Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Naturally Occurring Carboxypeptidase A6 Mutations

Background: Two mutations in the carboxypeptidase A6 (CPA6) gene were previously found in epilepsy patients. Results: Many additional CPA6 mutations were found. Some inactivated CPA6 and were more frequently found in epilepsy patients than controls. Conclusion: Several CPA6 mutations greatly reduce enzyme activity, but the most frequently found mutations do not. Significance: Mutations in CPA6 are associated with rare cases of epilepsy. Carboxypeptidase A6 (CPA6) is a member of the A/B subfamily of M14 metallocarboxypeptidases that is expressed in brain and many other tissues during development. Recently, two mutations in human CPA6 were associated with febrile seizures and/or temporal lobe epilepsy. In this study we screened for additional CPA6 mutations in patients with febrile seizures and focal epilepsy, which encompasses the temporal lobe epilepsy subtype. Mutations found from this analysis as well as CPA6 mutations reported in databases of single nucleotide polymorphisms were further screened by analysis of the modeled proCPA6 protein structure and the functional role of the mutated amino acid. The point mutations predicted to affect activity and/or protein folding were tested by expression of the mutant in HEK293 cells and analysis of the resulting CPA6 protein. Common polymorphisms in CPA6 were also included in this analysis. Several mutations resulted in reduced enzyme activity or CPA6 protein levels in the extracellular matrix. The mutants with reduced extracellular CPA6 protein levels showed normal levels of 50-kDa proCPA6 in the cell, and this could be converted into 37-kDa CPA6 by trypsin, suggesting that protein folding was not greatly affected by the mutations. Interestingly, three of the mutations that reduced extracellular CPA6 protein levels were found in patients with epilepsy. Taken together, these results provide further evidence for the involvement of CPA6 mutations in human epilepsy and reveal additional rare mutations that inactivate CPA6 and could, therefore, also be associated with epileptic phenotypes.
Sildenafil Inhibits Hypoxia-Induced Pulmonary Hypertension

Background— This study investigated the effect of the phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor sildenafil on the pulmonary vascular response to hypoxia in humans and mice. Methods and Results— In a randomized, double-blind study, sildenafil 100 mg or placebo was given orally to 10 healthy volunteers 1 hour before breathing 11% O2 for 30 minutes. Pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) was measured with an indwelling right heart catheter. The acute 56% increase in mean PAP produced by hypoxia during placebo treatment (mean PAP [mean±SD mm Hg]: normoxia 16.0±2.1 versus hypoxia 25.0±4.8) was almost abolished by sildenafil (normoxia 16.0±2.1 versus hypoxia 18.0±3.6), with no significant effect on systemic blood pressure. In the isolated perfused lung of wild-type and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-deficient mice, sildenafil markedly blunted acute hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. Wild-type mice dosed orally with the drug (25 mg · kg−1 · d−1) throughout 3 weeks of exposure to hypoxia (10% O2) exhibited a significant reduction in right ventricular systolic pressure (placebo versus sildenafil: 43.3±9.9 versus 29.9±9.7 mm Hg, P <0.05) coupled with a small reduction in right ventricular hypertrophy and inhibition of pulmonary vascular remodeling. In eNOS mutant mice, sildenafil attenuated the increase in right ventricular systolic pressure but without a significant effect on right ventricular hypertrophy or vascular remodeling. Conclusions— Sildenafil attenuates hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension in humans and mice and offers a novel approach to the treatment of this condition. The eNOS-NO-cGMP pathway contributes to the response to sildenafil, but other biochemical sources of cGMP also play a role. Sildenafil has beneficial pulmonary hemodynamic effects even when eNOS activity is impaired.
Autogenous regulation of transcription termination factor Rho and the requirement for Nus factors in Bacillus subtilis

