Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of leptin in obesity‐related hypertension

Obesity in humans causes hypertension, myocardial hypertrophy and coronary atherosclerosis, and increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality that is thought to be related to sympathetic overactivity. Leptin is an adipocyte‐derived hormone that acts in the hypothalamus to regulate appetite, energy expenditure and sympathetic nervous system outflow. One of the major mechanisms leading to the development of obesity‐induced hypertension appears to be leptin‐mediated sympatho‐activation. Leptin adversely shifts the renal pressure–natriuresis curve, leading to relative sodium retention. Although obesity is generally associated with resistance to the anorexic and weight‐reducing actions of leptin, our work has shown preservation of its sympatho‐excitatory and pressor actions. This selective leptin resistance of obesity, coupled with hyperleptinaemia, may play a critical role in the cardiovascular complications of obesity. Increased information about leptin and its mechanisms of actions should help the development of safe and effective pharmacological treatments of obesity and obesity‐related hypertension.
Measuring Contextual Fitness Using Error Contexts Extracted from the Wikipedia Revision History

We evaluate measures of contextual fitness on the task of detecting real-word spelling errors. For that purpose, we extract naturally occurring errors and their contexts from the Wikipedia revision history. We show that such natural errors are better suited for evaluation than the previously used artificially created errors. In particular, the precision of statistical methods has been largely over-estimated, while the precision of knowledge-based approaches has been under-estimated. Additionally, we show that knowledge-based approaches can be improved by using semantic relatedness measures that make use of knowledge beyond classical taxonomic relations. Finally, we show that statistical and knowledge-based methods can be combined for increased performance.
Osteoporosis in haemophilia – an underestimated comorbidity?

Summary. A relationship between haemophilia and osteoporosis has been suggested, leading to the initiative for a larger study assessing this issue. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by osteodensitometry using dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in 62 male patients with severe haemophilia A; mean age 41 ± 13.1 years, mean body mass index (BMI) 23.5 ± 3.6 kg m−2. Using the clinical score suggested by the World Federation of Hemophilia, all patients were assessed to determine the severity of their arthropathy. A reduced BMD defined as osteopenia and osteoporosis by World Health Organization criteria was detected in 27/62 (43.5%) and 16/62 (25.8%) patients, respectively. Fifty‐five of sixty‐two (88.7%) patients suffered from haemophilic arthropathy. An increased number of affected joints and/or an increased severity were associated with lower BMD in the neck of femur. Pronounced muscle atrophy and loss of joint movement were also associated with low BMD. Furthermore, hepatitis C, low BMI and age were found to be additional risk factors for reduced BMD in the haemophiliac. Our data shows that in haemophilic patients osteoporosis represents a frequent concomitant observation. The main cause for reduced bone mass in the haemophiliac is most probably the haemophilic arthropathy being typically associated with chronic pain and loss of joint function subsequently leading to inactivity. Further studies including control groups are necessary to elucidate the impact of comorbidities such as hepatitis C or HIV on the development of osteoporosis in the haemophiliac.
Conversion of mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer disease predicted by hippocampal atrophy maps.

BACKGROUND While most patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) transition to Alzheimer disease (AD), others develop non-AD dementia, remain in the MCI state, or improve. OBJECTIVE To test the following hypotheses: smaller hippocampal volumes predict conversion of MCI to AD, whereas larger hippocampal volumes predict cognitive stability and/or improvement; and patients with MCI who convert to AD have greater atrophy in the CA1 hippocampal subfield and subiculum. DESIGN Prospective longitudinal cohort study. SETTING University of California-Los Angeles Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. PATIENTS We followed up 20 MCI subjects clinically and neuropsychologically for 3 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Baseline regional hippocampal atrophy was analyzed with region-of-interest and 3-dimensional hippocampal mapping techniques. RESULTS During the 3-year study, 6 patients developed AD (MCI-c), 7 remained stable (MCI-nc), and 7 improved (MCI-i). Patients with MCI-c had 9% smaller left and 13% smaller right mean hippocampal volumes compared with MCI-nc patients. Radial atrophy maps showed greater atrophy of the CA1 subregion in MCI-c. Patients with MCI-c had significantly smaller hippocampi than MCI-i patients (left, 24%; right, 27%). Volumetric analyses showed a trend for greater hippocampal atrophy in MCI-nc relative to MCI-i patients (eg, 16% volume loss). After permutation tests corrected for multiple comparison, the atrophy maps showed a significant difference on the right. Subicular differences were seen between MCI-c and MCI-i patients, and MCI-nc and MCI-i patients. Multiple linear regression analysis confirmed the group effect to be highly significant and independent of age, hemisphere, and Mini-Mental State Examination scores at baseline. CONCLUSIONS Smaller hippocampi and specifically CA1 and subicular involvement are associated with increased risk for conversion from MCI to AD. Patients with MCI-i tend to have larger hippocampal volumes and relative preservation of both the subiculum and CA1.
Effects of a Single Ingestion of Trehalose during Prolonged Exercise

