Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A possible synergistic effect of MTHFR C677T polymorphism on homocysteine level variations increased risk for ischemic stroke

Background: Homocysteine (Hcy) plays an important role in vascular function and Hcy level contributes to pathogenesis of ischemic stroke (IS). MTHFR gene polymorphism may have effects on IS risks by influencing the Hcy metabolic pathway. In the present study, a case–control study was designed to evaluate the relationship among MTHFR C677Tpolymorphism, plasma Hcy level, and susceptibility of IS in Chinese population. Methods: A total of 300 patients with IS and 261 matched control subjects were recruited. Plasma Hcy concentration was determined using enzymatic cycling assay. MTHFR C677T polymorphisms were genotyped by PCR-RFLP. Results: Compared with controls, the plasma Hcy level was significantly higher in the IS patients (P < .05). After adjusting for conventional risk factors, the T allele frequency of MTHFR C677T in IS group (54%) was significantly higher than that in the controls (38.3%) (P < .05; OR = 1.890, 95% CI: 1.489–2.399). Additionally, the plasma Hcy level of the TT genotype is significantly higher than that of the CC and CT genotypes (P < .05). Conclusion: Our study provided evidence that hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) and MTHFR C677T polymorphism were associated with IS. More importantly, suggesting that a possible synergistic effect of MTHFR C677T polymorphism on Hcy level variations increased risk for IS in Chinese population.
The Heritability and Genetic Correlates of Mobile Phone Use: A Twin Study of Consumer Behavior

There has been almost no overlap between behavior genetics and consumer behavior research, despite each field's importance in understanding society. In particular, both have neglected to study genetic influences on consumer adoption and usage of new technologies — even technologies as important as the mobile phone, now used by 5.8 out of 7.0 billion people on earth. To start filling this gap, we analyzed self-reported mobile phone use, intelligence, and personality traits in two samples of Australian teenaged twins (mean ages 14.2 and 15.6 years), totaling 1,036 individuals. ACE modeling using Mx software showed substantial heritabilities for how often teens make voice calls (.60 and .34 in samples 1 and 2, respectively) and for how often they send text messages (.53 and. 50). Shared family environment – including neighborhood, social class, parental education, and parental income (i.e., the generosity of calling plans that parents can afford for their teens) — had much weaker effects. Multivariate modeling based on cross-twin, cross-trait correlations showed negative genetic correlations between talking/texting frequency and intelligence (around –.17), and positive genetic correlations between talking/texting frequency and extraversion (about .20 to .40). Our results have implications for assessing the risks of mobile phone use such as radiofrequency field (RF) exposure and driving accidents, for studying adoption and use of other emerging technologies, for understanding the genetic architecture of the cognitive and personality traits that predict consumer behavior, and for challenging the common assumption that consumer behavior is shaped entirely by culture, media, and family environment.
Assessment of livelihood benefits of community-based watershed development in northwestern highlands of Ethiopia

ABSTRACT In Ethiopia, large investments have been made into watershed development activities over the past decades. There is, however, limited quantified information on ecological and socioeconomic benefits of these investments. This study assessed the livelihood benefits of community-based watershed development (CBWD) in the northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. We compared livelihood capital of rural households from three conserved micro-watersheds (Guansa, Tija Baji and Adef Wuha) and one control micro-watershed (Tata). Participatory workshops were conducted with stakeholders to identify indicators that would be affected by watershed development intervention. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to collect information from 157 systematically selected households from the four micro-watersheds. Linear standardization method was used to produce indicators with range between 0 and 1. After standardization, we calculated the value of each type of livelihood capital and finally the overall livelihood capital indices. One-way ANOVA was used to assess mean differences in livelihood asset between conserved and non-conserved sites. The findings revealed that the overall livelihood capital indices of Adef Wuha (0.45), Guansa (0.52) and Tija Baji (0.46) were better than the control micro-watershed (0.43). The livelihood improvement was significant (P < 0.05) at Guansa while the improvement was little at Adef Wuha and Tija Baji, compared to the control watershed. Concerning individual livelihood capitals, the natural capital at Guansa, and human capital at Guansa and Tija Baji watersheds showed significant improvement. However, human capital improvement at Adef Wuha, natural capital at Tija Baji and financial capital at Guansa and Adef Wuha were not significant. It is concluded that CBWD has livelihood benefits, but extents are likely to be context specific due to differences in baseline situations. We recommend a detailed cost–benefit analysis study to evaluate benefits against investment costs.
Unrelenting spread of the alien monk parakeet Myiopsitta monachus in Israel. Is it time to sound the alarm?