The expression and activity of transcription termination factor Rho and the requirement for transcription elongation factors NusA and NusG was investigated in Bacillus subtilis. Rho was present at < 5% of the level found in Escherichia coli, but Rho factors from these two bacteria had similar properties as RNA‐activated ATPases and in vitro termination of transcription on the λtR1 terminator. The B. subtilis rho gene was autoregulated at the level of transcription; autoregulation required sequences within the rho mRNA leader region and gene. To date, the B. subtilis rho is the only gene from a Gram‐positive bacterium found to be regulated by Rho. Rho was not involved in bulk mRNA decay in B. subtilis. The E. coli elongation factors NusA and NusG target Rho, and the importance of these proteins in B. subtilis was examined by gene disruption. The B. subtilis NusG was inessential for both the viability and the autoregulation of Rho, whereas NusA was essential, and the requirement for NusA was independent of Rho. This contrasts with E. coli in which NusG is essential but NusA becomes dispensable if Rho terminates transcription less efficiently.
A modified bronchoalveolar lavage procedure that allows measurement of lung epithelial lining fluid volume.

We replaced the standard serial bronchoalveolar lavage technique with a new "rewash" lavage procedure to allow estimation of the volume and protein concentration of the epithelial lining fluid (ELF) in anesthetized sheep. A bronchoscope 6.0 mm in diameter wedged in an airway was used to lavage a segment of lung with four cycles of instillation and aspiration of the lavage solution containing a radioactive tracer (technetium pertechnetate, 99mTcO4-). Errors caused by the fall in concentration of the tracer during the lavage were minimized by extrapolating the tracer concentration back to time zero when the lavage solution had mixed with the ELF, but had not had time to be affected by loss of the tracer or influx of fluid from the interstitium. In control sheep, the ELF of these lavaged segments had a mean volume of 1.6 +/- 1.0 ml and a mean protein concentration that was 26 +/- 19% of the protein concentration measured in the plasma. Increasing the left atrial pressure 19 +/- 5 cm H2O to cause "cardiac lung edema" had no significant effect on the ELF volume, but it increased the mean protein concentration to 57 +/- 30% of the plasma value (p less than 0.01). Lung injury caused by intravenous oleic acid caused lung edema, increased the mean ELF volume to 6.8 +/- 2.2 ml, and increased the mean ELF protein concentration to 86 +/- 26% of the plasma value (p less than 0.01). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Machine Comprehension by Text-to-Text Neural Question Generation

We propose a recurrent neural model that generates natural-language questions from documents, conditioned on answers. We show how to train the model using a combination of supervised and reinforcement learning. After teacher forcing for standard maximum likelihood training, we fine-tune the model using policy gradient techniques to maximize several rewards that measure question quality. Most notably, one of these rewards is the performance of a question-answering system. We motivate question generation as a means to improve the performance of question answering systems. Our model is trained and evaluated on the recent question-answering dataset SQuAD.
Dynamic Changes in Upper-Limb Corticospinal Excitability during a ‘Pro-/Anti-saccade’ Double-Choice Task

Under natural behavioral conditions, visually guided eye movements are linked to direction-specific modulations of cortico-spinal system (CSS) excitability in upper-limb muscles, even in absence of a manual response. These excitability changes have been shown to be compatible with a covert motor program encoding a manual movement toward the same target of the eyes. The aim of this study is to investigate whether this implicit oculo-manual coupling is enforced following every saccade execution or it depends on the behavioral context. Twenty-two healthy young adults participated in the study. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied to the motor cortex at nine different time epochs during a double-choice eye task, in which the decision to execute a prosaccade or an antisaccade was made on the color of a peripheral visual cue. By analyzing the amplitude of the motor evoked potentials (MEP) in three distal muscles of the resting upper-limb, a facilitation peak of CSS excitability was found in two of them at 120 ms before the eyes begin to move. Furthermore, a long-lasting, generalized reduced corticomotor excitability develops following the eye response. Finally, a quite large modulation of MEP amplitude, depending on the direction of the saccade, is observed only in the first dorsal interosseous muscle, in a narrow time window at about 150 ms before the eye movement, irrespective of the type of the ocular response (pro-/anti-saccade). This change in CSS excitability is not tied up to the timing of the occurrence of the visual cue but, instead, appears to be tightly time-related to the saccade onset. Observed excitability changes differ in many respects from those previously reported with different behavioral paradigms. A main finding of our study is that the implicit coupling between eye and hand motor systems is contingent upon the particular motor set determined by the cognitive aspects of the performed oculomotor task. In particular, the direction-specific modulation in CSS excitability described in this study appears to be related to perceptual and decision-making processes rather than representing an implicit upper-limb motor program, coupled to the saccade execution.
Two Faces of Absorptive Capacity Creation : Access and Utilisation of Knowledge

