Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neonatal Thyroid Function in Seveso 25 Years after Maternal Exposure to Dioxin

Background Neonatal hypothyroidism has been associated in animal models with maternal exposure to several environmental contaminants; however, evidence for such an association in humans is inconsistent. We evaluated whether maternal exposure to 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), a persistent and widespread toxic environmental contaminant, is associated with modified neonatal thyroid function in a large, highly exposed population in Seveso, Italy. Methods and Findings Between 1994 and 2005, in individuals exposed to TCDD after the 1976 Seveso accident we conducted: (i) a residence-based population study on 1,014 children born to the 1,772 women of reproductive age in the most contaminated zones (A, very high contamination; B, high contamination), and 1,772 age-matched women from the surrounding noncontaminated area (reference); (ii) a biomarker study on 51 mother–child pairs for whom recent maternal plasma dioxin measurements were available. Neonatal blood thyroid-stimulating hormone (b-TSH) was measured on all children. We performed crude and multivariate analyses adjusting for gender, birth weight, birth order, maternal age, hospital, and type of delivery. Mean neonatal b-TSH was 0.98 μU/ml (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.90–1.08) in the reference area (n = 533), 1.35 μU/ml (95% CI 1.22–1.49) in zone B (n = 425), and 1.66 μU/ml (95% CI 1.19–2.31) in zone A (n = 56) (p < 0.001). The proportion of children with b-TSH > 5 μU/ml was 2.8% in the reference area, 4.9% in zone B, and 16.1% in zone A (p < 0.001). Neonatal b-TSH was correlated with current maternal plasma TCDD (n = 51, β = 0.47, p < 0.001) and plasma toxic equivalents of coplanar dioxin-like compounds (n = 51, β = 0.45, p = 0.005). Conclusions Our data indicate that environmental contaminants such as dioxins have a long-lasting capability to modify neonatal thyroid function after the initial exposure.
Gleason Score at Diagnosis Predicts the Rate of Detection of 18F-Choline PET/CT Performed When Biochemical Evidence Indicates Recurrence of Prostate Cancer: Experience with 1,000 Patients

The objective of this study was to explore the ability of the initial Gleason score (GS) to predict the rate of detection of recurrent prostate cancer (PCa) with 18F-choline PET/CT in a large cohort of patients. Methods: Data from 1,000 patients who had undergone 18F-choline PET/CT because of biochemical evidence of relapse of PCa between 2004 and 2013 were retrieved from databases at 4 centers. Continuous data were compared by the Student t test or ANOVA, and categoric variables were compared by the χ2 test. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed by logistic regression. Results: The GS at diagnosis was less than or equal to 6 in 257 patients, 7 in 347 patients, and greater than 7 in 396 patients. The results of 645 PET/CT scans were positive for PCa recurrence. Eighty-one percent of the positive PET/CT results were found in patients with a PSA level of greater than or equal to 2 ng/mL, 43% were found in patients with a PSA level of 1–2 ng/mL, and 31% were found in patients with a PSA level of less than or equal to 1 ng/mL; 78.8% of patients with positive PET/CT results had a GS of greater than 7. The results of 18F-choline PET/CT scans were negative in 300 patients; 44% had a GS of less than or equal to 6, 35% had a GS of 7, and 17% had a GS of greater than 7. PET/CT results were rated as doubtful in only 5.5% of patients (median PSA, 1.8 ng/mL). When the GS was greater than 7, the rates of detection of 18F-choline PET/CT were 51%, 65%, and 91% for a PSA level of less than 1 ng/mL, 1–2 ng/mL, and greater than 2 ng/mL, respectively. In univariable and multivariable analyses, both a GS of 7 and a GS of greater than 7 were independent predictors for positive 18F-choline PET/CT results (odds ratios, 0.226 and 0.330, respectively; P values for both, <0.001). Conclusion: A high GS at diagnosis is a strong predictive factor for positive 18F-choline PET/CT scan results for recurrent PCa, even when the PSA level is low (i.e., ≤1 ng/mL).
Parents of Children with Disabilities Evaluate the Importance of the Computer in Child Development