BACKGROUND Monk parakeets, Myiopsitta monachus Boddaert, are native to South America but have established populations in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. They are claimed to act as agricultural pests in their native range, and their communal stick nests may damage human infrastructure. Although several monk parakeet populations are present in the Mediterranean Basin and temperate Europe, little empirical data are available on their population size and growth, distribution and potential impact. We investigated the temporal and spatial dynamics of monk parakeets in Israel to assess their invasion success and potential impact on agriculture. RESULTS Monk parakeet populations are growing exponentially at a higher rate than that reported elsewhere. The current Israeli population of monk parakeets comprises approximately 1500 individuals. The distribution of the species has increased and shifted from predominantly urban areas to agricultural landscapes. CONCLUSIONS In Israel, monk parakeet populations are growing fast and have dispersed rapidly from cities to agricultural areas. At present, reports of agricultural damage are scarce. A complete assessment of possible management strategies is urgently needed before the population becomes too large and widespread to allow for cost-effective mitigation campaigns to be implemented. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
Integration and Operation of an Electrically Small Magnetic EZ Antenna With a High-Power Standing Wave Oscillator Source

The efficacy of the three-dimensional, rectangular magnetic EZ antenna for use with mesoband high-power microwave (HPM) sources has been demonstrated previously. It overcomes the typical bulky and massive impedance-matching components found currently in most HPM systems, making it an attractive option when space is very limited. However, its extremely compact nature presents practical challenges when dealing with extremely high-power sources due to the associated local field enhancements near the feed and the near-field resonant parasitic element. This letter presents a fully integrated, high-voltage source and radiating system that has several improvements in the antenna, source, and power system that have not before been demonstrated. The full system includes a ferroelectric generator, standing wave oscillator source, and electrically small antenna ( ka = 0.37) operating at 510 MHz that can be packaged inside a 15-cm-diameter tube. This small diameter results in a quarter-wavelength-diameter ground plane, and the effects of this small ground plane on the radiation characteristics are explored. The development of a pressurized radome allows for operation at 73.6 kV, significantly higher than previous studies.
Dependent advice: a general approach to optimizing history-based aspects

Many aspects for runtime monitoring are history-based: they contain pieces of advice that execute conditionally, based on the observed execution history. History-based aspects are notorious for causing high runtime overhead. Compilers can apply powerful optimizations to history-based aspects using domain knowledge. Unfortunately, current aspect languages like AspectJ impede optimizations, as they provide no means to express this domain knowledge. In this paper we present dependent advice, a novel AspectJ language extension. A dependent advice contains dependency annotations that preserve crucial domain knowledge: a dependent advice needs to execute only when its dependencies are fulfilled. Optimizations can exploit this knowledge: we present a whole-program analysis that removes advice-dispatch code from program locations at which an advice's dependencies cannot be fulfilled. Programmers often opt to have history-based aspects generated automatically, from formal specifications from model-driven development or runtime monitoring. As we show using code-generation tools for two runtime-monitoring approaches, tracematches and JavaMOP, such tools can use knowledge contained in the specification to automatically generate dependency annotations as well. Our extensive evaluation using the DaCapo benchmark suite shows that the use of dependent advice can significantly lower, sometimes even completely eliminate, the runtime overhead caused by history-based aspects, independently of the specification formalism.
Respiratory Oxygen Uptake Is Not Decreased by an Instantaneous Elevation of [CO2], But Is Increased with Long-Term Growth in the Field at Elevated [CO2]1

Averaged across many previous investigations, doubling the CO2 concentration ([CO2]) has frequently been reported to cause an instantaneous reduction of leaf dark respiration measured as CO2 efflux. No known mechanism accounts for this effect, and four recent studies have shown that the measurement of respiratory CO2 efflux is prone to experimental artifacts that could account for the reported response. Here, these artifacts are avoided by use of a high-resolution dual channel oxygen analyzer within an open gas exchange system to measure respiratory O2 uptake in normal air. Leaf O2 uptake was determined in response to instantaneous elevation of [CO2] in nine contrasting species and to long-term elevation in seven species from four field experiments. Over six hundred separate measurements of respiration failed to reveal any decrease in respiratory O2 uptake with an instantaneous increase in [CO2]. Respiration was found insensitive not only to doubling [CO2], but also to a 5-fold increase and to decrease to zero. Using a wide range of species and conditions, we confirm earlier reports that inhibition of respiration by instantaneous elevation of [CO2] is likely an experimental artifact. Instead of the expected decrease in respiration per unit leaf area in response to long-term growth in the field at elevated [CO2], there was a significant increase of 11% and 7% on an area and mass basis, respectively, averaged across all experiments. The findings suggest that leaf dark respiration will increase not decrease as atmospheric [CO2] rises.
Effect of laboratory variation in the prothrombin-time ratio on the results of oral anticoagulant therapy.