The widespread implementation of the notion of absorptive capacity leads the authors to question whether empirical research is actually measuring absorptive capacity? The argument is that absorptive capacity creation has two faces: access to external knowledge and utilisation of the knowledge. A prerequisite for absorption is openness towards knowledge sharing in the innovation process, but also that the proper prior knowledge is available. Furthermore, is the characteristics of the external knowledge of importance for the absorption opportunities. These issues forms the foundation for the empirical sections of the paper. The paper draws on a questionnaire-based data set that was collected in seven European countries in 2000 focusing on the innovative activities of firms in the years 1998-2000. The aim of the overall study 1 is to explore the mechanisms and sources of knowledge flows in the innovation process especially among cooperation partners. The empirical sections test the relationships of innovative performance to, first, openness towards knowledge sharing, second, the role of training as an indicator of ability to access external knowledge and finally, the characteristics of knowledge. The results are that openness towards knowledge sharing defined by participation in strategic alliances as well as high R&D intensities is important for innovative performance; second, a high share of R&D personnel as well as a high share of academics form the foundation for knowledge access and finally, the knowledge to be absorbed should be supplementary and preferably be directed towards the later stages of the innovation process. * Corresponding author: Aarhus School of Business; Fuglsangs Alle 4, DK-8210 Aarhus V, Denmark. Email: mep@asb.dk. #: Aalborg University, Dept. of Business Studies, Fibigerstræde 4, DK-9220 Aalborg O, Denmark. Email: bd@business.auc. dk and gv@business.auc. dk. 1 The study is funded by the TSER-programme of the EU: ‘Know for innovation’ (contract no. SOE1-CT98-1118DGXII G4).
Neural Correlates of Decision Making on a Gambling Task Individual Differences in Affective Decision Making

Individual differences in affective decision making were examined by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) while 74 typically developing 8-year-olds (38 boys, 36 girls) completed a 4-choice gambling task (Hungry Donkey Task; E. A. Crone & M. W. van der Molen, 2004). ERP results indicated: (a) a robust P300 component in response to feedback (punishment vs. reward outcomes), (b) anticipation effects (stimulus-preceding negativity) prior to outcomes presented on frequent (vs. infrequent) punishment choices, (c) anticipation effects prior to selections associated with short and long-term losses (vs. gains), and (d) individual differences in ERP components were significantly correlated with behavioral performance and verbal ability. These findings suggest that neurophysiological responses may be an index of children's trait-based and ⁄ or developmental level of decision-making skills in affective–motivational situations. Middle childhood reflects a period in development when children begin to be confronted with decisions about meaningful, motivationally significant, life events that carry a certain degree of risk regarding future consequences. Examples include deciding whether to participate in deviant or harmful activities with peers or risk social rejection , choosing whether to hit a sibling or walk away from the fight, and deciding whether to forego playing a videogame in order to study for a test. The ability to control one's thoughts and behaviors in situations in which there is a relatively strong motivational component (e.g., rewards and losses tied to one's performance) or ''hot'' executive function show developmental changes over the lifespan (e.g., from early childhood to middle childhood to adulthood) (for reviews, 2007). However, surprisingly little is known about individual differences in hot executive function, and even less on the neural substrates of such individual differences. Given the importance of affective decision making in establishing healthy versus pathological pathways in social development , especially during middle childhood It is widely recognized that children and adolescents make more risky decisions than adults. In uncertain situations in which one's actions could not only have an immediate payoff but also might lead to negative outcomes in the long run, they fail to account for the future consequences of their behavior—akin to how one might commonly think of high-stakes gambling. Although affective decision making improves with age, on average, there are striking individual differences in this ability in middle childhood (e.g. for their valuable help. Jason Plaks generously provided access to the EEG equipment. We thank the participating children and families.
Beliefs of the public concerning the helpfulness of interventions for bulimia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE To examine the beliefs of women concerning the helpfulness of various possible interventions for bulimia nervosa. METHOD Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a community sample of 208 women aged 18-45 years. Respondents were presented with a vignette describing a fictional person meeting diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa and were asked to indicate whether various persons, treatments, medications, and self-help activities would be helpful, harmful, or neither helpful nor harmful for the person described. RESULTS Respondents indicated that seeing a general practitioner (GP), counselor, or dietitian was more likely to be helpful than seeing either a psychologist or a psychiatrist. GPs were perceived as the individuals likely to be most helpful for the problem described, and most likely to be approached first, whereas counseling was regarded as the most helpful treatment. Self-help interventions, including the use of vitamins and minerals, were also highly regarded, while a minority of participants believed that anti-depressant medication would be helpful. CONCLUSIONS Information concerning treatments that are effective for eating disorders should be included in prevention programs. Collaborations between mental health specialists and primary health providers are vital to ensure the optimal treatment of eating-disordered behavior.
Probiotic Properties of Lactobacillus Species Isolated from Local Traditional Fermented Products