Significant progress has been made during the past ten years in the development of new computer-based technology for children. Computers have gained increased importance in many different parts of society, including that of children with disabilities. This article reports on parents' experiences and expectations concerning the importance of computers in child development and describes the history and philosophy of Computer Play Centers (CPCs). The study includes 180 families having children with different types of disabilities attending CPCs. The parents evaluated the importance of computers for their children within ten different areas of development The results showed that parents had clear and firm opinions concerning the computer's importance for the development of their children. In order to develop new technology and new software for children, a new way of thinking is needed, in which the individual and family are given the opportunity to describe different aspects of what they associate with development.
Poststroke C-Reactive Protein Is a Powerful Prognostic Tool Among Candidates for Thrombolysis

Background and Purpose— After acute stroke, an increased level of C-reactive protein (CRP) measured at discharge predicts unfavorable outcome. We sought to investigate whether CRP measured before tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) treatments may add prognostic information to guide stroke thrombolysis. Methods— Our target was 151 consecutive patients with an ischemic stroke involving the middle cerebral artery territory who received tPA within 3 hours of symptom onset. High-sensitivity CRP was measured before tPA administration, and CRP gene polymorphisms were determined (G1059C and C1444T). Functional outcome was evaluated by 3-month modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Results— A total of 143 tPA-treated patients were valid for analyses after exclusion of those with inflammatory diseases and those probably infected (CRP >6 mg/dL). Patients with history of previous stroke, hypertension, or atrial fibrillation had higher levels of CRP (P<0.05). CRP was higher in patients who died after thrombolysis (n=19) than in survivors (0.85 versus 0.53 mg/dL; P=0.002). Among the 94 patients with proximal middle cerebral artery occlusions, CRP level was 0.53 for 81 survivors versus 0.81 mg/dL for 13 who died (P=0.001). CRP-survival association was found even among patients who recanalized by the end of tPA infusion (P=0.007). A correlation between CRP and mRS was found (r=0.36, P=0.02), although CRP polymorphisms were not related to neurological outcome. In a logistic regression model, CRP (odds ratio=8.51; 95% CI, 2.16 to 33.5; P=0.002) and age (odds ratio=6.25; 95% CI, 1.44 to 27.19; P=0.015) were the only baseline mortality predictors. Conclusions— Admission CRP predicts mortality among tPA-treated stroke patients. Very early recanalization does not ameliorate the negative prognostic impact of elevated CRP.
Distinct localization of GABAB receptors relative to synaptic sites in the rat cerebellum and ventrobasal thalamus

Metabotropic γ‐aminobutyric acid receptors (GABABRs) are involved in modulation of synaptic transmission and activity of cerebellar and thalamic neurons. We used subtype‐specific antibodies in pre‐ and postembedding immunohistochemistry combined with three‐dimensional reconstruction of labelled profiles and quantification of immunoparticles to reveal the subcellular distribution of pre‐ and postsynaptic GABABR1a/b and GABABR2 in the rat cerebellum and ventrobasal thalamus. GABABR1a/b and R2 were extensively colocalized in most brain regions including the cerebellum and thalamus. In the cerebellum, immunoreactivity for both subtypes was prevalent in the molecular layer. The most intense immunoreactivity was found in Purkinje cell spines with a high density of immunoparticles at extrasynaptic sites peaking at around 240 nm from glutamatergic synapses between spines and parallel fibre varicosities. This is in contrast to dendrites at sites around GABAergic synapses where sparse and random distribution was found for both subtypes. In addition, more than one‐tenth of the synaptic membrane specialization of spine–parallel fibre synapses were labelled at pre‐ or postsynaptic sites. Weak immunolabelling for both subtypes was also seen in parallel fibres but only rarely in GABAergic axons. In the ventrobasal thalamus, immunolabelling for both receptor subtypes was intense over the dendritic field of thalamocortical cells. Electron microscopy demonstrated an extrasynaptic localization of GABABR1a/b and R2 exclusively in postsynaptic elements. Quantitative analysis further revealed the density of GABABR1a/b around GABAergic synapses was higher than glutamatergic synapses on thalamocortical cell dendrites. The distinct localization of GABABRs relative to synaptic sites in the cerebellum and ventrobasal thalamus suggests that GABABRs differentially regulate activity of different neuronal populations.
Decision{Feedback Di erential Detection of MDPSK for Flat Rayleigh Fading Channels