Trehalose (TRE), a disaccharide, is absorbed slowly and gradually increases the blood glucose (GLU) level along with reducing insulin secretion. The aim of this study was twofold. First, we examined exercise performance following ingestions of either GLU, TRE, or water (WAT). The second purpose was to investigate the effects of TRE energy metabolism during prolonged exercise. We examined exercise performance using the Wingate test, with 30-min constant load exercise at 40% VO2peak after exercising for 60 min at 40% VO2peak, by using an electromagnetic brake-type bicycle ergometer (Part 1). The power values, blood glucose and lactate, and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) were measured. In addition, we investigated the energy metabolism after a single ingestion of TRE, by measuring the RER and estimating the lipid oxidation for 60 min at 40% VO2peak (Part 2). Healthy college male students performed three trials—(1) placebo (WAT), (2) GLU, and (3) TRE. Repeated two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for a comparison of the data among the three trial groups. A multiple comparison test was performed using post hoc Bonferroni correction. The TRE ingestion significantly increased the average and maximum power values (p < 0.01). The TRE ingestion showed significantly higher lipid utilization than the GLU lipid oxidation values the in TRE, 12.5 ± 6.1 g/h; GLU, 9.3 ± 4.7 g/h; and WAT, 15.0 ± 4.4 g/h; (p < 0.01). In conclusion, we provide novel data that a single TRE ingestion was effective in improving prolonged exercise performance by effective use of glucose and lipids.
Generalized Abstract Argumentation: A First-order Machinery towards Ontology Debugging

Same as Dung's abstract argumentation framework (AF), the notion of generalized abstract argumen- tation framework (GenAF) aims at reasoning about inconsistency disregarding any logic for arguments; thus both the knowledge base (KB) and language to express beliefs remain unspecified. Nonetheless, reifying the abstract configuration of the AF argumentation machineries to specific logics may bring about some inconveniences. A GenAF is assumed to eventually relate first-order logic (FOL) formulae to abstract arguments. The main purpose of the generalization is to provide a theory capable of reasoning (following argumentation technics) about inconsistent knowledge bases (KB) expressed in any FOL fragment. Consequently, the notion of argument is related to a single formula in the KB. This allows to share the same primitive elements from both, the framework (arguments) and, the KB (formulae). A framework with such features would not only allow to manage a wide range of knowledge representation languages, but also to cope straightforwardly with the dynamics of knowledge. Once the formalism is presented, we propose a reification to the description logic ALC with the intention to handle ontology debugging. In this sense, since argumentation frameworks reason over graphs that relate arguments through attack, our methodology is proposed to bridge ontological inconsistency sources to attack relations in argumentation. Finally, an argumentation semantics adapted to GenAF's, is proposed as a consistency restoration tool with the objective of debugging and repairing ontologies.
Peculiarities of interaction of synthetic polyribonucleotide poly(rA)-poly(rU) with some intercalators