The present study aims to isolate Lactobacillus species from locally fermented vegetables and to characterize selected isolates for their probiotic potential. Seventeen Lactobacillus strains (9 Lactobacillus plantarum 1, 3 Lactobacillus pentosus, 2 Lactobacillus brevis 1, 2 Lactobacillus brevis 3 and 1 Lactobacillus salivarius) were isolated and tested for their probiotic potential. This included survival in gastrointestinal simulated juice, antagonistic activity against Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolate, bile tolerance and antibiotic resistance to 8 antibiotics. Most isolates, especially Lactobacillus plantarum 1, were tolerant to the acidity and intestinal conditions after exposure for three and four hours, respectively, with reduction less than one log cycle of the starting CFU/ml. The same trend was observed in respect to bile tolerance with slight variations. All isolates inhibited the growth of the tested pathogens and were the most effective against MRSA isolate. As for antibiotic resistance, it was pronounced against kanamycin, ampicillin, erythromycin and tetracycline. Some isolates (M3, M5, M6, M12, B14) showed a resistance to 6 or more antibiotics of those tested. These results prove that the traditionally fermented vegetables are a good source for probiotic Lactobacillus. However, further in vivo studies are needed to substantiate the potential of these isolates.
Over-reaction to Demand Changes due to Subjective and Quantitative Forecasting

In this paper, we study managers’ errors in decision making for inventory replenishment and how these errors affect their inventory system. In particular, primarily for its expected relationship with the bullwhip effect, we focus on the error of the over-reaction to demand changes and a common contributor of decision making biases: forecasting of demand. By over-reaction we mean that the manager over (under) orders when seeing a change in demand. We show that our representative manifestations of forecasting managers’ subjective response to demand signals and the use of simple quantitative forecasting techniques share similar consequences: both can result in an increase in internal costs and in the uncertainty and volatility of the system’s replenishment orders. Further results of this paper provide argument and thus incentive for mitigating the bullwhip effect by relating it to decision making that would help reduce costs for the manager as well.
Design of 3-D FIR digital filters using integral squared error criterion and transformation method

In this paper, the design of three-dimensional (3-D) FIR filters using McClellan transform method and integral squared error (ISE) criterion is presented. The 3-D filters with cone-shaped characteristics are considered in the approach. By minimizing the ISE function and double integration, a novel closed-form solution for the transform parameters is developed. The new relations for the transform coefficients are expressed in terms of the desired angle of inclination of the cone. The scaling problem of transformation function is also under discussion, as well as the choice of an appropriate cut-off frequency of the 1-D filter prototype. Several design examples are demonstrated to illustrate the merits of the proposed new technique.
The Impact of Product Quality on Perceived Value, Trust and Students’ Intention to Purchase Electronic Gadgets