In this paper, decision{feedback di erential detection (DF{DD) of M{ary di erential phase{shift keying (MDPSK) signals, which has been introduced previously for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel by Leib et al. [1] and Edbauer [2], is extended to at Rayleigh fading channels. The corresponding DF{DD metric is derived from the multiple{symbol detection (MSD) metric and for genie{aided DF{DD an exact expression for the bit error rate (BER) of QDPSK (M = 4) is calculated. Furthermore, the dependence of BER on the power spectrum of the fading process is investigated for feedback lters of in nite order. It is shown that in this case, for ideally bandlimited fading processes the error oor of conventional di erential detection (DD) can be removed entirely. Simulation results con rm that both, MSD and DF{DD with feedback lters of nite order can reduce the error oor of conventional DD signi cantly. Thereby, DF{DD causes considerably less computational load.
Migration of silver from commercial plastic food containers and implications for consumer exposure assessment

Food storage containers with embedded silver as an antibacterial agent promise longer durability of food. For risk assessment the release of this silver into the stored food and resulting human exposure need to be known. For the purpose of exposure assessment, silver migration from commercial plastic containers with declared content of ‘nano-’ or ‘micro-silver’ into different food simulants (water, 10% ethanol, 3% acetic acid, olive oil) was quantitatively determined by ICP-MS and the form of the released silver was investigated. The highest migration of silver was observed for the acidic food simulant with 30 ng silver cm−2 contact surface within 10 days at 20°C. In a second and third use cycle, migration dropped by a factor of up to 10, so that the maximum cumulated release over three use cycles was 34 ng cm−2. The silver release over time was described using a power function and a numerical model that simulates Fickian diffusion through the plastic material. The released silver was found to be in ionic form, but also in the form of silver nanoparticles (around 12%). Consumer exposure to the total amount of silver released from the food containers is low in comparison with the background silver exposure of the general population, but since natural background concentrations are only known for ionic silver, the exposure to silver nanoparticles is not directly comparable with a safe background level.
Portfolio Insurance , Underdiversification , and Idiosyncratic Risks

Contrary to the prediction of standard portfolio diversification theory, most investors place a large fraction of their stock investment in a small number of stocks. We show that underdiversification may be caused by risk control. The key assumption is that investors are portfolio insurers who require wealth above a nonnegative minimum level at which the marginal utility is finite (for investors whose marginal utility at zero is finite, this assumption can be replaced by the requirement of solvency). We show that investors underdiversify when wealth is low and that some investors may underdiversify no matter how wealthy they are. In addition, less wealthy and less risk-averse investors underdiversify more, and a less diversified portfolio (inclusive of the risk-free investment) is less risky than a more diversified one. Furthermore, investors select stocks solely by expected returns and covariances. Any higher moments (e.g., variance and skewness) are irrelevant for this selection. In an equilibrium setting, we show that a less diversified stock portfolio has a higher expected return, a higher volatility, and maybe also a higher skewness and a lower Sharpe ratio. Finally, underdiversification in equilibrium implies that no one holds the market portfolio in equilibrium and idiosyncratic risks should be priced. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D11, D91, G11, C61.
The oxytocin paradox

