintroducing Nrf2 via infection with a replication-deficient adenovirus (ad), both the genetic response and neuroprotection were rescued. Conversely, infection with adenovirus encoding dominant-negative (DN) Nrf2 (ad-DN-Nrf2) or pretreatment with the selective phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase inhibitor LY294002 inhibited the tBHQ-mediated promoter response and corresponding neuroprotection. Interestingly, the adenoviral infection showed a high selectivity for astrocytes over neurons. In an attempt to reveal some of the cell type-specific changes resulting from ARE activation, cultures were infected with adenovirus encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) (ad-GFP) or ad-DN-Nrf2 (containing GFP) before tBHQ treatment. A glia-enriched population of GFP-infected cells was then isolated from a population of uninfected neurons using cell-sorting technology. Microarray analysis was used to evaluate potential glial versus neuron-specific contributions to the neuroprotective effects of ARE activation and Nrf2 dependence. Strikingly, the change in neuronal gene expression after tBHQ treatment was dependent on Nrf2 activity in the astrocytes. This suggests that Nrf2-dependent genetic changes alter neuron–glia interactions resulting in neuroprotection.
Lymphatic and Angiogenic Candidate Genes Predict the Development of Secondary Lymphedema following Breast Cancer Surgery

The purposes of this study were to evaluate for differences in phenotypic and genotypic characteristics in women who did and did not develop lymphedema (LE) following breast cancer treatment. Breast cancer patients completed a number of self-report questionnaires. LE was evaluated using bioimpedance spectroscopy. Genotyping was done using a custom genotyping array. No differences were found between patients with (n = 155) and without LE (n = 387) for the majority of the demographic and clinical characteristics. Patients with LE had a significantly higher body mass index, more advanced disease and a higher number of lymph nodes removed. Genetic associations were identified for four genes (i.e., lymphocyte cytosolic protein 2 (rs315721), neuropilin-2 (rs849530), protein tyrosine kinase (rs158689), vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (rs3176861)) and three haplotypes (i.e., Forkhead box protein C2 (haplotype A03), neuropilin-2 (haplotype F03), vascular endothelial growth factor-C (haplotype B03)) involved in lymphangiogensis and angiogenesis. These genetic associations suggest a role for a number of lymphatic and angiogenic genes in the development of LE following breast cancer treatment.
Investigating a cellular automata model that performs three distance diffusion on a robot path planning

An improved cellular automata (CA) model is proposed and evaluated on a path planning problem for an autonomous robot. The objective is to construct a collision-free path from the robot’s initial position to the goal by applying the improved CA model and environment pre-processed images captured during its navigation. CA rules are used to enlarge obstacles and to perform three distance diffusion. Goal distance is spread by a CA rule using the free cells. Distance diffusion spread two new metrics used for cells inside the enlarged obstacle regions. The new distances are then used to plan routes when the robot needs to pass inside enlarged obstacle regions. The algorithm performs a new path planning at each n steps of robot navigation using its current position. Our inspiration came from the possibility to mimic the cognitive behaviour of desert ants, which re-plan their path to the goal constantly in time intervals, using only local cues. An e-puck robot was used in simulated scenarios to evaluate the new CA based adaptive path planning model. The simulations show promising results on the single robot’s performance confirming that the model could also be adapted for robot swarms.
Adjunct effect of music therapy on cognition in Alzheimer’s disease in Taiwan: a pilot study

Purpose Music therapy (MT) reviews have found beneficial effects on behaviors and social interaction in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but inconsistent effects on cognition. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the adjunct effect of long-term and home-based MT in AD patients under pharmacological treatment. Patients and methods Mild AD cases (clinical dementia rating =0.5~1) were consecutively recruited and voluntarily separated into an MT group or control group (CG) for 6 months. Outcome assessments included Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI), CASI-estimated mini-mental state examination, clinical dementia rating with sum of box scores, and neuropsychiatric inventory. The MT interventions were Mozart’s Sonata (KV 448) and Pachelbel’s Canon, listening with headphones for 30 minutes daily in the morning and before sleep, respectively. Results Forty-one cases (MT versus CG number =20 versus 21) were analyzed. Adjusted differences of CASI-estimated mini-mental state examination and CASI after 6 months in the MT group were slightly less decreased than the CG without statistical significance. In further analysis of cognitive domains of CASI, the adjusted difference of abstraction domain in the MT group was significantly better than the CG. Conclusion Although there were no apparent additional benefits of this MT on the global cognition and daily functioning in mild AD patients, it confirms the adjunct cognition effect on the abstraction. This MT contributes to the supplementary treatment of AD.
Semantic Interpolation in Implicit Models