BACKGROUND Patients receiving long-term anticoagulant therapy may be subject to unnecessary risks of bleeding or thromboembolism because of variability in the commercial thromboplastins used to determine prothrombin time and consequent uncertainty about the actual intensity of anticoagulation. METHODS We explored the effect of this uncertainty on the benefits and risks of anticoagulation in patients with prosthetic heart valves, using models of thromboembolic and hemorrhagic complications as a function of the intensity of anticoagulation, with quality-adjusted life expectancy and average variable costs used to describe outcomes. RESULTS Anticoagulation provides a striking benefit for patients whose treatment is conducted within the recommended range of the international normalized ratio (INR)--i.e., 2.5 to 3.5--but if uncertainty about the laboratory results causes the intensity of anticoagulation to fall outside this range, the gain becomes smaller. Uncertainty about the true intensity of anticoagulation may reduce the potential gain in life expectancy, adjusted for quality of life, by more than half and may increase the ratio of costs to effectiveness to almost five times the optimal value. Variability in the intensity of anticoagulation is even greater if older recommendations advocating a higher level of anticoagulation are followed. CONCLUSIONS Uncertainty about the sensitivities of the commercially available thromboplastins used in the United States can have important clinical and economic effects. This problem could be eliminated if clinical laboratories uniformly reported the intensity of anticoagulation as the INR, by adjusting prothrombin-time ratios for variability in thromboplastins.
Topical Treatments for Hydrofluoric Acid Burns: A Blind Controlled Experimental Study

Background: Calcium gluconate gel, applied after initial rinsing with water, has a documented effect as first aid treatment for hydrofluoric acid burns. Hexafluorine® is a novel liquid compound developed especially for emergency decontamination of hydrofluoric acid eye and skin exposures. However, scientific documentation of the effect of Hexafluorine is insufficient. This study was undertaken to compare Hexafluorine with water rinsing plus topical calcium and with water rinsing alone. Methods: Thirty-five Sprague–Dawley rats were anesthetized and their backs shaved. Four filter papers 10 mm in diameter were soaked in 50% hydrofluoric acid and applied on the shaved area of each rat for 3 minutes. Thirty seconds later, the acid-exposed skin areas were rinsed with 500 mL Hexafluorine for 3 minutes (group H, n=10), 500 mL water for 3 minutes (group W, n=10) or 500 mL water for 3 minutes followed by a single application of 2.5% calcium gluconate gel (group Ca, n=10), or received no treatment (controls, n=5). The animals were closely observed for 5 days. Daily at 4 P.M. each of the four burns on every rat was rated on a modified Draize scale graded from 0 to 5 (0=no visible injury, 1=diffuse erythema, 2=distinct erythema, 3=distinct erythema plus wounds or discolored spots, 4=distinct erythema plus wounds or discolored areas covering >50% of the burn, 5=a necrotic wound covering the whole burn). The mean of the four scores was then calculated for each animal and day. The rating procedure was performed by one laboratory assistant who was unaware of the treatment given. Kruskal–Wallis analysis was used to evaluate possible differences between treatment groups on each of the 5 days. If the p-value obtained was <0.05, correction for multiple comparisons was made. Results: The mean severity score in group H was significantly higher than that in group Ca on days 2 and 3. Moreover, Hexafluorine showed a consistent trend towards a worse outcome, both in comparison to water plus topical calcium and to water rinsing alone. Conclusion: Based on these observations it is concluded that water rinsing followed by topical calcium should remain the standard first aid treatment for skin exposure to hydrofluoric acid.
Environmental Changes, Coextinction, and Patterns in the Fossil Record

We introduce a new model for large scale evolution and extinction in which species are organized into food webs. The system evolves by two processes: origination/speciation and extinction. In the model, extinction of a given species can be due to an externally induced change in the environment or due to the extinction of all preys of that species (coextinction). The model is able to reproduce the empirical observations without defining a fitness function or invoking competition between species. [S0031-9007(98)08245-3]
Distributed Patterns of Event-Related Potentials Predict Subsequent Ratings of Abstract Stimulus Attributes

Exposure to pleasant and rewarding visual stimuli can bias people's choices towards either immediate or delayed gratification. We hypothesised that this phenomenon might be based on carry-over effects from a fast, unconscious assessment of the abstract ‘time reference’ of a stimuli, i.e. how the stimulus relates to one's personal understanding and connotation of time. Here we investigated whether participants' post-experiment ratings of task-irrelevant, positive background visual stimuli for the dimensions ‘arousal’ (used as a control condition) and ‘time reference’ were related to differences in single-channel event-related potentials (ERPs) and whether they could be predicted from spatio-temporal patterns of ERPs. Participants performed a demanding foreground choice-reaction task while on each trial one task-irrelevant image (depicting objects, people and scenes) was presented in the background. Conventional ERP analyses as well as multivariate support vector regression (SVR) analyses were conducted to predict participants' subsequent ratings. We found that only SVR allowed both ‘arousal’ and ‘time reference’ ratings to be predicted during the first 200 ms post-stimulus. This demonstrates an early, automatic semantic stimulus analysis, which might be related to the high relevance of ‘time reference’ to everyday decision-making and preference formation.
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule: Psychometric Properties for the Brazilian Portuguese Version