In 2005, Kosfeld et al. published their now seminal paper showing that intranasal oxytocin (OXT) administration increased interpersonal trust (Kosfeld et al., 2005). This finding spawned broad interest into the effects of OXT on social and emotional behavior in humans (Bos et al., 2012), and its implications for translational medicine (Meyer-Lindenberg et al., 2011; Striepens et al., 2011). Over the years OXT has gained the reputation of facilitating empathy and affiliation, based on early findings reporting beneficial effects of OXT on trust (Kosfeld et al., 2005), social support (Heinrichs et al., 2003), and processing social information (Hollander et al., 2007; Savaskan et al., 2008; Unkelbach et al., 2008; Hurlemann et al., 2010). This view is supported by studies showing that OXT improves cognitive empathic abilities such as mindreading (Domes et al., 2007; Bartz et al., 2010; Guastella et al., 2010) and recognizing positive emotional expressions (Marsh et al., 2010). As a result of these positive effects on social behavior, there has been considerable speculation about OXT's therapeutic potential in people with social and emotional disabilities. This prosocial view of OXT has been challenged by findings showing that the effects of OXT are strongly context-dependent (Bartz et al., 2011; Bos et al., 2012). For example, OXT has also been shown to increase envy and gloating (Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2009), defensiveness toward out-group members (De Dreu et al., 2010, 2011) and increased in-group conformity (Stallen et al., 2012). Although this ethnocentrism might be considered prosocial within one's own group, defensiveness toward an out-group is not, and extreme ethnocentrism often leads to nationalism or even racism. This paradox gives rise to two questions. First, how can the beneficial effects of OXT on empathy, trust and affiliation be compatible with its seemingly contradictory anti-social effects? Second, what implication does this have for the therapeutic potential of OXT in social and emotional neurodevelopmental conditions? With regard to the first question, we provide a brief overview of the literature aiming to understand the mechanism(s) underlying OXT's efficacy. There are two main perspectives on how OXT affects social behavior (via anxiety reduction or increasing social salience), which try to reconcile its pro- and anti-social roles, but there have been no attempts to date to integrate these into a single viewpoint. A potential third factor, reward sensitivity might aid this integration. We propose a model that unites these perspectives, providing new avenues of research into OXT's efficacy in social and emotional neurodevelopmental conditions.
Intestinal Epithelium-Derived Galectin-9 Is Involved in the Immunomodulating Effects of Nondigestible Oligosaccharides

Dietary intervention using nondigestible oligosaccharides, short-chain galacto-oligosaccharides (scGOS)/long-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (lcFOS), in combination with Bifidobacterium breve M-16V prevents allergic disease involving galectin-9. In addition, apical TLR9 signaling contributes to intestinal homeostasis. We studied the contribution of galectin-9 secreted by intestinal epithelial cells (IEC; HT-29 and T84) in Th1 and regulatory T-cell (Treg) polarization in vitro. IEC were grown in transwell filters, cocultured with CD3/CD28-activated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and apically exposed to genomic DNA derived from B. breve M-16V or synthetic TLR9 ligand in the absence or presence of scGOS/lcFOS. Cytokine production and T-cell phenotype were determined and galectin expression by IEC was assessed. Galectin-9 was neutralized using lactose or a TIM-3-Fc fusion protein. IEC exposed to DNA from B. breve M-16V or TLR9 ligand in the presence of scGOS/lcFOS enhanced IFN-γ secretion by PBMC and increased the percentage of Th1 and Treg cells. Expression and secretion of galectin-9 by IEC was increased and neutralization of galectin-9 prevented the induction of IFN-γ secretion and also suppressed the production of IL-10 by PBMC. Furthermore, we show that galectin-9 induces Treg and Th1 polarization through interaction with antigen-presenting cells. Our findings show that galectin-9 secreted by IEC apically exposed to TLR9 ligand in the presence of scGOS/lcFOS is involved in Th1 and Treg polarization and may be a promising target to prevent or treat allergic disease.
Online Learning with (Multiple) Kernels: A Review

This review examines kernel methods for online learning, in particular, multiclass classification. We examine margin-based approaches, stemming from Rosenblatt's original perceptron algorithm, as well as nonparametric probabilistic approaches that are based on the popular gaussian process framework. We also examine approaches to online learning that use combinations of kernels—online multiple kernel learning. We present empirical validation of a wide range of methods on a protein fold recognition data set, where different biological feature types are available, and two object recognition data sets, Caltech101 and Caltech256, where multiple feature spaces are available in terms of different image feature extraction methods.
Testicular function after local injection of 6-hydroxydopamine or norepinephrine in the golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus).