In implicit models, one often interpolates between sampled points in latent space. As we show in this paper, care needs to be taken to match-up the distributional assumptions on code vectors with the geometry of the interpolating paths. Otherwise, typical assumptions about the quality and semantics of in-between points may not be justified. Based on our analysis we propose to modify the prior code distribution to put significantly more probability mass closer to the origin. As a result, linear interpolation paths are not only shortest paths, but they are also guaranteed to pass through high-density regions, irrespective of the dimensionality of the latent space. Experiments on standard benchmark image datasets demonstrate clear visual improvements in the quality of the generated samples and exhibit more meaningful interpolation paths.
Salvage Therapy of Multiple Myeloma: The New Generation Drugs

During the past decade, overall results of treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) have been improved and survival curves are now significantly better with respect to those obtained with historical treatment. These improvements are linked to a deeper knowledge of the biology of disease and to the introduction in clinical practice of drugs with different mechanism of action such as proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs). However, MM remains in most cases an incurable disease. For patients who relapse after treatment with novel agents, the prognosis is dismal and new drugs and therapeutic strategies are required for continued disease control. In this review, we summarize new insights in salvage therapy for relapsed/refractory MM as emerging from recent clinical trials exploring the activity of bendamustine, new generation proteasome inhibitors, novel IMiDs, monoclonal antibodies, and drugs interfering with growth pathways.
Central Nervous System Chemokine mRNA Accumulation Follows Initial Leukocyte Entry at the Onset of Acute Murine Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Central nervous system (CNS) expression of two chemokine mRNAs, encoding monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and IFN-gamma-inducible protein (IP-10), was previously shown to be closely related to the onset of clinical signs of murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Chemokine mRNAs accumulated in a striking, transient burst within astrocytes, near inflammatory leukocyte infiltrates. It remained unclear if chemokines functioned to initiate leukocyte entry into CNS tissues, or to amplify the intrathecal inflammatory reaction. To address this issue, we determined the expression of chemokine mRNAs at the earliest evidence of CNS immune-mediated inflammation. For these experiments, mice were sacrificed in pairs at varying times after immunization. Only one member of each pair was symptomatic for EAE at the time of sacrifice. Symptom presence correlated well with histological inflammation at the time of sacrifice. RNA was prepared from two CNS sites, brain and spinal cord, and expression of chemokine mRNAs was analyzed by a sensitive and quantitative reverse transcriptase/polymerase chain reaction dot-blot hybridization assay. CNS expressions of MCP-1 and IP-10 gene were correlated tightly with histological inflammation; indeed, chemokine expression was never detected in the absence of leukocyte infiltrates. In situ hybridizations showed that astrocytes expressed chemokine transcripts. These findings provide new information about mechanisms controlling chemokine mRNA expression during immune-mediated inflammation in EAE and are consistent with a role for chemokines as amplifiers of CNS inflammatory reactions.
Comparative Study of Probiotic Ice Cream and Probiotic Drink on Salivary Streptococcus mutans Levels in 6-12 Years Age Group Children

Background: Dental caries is one of the most common health problems in the world. Probiotics are one the various preventive methods to reduce dental caries. The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of probiotic ice cream and drink on salivary Streptococcus mutans levels in children of 6-12 years age group. Materials and Methods: A three phase study was carried out in children (n = 50) of 6-12 years age with zero decayed missing filled teeth (dmft)/DMFT. They were randomly divided into two equal groups. Saliva samples were collected before the consumptions of probiotic ice cream and probiotic drink. Colony count obtained was recorded as baseline data. For both groups probiotic ice cream and drink was given randomly for 7 days and a washout period of 90 days were given and then the saliva samples were collected and colony counting was done. Results: Statistical analysis was performed using Student’s paired t-test and multiple comparisons by Tukey’s honest significant difference test which showed, there is a significant reduction in salivary S. mutans level in both groups after 7 days period. However, after washout period only probiotic ice cream showed reduction whereas drink did not. Also, there was no significant difference between probiotic ice cream and drink. Conclusion: Probiotic organisms definitely have a role in reducing the salivary S. mutans level and ice cream would be a better choice than drink. However, the prolonged use of the agents and their effects on caries is still to be determined.