The structural organization of RNA plays a key role in different processes of the cell cycle, which is why different forms of this molecule are appropriate targets for investigating of metabolic processes. From this perspective, RNAs have different roles in medical and chemicalbiological areas which is caused by the active participation of this biomacromolecule both in gene expression and in enzymatic processes (Corey, 2007; N’soukpoe’Kossi et al., 2008). Further, the interest in this macromolecule is influenced by the fact that RNA may be applied in diagnostic measurements of viral diseases (Fulle & Gohlke, 2010). There are several ways to regulate cell apoptosis by using RNA because it is known that the genome of various retroviruses, including oncoviruses contains RNA (Khaitan et al., 2011). As with DNA, RNA has a large structural variety due to its ability to form secondary and tertiary structures (Tyagi, Agarwal, & Mehrotra, 2015). Special attention has been paid to the preparation and screening of anti-bacterial and anti-viral drugs that show high specificity to certain types of RNA bases or sites in vivo modifying the substituents that presumably bind to specific domains of the RNA. One of the approaches for the screening of compounds is to study the interaction of such drugs with RNA, the properties of which are revealed by its interaction with DNA (Tyagi et al., 2015). For this aim, we examined the interaction of various intercalators such as phenothiazinium dye methylene blue (MB), the phenantridinium dye ethidium bromide (EtBr) and the acridinium dye acridine orange (AO) with double-stranded (ds-) poly(rA)-poly(rU), used as a model for RNA. The binding of biologically active compounds with ds-RNA has been studied less frequently than it has with ds-DNA. The goal of this work is to study the interaction of MB, EtBr and AO with double-stranded synthetic polyribonucleotide poly(rA)-poly(rU), identify the binding properties and determine the binding constant K and number of base pairs (n) per binding site.
[Hypertension prevalence and risk factors in a Brazilian urban population].

BACKGROUND The available studies have not fully analyzed the several factors involved in the genesis of hypertension (HT), especially the association among blood pressure, urinary sodium excretion and renal dysfunction. OBJECTIVE To assess the HT prevalence and risk factors in different age groups in a representative sample of an urban Brazilian population. METHODS The studied population (1717 adult individuals) was evaluated by age groups: 18 to 39 years; 40 to 49; 50 to 59; 60 to 69 and > 70 years. Quantitative variable means and categorical variables of the hypertensive and normotensive groups were compared. RESULTS The adjusted overall prevalence of HT was 25.23%. The prevalence increased with age and was higher in individuals with low educational level. Increased body mass index and abdominal waist were positively related to a higher prevalence of HT. There was a significant positive association between HT and urinary sodium excretion. Hypertensive individuals presented higher frequency of renal dysfunction, defined as measured creatinine clearance <60 ml/min/m(2). The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 5.6% in the overall population and 14.5% in hypertensive individuals. Hypertension was a known condition to 74.4% of the hypertensive individuals. Among treated hypertensive individuals, 52.4% achieved controlled blood pressure and only 34.3% of the overall hypertensive patients (treated or not) had blood pressure controlled. CONCLUSION This population-based is unique by gathering different demographic, epidemiologic and risk factors involved in the genesis of hypertension in a single sample assessment with a population calculation, which might be extrapolated to other hypertensive populations.
A Framework for Real-Time Face and Facial Feature Tracking using Optical Flow Pre-estimation and Template Tracking

This work presents a framework for tracking head movements and capturing the movements of the mouth and both the eyebrows in real-time. We present a head tracker which is a combination of a optical flow and a template based tracker. The estimation of the optical flow head tracker is used as starting point for the template tracker which fine-tunes the head estimation. This approach together with re-updating the optical flow points prevents the head tracker from drifting. This combination together with our switching scheme, makes our tracker very robust against fast movement and motion-blur. We also propose a way to reduce the influence of partial occlusion of the head. In both the optical flow and the template based tracker we identify and exclude occluded points.
Gender and Peer Influence on Substance Abuse among Undergraduates in Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria

This is a survey research study which investigated gender and peer influence on substance abuse among undergraduates in Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria. 513 undergraduates were purposively selected for the study. The researchers designed the instrument, Gender and Peer Influence on Substance Abuse Inventory (GAPISAI) used in collecting data from the respondents. The data collected were analysed using percentages, Pearson product moment correlation co-efficient formula and t-test statistical analysis. The three formulated hypotheses were accepted by the results of the finding. The researchers suggested that all fresh and stale students in the University should be exposed to Self Concept Assertiveness Training (SCAT) and Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Programme (SARP). Key Words : Gender, Peer Influence, Substance Abuse and Undergraduates.
The Personal Networks and Social Supports of Blind and Visually Impaired Adolescents

This article describes a study of the personal networks and social supports of 316 blind and visually impaired adolescents, aged 14–23, in The Netherlands. The study found that the mean size of these adolescents’ personal networks was 15 persons, compared to 15–20 for sighted adolescents. The oldest adolescents had the largest networks, and the blind adolescents had the smallest. The female and oldest adolescents had more friends, whom they considered important sources of support. However, for all the adolescents, parents were the most important source of support.
Predictive Matrix-Variate t Models

It is becoming increasingly important to learn from a partially-observed random matrix and predict its missing elements. We assume that the entire matrix is a single sample drawn from a matrix-variate t distribution and suggest a matrix-variate t model (MVTM) to predict those missing elements. We show that MVTM generalizes a range of known probabilistic models, and automatically performs model selection to encourage sparse predictive models. Due to the non-conjugacy of its prior, it is difficult to make predictions by computing the mode or mean of the posterior distribution. We suggest an optimization method that sequentially minimizes a convex upper-bound of the log-likelihood, which is very efficient and scalable. The experiments on a toy data and EachMovie dataset show a good predictive accuracy of the model.
Studies on the cellular architecture of the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis in the rat: II. chemoarchitecture

In a companion paper (Ju and Swanson; J. Comp. Neurol. 280:587–602, '89) we described a parcellation scheme for the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (BST) that was based on cytoarchitectonic criteria. In the work reported here, antisera to the neuropeptides corticotropin‐releasing hormone, neurotensin, galanin, substance P, and cholecystokinin were used to determine the extent to which immunostained neuronal cell bodies and presumed terminal fields are correlated with this cytoarchitectonic scheme in the adult male rat. The results confirm the validity of the cytoarchitectonic parcellation and provide additional chemoarchitectonic criteria for determining the (as yet still somewhat arbitrarily defined) border between the BST and the ventrally adjacent preoptic region, for distinguishing between the anterior and posterior divisions of the BST, and for identifying and distinguishing between the particular cell groups or nuclei within each division. The projections of each neuropeptide‐containing cell group in various parts of the BST remain to be determined, as do the precise origins of the localized immunoreactive terminal fields identified here.
D-MELD as a Predictor of Early Graft Mortality in Adult-to-Adult Living-Donor Liver Transplantation

Background Ensuring a good match between donor and recipient is critically important to achieve acceptable graft outcomes after living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Our objective was to evaluate the product of donor age and Model for End-stage Liver Disease score (D-MELD) as a predictor of graft survival after LDLT. Methods We retrospectively evaluated the records of 355 adults who underwent LDLT for chronic liver disease and explored the relationship between D-MELD and graft outcome. Results High MELD score and advanced donor age were significantly associated with graft survival; D-MELD had the strongest association with in-hospital mortality. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that a D-MELD score of 462 had the highest sensitivity for predicting in-hospital mortality. Patients were allocated to three groups based on D-MELD (Class A [⩽449; n=142], Class B [450–899; n=163], and Class C [≥900; n=50]) and were found to have stratified cumulative 2-year graft survivals of 94.1%, 85.3%, and 63.1%, respectively (P<0.01). Although D-MELD Class C patients had larger graft volume-to-standard liver volume ratio (P<0.01) and received right lobe grafts more often (P<0.01), they still exhibited significantly higher rates of primary graft dysfunction (P<0.01) and in-hospital mortality (P<0.01). Outcomes in D-MELD Class C were significantly worse in hepatitis C–positive patients (P<0.05). Conclusions The D-MELD score is a simple and reliable predictor of early graft survival that assists the matching of donors and recipients in LDLT in adults.
Analysis of real-time three dimensional transesophageal echocardiography in the assessment of left atrial appendage function in patients with atrial fibrillation