Although there is evidence for the sympathetic innervation of the mammalian testis, the function of noradrenergic fibers is not understood. This in vivo and in vitro study in the adult golden hamster examines testicular function after unilateral intratesticular application of a single dose of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), a neurotoxic drug known to produce depletion of noradrenergic stores in nerve endings. The contralateral testis in each animal was injected with vehicle alone and served as the control. After 24 h, the content of norepinephrine (NE) in testicular parenchyma was reduced in most testes injected with 6-OHDA. At this time, concentration of luteinizing hormone receptors (LH-R) was significantly decreased in the 6-OHDA treated testis, compared with the vehicle-injected testes. This decrease was followed by a significant increase at 72 h. The concentration of LH-R was not significantly altered 10, 48, 144, or 168 h after 6-OHDA administration. Changes in testicular testosterone (T) concentrations paralleled the changes in LH-R at most time points. In the incubations of control vehicle injected testes, addition of NE did not affect T production but stimulatory action of hCG was significantly augmented by concomitant exposure to NE at most time points after injection of vehicle. In incubations of 6-OHDA-injected testes, a comparable pattern of T responses to NE and hCG was found only 48 h after injection. At 24 h post injection NE alone significantly stimulated T production; at 10 and 24 h the ability of NE to potentiate the action of hCG was significantly reduced, while at 72 and 144 h basal T production and the stimulatory hCG effect were significantly increased. Moreover, at 72, 144, and 168 h, the effect of NE & hCG on T production was significantly greater in 6-OHDA-injected testes than in the vehicle injected testes of the same animals. In incubations of untreated hamster testes, addition of 6-OHDA at doses similar to those used for injections did not affect T production. Weights of 6-OHDA injected testes were slightly but significantly reduced after 144 and 168 h. These changes were most likely due to degenerative changes of the germinal epithelium, which were clearly detectable 168 h post injection. Because 6-OHDA can release NE from nerve terminals, the observed effects of 6-OHDA might have been initiated by supernormal testicular NE concentrations. To examine this possibility, the authors have tested the effects of intratesticular NE injections. This treatment caused decrease of LH-R at 24 h followed by an increase at 72 h. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Underdetermined Blind Mixing Matrix Estimation Using STWP Analysis for Speech Source Signals

Wavelet packets decompose signals in to broader components using linear spectral bisecting. Mixing matrix is the key issue in the Blind Source Separation (BSS) literature especially in under-determined cases. In this paper, we propose a simple and novel method in Short Time Wavelet Packet (STWP) analysis to estimate blindly the mixing matrix of speech signals from noise free linear mixtures in over-complete cases. In this paper, the Laplacian model is considered in short time-wavelet packets and is applied to each histogram of packets. Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm is used to train the model and calculate the model parameters. In our simulations, comparison with the other recent results will be computed and it is shown that our results are better than others. It is shown that complexity of computation of model is decreased and consequently the speed of convergence is increased.
Tree-Based Kernel for Graphs With Continuous Attributes

The availability of graph data with node attributes that can be either discrete or real-valued is constantly increasing. While existing Kernel methods are effective techniques for dealing with graphs having discrete node labels, their adaptation to nondiscrete or continuous node attributes has been limited, mainly for computational issues. Recently, a few kernels especially tailored for this domain, and that trade predictive performance for computational efficiency, have been proposed. In this brief, we propose a graph kernel for complex and continuous nodes’ attributes, whose features are tree structures extracted from specific graph visits. The kernel manages to keep the same complexity of the state-of-the-art kernels while implicitly using a larger feature space. We further present an approximated variant of the kernel, which reduces its complexity significantly. Experimental results obtained on six real-world data sets show that the kernel is the best performing one on most of them. Moreover, in most cases, the approximated version reaches comparable performances to the current state-of-the-art kernels in terms of classification accuracy while greatly shortening the running times.
Expansion of Saudi Blood Donor Pool by Better Screening and Vaccination Practices

Over a 10-year period, significant decreases in the prevalences of HBsAg and anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) were noted among the Saudi National Guard blood donor population ( P < 0.0001), with a chief impact of fewer rejected donors. Two important points rise as plausible explanations for such