Abstract This study is about the validity and item analysis for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), respectively through the Exploratory Factor Analysis (principal components method) and the Partial Credit Model (PCM). The scale has been largely used in areas ranging from clinical to social psychology since its release in 1988 by Watson, Clark, and Tellegen. In order to assess validity and item properties (Item Response Theory paradigm), this is study administered PANAS to 354 respondents, 115 male and 239 female subjects, with an average age of 29.5 (SD = 10,18). The results show PANAS’s excellent psychometric properties, with consistent dimensions and reliable item functioning, considering the Rasch measurement paradigm expressed in the PCM as an Item Response Theory model for polytomous data. The study considers important cultural issues and the results support more cautious translations for scales as well as further studies concerned with cross-cultural differences on the perception of affect states.
Myelination, oligodendrocytes, and serious mental illness

Historically, the human brain has been conceptually segregated from the periphery and further dichotomized into gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) based on the whitish appearance of the exceptionally high lipid content of the myelin sheaths encasing neuronal axons. These simplistic dichotomies were unfortunately extended to conceptually segregate neurons from glia, cognition from behavior, and have been codified in the separation of clinical and scientific fields into medicine, psychiatry, neurology, pathology, etc. The discrete classifications have helped obscure the importance of continual dynamic communication between all brain cell types (neurons, astrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocytes, and precursor (NG2) cells) as well as between brain and periphery through multiple signaling systems. The signaling systems range from neurotransmitters to insulin, angiotensin, and multiple kinases such a glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK‐3) that together help integrate metabolism, inflammation, and myelination processes and orchestrate the development, plasticity, maintenance, and repair that continually optimize function of neural networks. A more comprehensive, evolution‐based, systems biology approach that integrates brain, body, and environmental interactions may ultimately prove more fruitful in elucidating the complexities of human brain function. The historic focus on neurons/GM is rebalanced herein by highlighting the importance of a systems‐level understanding of the interdependent age‐related shifts in both central and peripheral homeostatic mechanisms that can lead to remarkably prevalent and devastating neuropsychiatric diseases. Herein we highlight the role of glia, especially the most recently evolved oligodendrocytes and the myelin they produce, in achieving and maintaining optimal brain function. The human brain undergoes exceptionally protracted and pervasive myelination (even throughout its GM) and can thus achieve and maintain the rapid conduction and synchronous timing of neural networks on which optimal function depends. The continuum of increasing myelin vulnerability resulting from the human brain's protracted myelination underlies underappreciated communalities between different disease phenotypes ranging from developmental ones such as schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) to degenerative ones such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). These shared vulnerabilities also expose significant yet underexplored opportunities for novel treatment and prevention approaches that have the potential to considerably reduce the tremendous burden of neuropsychiatric disease. GLIA 2014;62:1856–1877
Selective Regulation of Mature IgG1 Transcription by CD86 and β2-Adrenergic Receptor Stimulation1

Stimulation of CD86 and the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) on a B cell, either alone or together, is known to increase the level of IgG1 protein produced by a CD40 ligand/IL-4-activated B cell. It is also known that the mechanism by which CD40 and IL-4R stimulation on a B cell increases the level of IgG1 protein is by increasing germline γ1 transcription, IgG1 class switching, and mature IgG1 transcription, while the molecular mechanism responsible for mediating the CD86- and β2AR-induced effect remains unknown. In the present study using real-time PCR we show that the level of mature IgG1 transcription increases in CD40 ligand/IL-4-activated B cells following stimulation of either CD86 and/or β2AR, and that this increase reflects the increase in IgG1 protein. Furthermore, we show that the CD86- and/or β2AR-induced increase in mature IgG1 transcript is due to an increase in the rate of mature IgG1 transcription, as determined by nuclear run-on analysis. This effect is additive when both receptors are stimulated and is lost when B cells from CD86- and β2AR-deficient mice are used. In contrast, the level of germline γ1 transcription, the stability of mature IgG1 transcript, the number of IgG1-positive B cells, and the number of IgG1-secreting B cells did not change. These results provide the first evidence that CD86 and/or β2AR stimulation on a CD40 ligand/IL-4-activated B cell increases the level of IgG1 protein produced per cell by increasing the rate of mature IgG1 transcription.