Increasing attention on the role played by product quality on desirable customer behavioural outcomes has been empirically examined over the past decades. Nevertheless, there are significant issues yet to be addressed and resolved, one of which relates to the influences of the quality of electronic gadgets on students’ perceived value, trust and their intention to purchase. In view of this research gap, five posited hypotheses are empirically tested using a sample of 151 in South Africa. The results supports all the posited hypotheses except hypothesis four which although positive as postulated, is insignificant. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed and limitations and future research directions are indicated. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013. v4n14p463
Body Image in Dyadic and Solitary Sexual Desire: The Role of Encoding Style and Distracting Thoughts

This study explored the link between body image and desire to engage in sexual activity (dyadic and solitary desire) in adult women living in a long-term couple relationship. Moreover, it considered two psychological factors that may underlie such a link: the occurrence of body-related distracting thoughts during sexual activity and encoding style (i.e., the tendency to rely on preexisting internal schemata versus external information at encoding). A total of 53 women (29 to 47 years old) in heterosexual relationships completed questionnaires assessing sexual desire (dyadic, solitary), body image, body-related distracting thoughts during sexual activity, and encoding style. Results showed that poor body image was associated with low dyadic and solitary sexual desire. Body-related distracting thoughts during sexual activity mediated the link between body image and solitary (but not dyadic) sexual desire. Finally, the mediation of body-related distracting thoughts between body image and solitary sexual desire was moderated by encoding style. A negative body image promoted the occurrence of body-related distracting thoughts during sexual activity, especially in internal encoders. Our study highlights the importance of body image, distracting thoughts, and encoding style in women’s solitary sexuality and suggests possible factors that may reduce the impact of those body-related factors in dyadic sexual desire.
WOUND INSTILLATION OF LOCAL ANESTHETIC BUPIVACAINE FOR POSTOPERATIVE ANALGESIA FOLLOWING LUMBAR LAMINECTOMY.

PURPOSE Lumbar laminectomy is a commonly performed procedure in neurosurgical and orthopedic practice. Postoperative pain reliefhelps in early mobilization, initiation of physiotherapy, provides satisfaction to the patients and plays an important role in reducing the morbidity and mortality. This prospective study investigated the simple technique of instillation of wound with bupivacaine and leaving a contact time of 60 seconds on postoperative pain following lumbar laminectomy. METHODS 32 ASA I and II patients scheduled for laminectomy were randomly allocated to receive either 20 ml of normal saline (group I) or 0.25% of bupivacaine (group II) into the wound after securing hemostasis. After a dwell time of 60sec the wound was closed in layers without mopping or suctioning. After extubation, the pain scores were evaluated by visual analog scale at every 4 hrs. for 24hrs and also the time for first demand of analgesia, number of analgesic demands and the total amount of analgesia consumed were noted by an independent observer. RESULTS The median duration of analgesia in group I was 8.8 [5-11] and in group II 13 [8.5-16] hrs. with a p = 0.04. The number of demands and the amount of analgesia consumed was also statistically significant. CONCLUSION Wound instillation technique is simple, safe and effective in management of acute pain management after lumbar laminectomy and can be used as one among the multimodal armamentarium in pain management.
Approximation algorithms for some routing problems

Several polynomial time approximation algorithms for some NP-complete routing problems are presented, and the worst-case ratios of the cost of the obtained route to that of an optimal are determined. A mixed-strategy heuristic with a bound of 9/5 is presented for the Stacker-Crane problem (a modified Traveling Salesman problem). A tour-splitting heuristic is given for k-person variants of the Traveling Salesman problem, the Chinese Postman problem, and the Stacker-Crane problem, for which a minimax solution is sought. This heuristic has a bound of e + 1 - 1/k, where e is the bound for the corresponding 1-person algorithm.