The aim of the study was to examine changes in left atrial appendage volume (LAA-V) in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) using real-time three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (RT3D-TEE) and evaluate the prediction value on the high risk of thrombosis of LAA. Using RT3D-TEE we measured: i) LAA peak empty velocity (LAA-PEV), ii) LAA-V including LAA end-diastolic volume (LAA-EDV) and end-systolic volume (LAA-ESV). We also calculated LAA ejection fraction (LAA-EF). RT3D-TEE was applied in 20 control cases and 74 patients with non-valvular AF. According to the presence of thrombosis, 74 patients were divided into the no thrombosis group (NTH group, n=52) and thrombosis group (TH group, n=22). Our results showed that there were significant differences in LAA-V and LAA-EF values in different groups (P<0.05). LAA-EDV moderately correlated with LAA-PEV (r=−0.531, P<0.001) while LAA-ESV demonstrated a strong correlation with LAA-PEV (r=−0.741, P<0.001). LAA-EF also showed a strong correlation with LAA-PEV (r=0.693, P<0.001). Through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, the cut-off values of LAA-EDV and LAA-ESV in thrombosis of LAA were 18.45 and 9.69 ml, respectively. RT3D-TEE effectively evaluated the LAA-V, LAA-PEV and LAA-EF parameters, and proved to be valuable in the process of evaluation of thrombosis of LAA.
The Bilingual Disadvantage in Speech Understanding in Noise Is Likely a Frequency Effect Related to Reduced Language Exposure

The present study sought to explain why bilingual speakers are disadvantaged relative to monolingual speakers when it comes to speech understanding in noise. Exemplar models of the mental lexicon hold that each encounter with a word leaves a memory trace in long-term memory. Words that we encounter frequently will be associated with richer phonetic representations in memory and therefore recognized faster and more accurately than less frequently encountered words. Because bilinguals are exposed to each of their languages less often than monolinguals by virtue of speaking two languages, they encounter all words less frequently and may therefore have poorer phonetic representations of all words compared to monolinguals. In the present study, vocabulary size was taken as an estimate for language exposure and the prediction was made that both vocabulary size and word frequency would be associated with recognition accuracy for words presented in noise. Forty-eight early Spanish–English bilingual and 53 monolingual English young adults were tested on speech understanding in noise (SUN) ability, English oral verbal ability, verbal working memory (WM), and auditory attention. Results showed that, as a group, monolinguals recognized significantly more words than bilinguals. However, this effect was attenuated by language proficiency; higher proficiency was associated with higher accuracy on the SUN test in both groups. This suggests that greater language exposure is associated with better SUN. Word frequency modulated recognition accuracy and the difference between groups was largest for low frequency words, suggesting that the bilinguals’ insufficient exposure to these words hampered recognition. The effect of WM was not significant, likely because of its large shared variance with language proficiency. The effect of auditory attention was small but significant. These results are discussed within the Ease of Language Understanding model (Rönnberg et al., 2013), which provides a framework for explaining individual differences in SUN.
An efficient, electrically small antenna with large impedance bandwidth simultaneously with high directivity and large front-to-back ratio

Non-Foster element-augmented, electrically small electric and magnetic antennas have been designed, characterized numerically, fabricated and tested. Specifically tailored broad bandwidth inductive and capacitive devices were introduced into the near-field resonant parasitic (NFRP) components of their narrow bandwidth counter-parts. This internal non-Foster element approach led to nearly complete matching of the entire system to a 50 Ω source without any matching network and high radiation efficiencies over a 10dB fractional bandwidth that surpasses the fundamental passive bound. By including additional resonant parasitic elements, one can also enhance the directivity. Further augmentation of those parasitic elements with a non-Foster device leads to a large directivity bandwidth. A 300 MHz design with ka = 0.94 is reported which simultaneously achieves high radiation efficiencies (>81.63%), high directivity (> 6.25 dB) and large front-to-back-ratios (> 26.71 dB) over a 10.0% fractional bandwidth.