Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Growth hormone signaling and hippocampal neurogenesis: Insights from genetic models

Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) is modulated by a variety of factors through effects on the proliferation‐differentiation‐survival regulatory axis. We have employed growth hormone receptor knockout (GH‐R−/−) and suppressor of cytokine signaling‐2 transgenic (SOCS‐2 Tg) mice as models of altered GH‐signaling to assess their affects on basal and exercised‐induced hippocampal neurogenesis. Assessment of proliferation 24‐h after 7‐days of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling with or without voluntary running showed that the density of BrdU(+) cells in the subgranular zone remained unchanged between genotypes in control housing, while running induced significant increases in BrdU‐labeled cells in WT, GH‐R−/−, and SOCS‐2 Tg mice. The proportion of BrdU/doublecortin and BrdU/S100β cells did not vary between genotype or running conditions at this time‐point. Assessment of cell survival 28‐days after BrdU labeling showed that SOCS‐2 Tg animals had significantly higher BrdU(+) cell densities in the granule cell layer compared to WT and GH‐R−/− animals in control housing and after voluntary running. There were no differences in cell survival between WT and GH‐R−/− mice with or without running. Mature phenotype analysis showed similar proportions of BrdU/NeuN and BrdU/S100β in all groups. While SOCS‐2 Tg mice had similar social interaction behaviors and sensorimotor gating, they appeared to be less anxious with heightened basal locomotor activity and showed enhanced performance in the Morris watermaze test. Overall, our data indicated that mice over‐expressing SOCS‐2 showed increased survival of neurons generated during AHN, which correlated with improved performance in a hippocampal‐dependent cognitive task. Furthermore, voluntary running increased AHN in WT, SOCS‐2 Tg, and serum‐IGF‐1‐deficient GH‐R−/− mice. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Face-selective Activation in a Congenital Prosopagnosic Subject

Congenital prosopagnosia is a severe impairment in face identification manifested from early childhood in the absence of any evident brain lesion. In this study, we used fMRI to compare the brain activity elicited by faces in a congenital prosopagnosic subject (YT) relative to a control group of 12 subjects in an attempt to shed more light on the nature of the brain mechanisms subserving face identification. The face-related activation pattern of YT in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex was similar to that observed in the control group on several parameters: anatomical location, activation profiles, and hemispheric laterality. In addition, using a modified vase face illusion, we found that YT's brain activity in the face-related regions manifested global grouping processes. However, subtle differences in the degree of selectivity between objects and faces were observed in the lateral occipital cortex. These data suggest that face-related activation in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex, although necessary, might not be sufficient by itself for normal face identification.
Intramolecular allosteric communication in dopamine D2 receptor revealed by evolutionary amino acid covariation

Significance Characterizing relationships among protein structure, function, and evolution requires understanding the evolutionary constraints on each constituent residue of a protein. Previous studies have shown that structural information can be retrieved from evolutionary residue covariation in protein families. However, whether the evolutionary history in protein sequences informs on functional interactions between nonadjacent residues has been unclear. Here, we developed a method that uses evolutionary amino acid covariation to infer functionally coupled residue pairs in the dopamine D2 receptor. We discovered functional coupling between residue pairs that have coevolved mainly to control responses to dopamine and maintain them at wild-type levels. Our findings demonstrate the possibility of extracting the networks of intramolecular allosteric communication from evolutionary residue covariation patterns. The structural basis of allosteric signaling in G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is important in guiding design of therapeutics and understanding phenotypic consequences of genetic variation. The Evolutionary Trace (ET) algorithm previously proved effective in redesigning receptors to mimic the ligand specificities of functionally distinct homologs. We now expand ET to consider mutual information, with validation in GPCR structure and dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) function. The new algorithm, called ET-MIp, identifies evolutionarily relevant patterns of amino acid covariations. The improved predictions of structural proximity and D2R mutagenesis demonstrate that ET-MIp predicts functional interactions between residue pairs, particularly potency and efficacy of activation by dopamine. Remarkably, although most of the residue pairs chosen for mutagenesis are neither in the binding pocket nor in contact with each other, many exhibited functional interactions, implying at-a-distance coupling. The functional interaction between the coupled pairs correlated best with the evolutionary coupling potential derived from dopamine receptor sequences rather than with broader sets of GPCR sequences. These data suggest that the allosteric communication responsible for dopamine responses is resolved by ET-MIp and best discerned within a short evolutionary distance. Most double mutants restored dopamine response to wild-type levels, also suggesting that tight regulation of the response to dopamine drove the coevolution and intramolecular communications between coupled residues. Our approach provides a general tool to identify evolutionary covariation patterns in small sets of close sequence homologs and to translate them into functional linkages between residues.
Village level inequality, migration and remittances in rural Mexico: How do they change over time?

We analyze how migration prevalence and remittances shape income distribution using novel panel data that is nationally and regionally representative of rural Mexico. Employing a Gini decomposition and controlling for whole household migration (attrition), we find that migration prevalence has increased between 2002 and 2007 reversing the unequalizing effects of international remittances at the national level. We also analyze regional differences in the effects of remittances on inequality, and find that the regions that had the highest increase in international migration are also the regions where the equalizing change in the marginal effects of remittances was the highest. This provides supporting evidence for the migration diffusion hypothesis. A fixed effects analysis of the effects of migration and remittances on in inequality at the village level, however, fails to support this hypothesis, indicating that most changes in inequality have occurred within rather than between villages. We show that income growth has been pro-poor in all villages, but this is offset by significant re-ranking of individuals in the village inequality measure, concealing the effects of migration and remittances on income distribution at the village level.
An exploratory analysis of transfer times in a rural trauma system

BACKGROUND Delays to definitive care are of particular concern in rural trauma systems, where prehospital times are significantly longer than average. AIMS We evaluated for differences between transferring hospitals in the total time required to transport patients to definitive care, and analyzed for associations between transport times and outcomes. SETTINGS AND DESIGN We employed a cross-sectional design to analyze Level One Trauma Center registry data on interfacility transfer of 3,303 acute trauma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS We calculated time in minutes from injury to definitive care (total elapsed time (TET)), and analyzed for associations between TET and both mortality and length of hospital stay at our center. We mapped hospitals and catchment areas to illustrate statistics by transferring hospital. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS We employed analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to analyze for the effect of TET and injury severity category upon hospital length of stay, and for the effects of TET and air transport as compared to ground transport. We evaluated for likelihood of in-hospital mortality using logistic regression. RESULTS TET had little or no effect upon length of hospital stay or in-hospital mortality. The effect of injury severity upon both length of stay and mortality was progressively greater with each categorical increase in severity. Air transport as compared to ground transport was associated with mild increases in length of stay and likelihood of mortality. Mapping revealed spatial patterns that were not evident by statistical analysis alone. CONCLUSIONS Mapping of geographic variations holds promise as a supplement to quantitative needs assessments of trauma systems in rural regions and developing countries.
Balinese mothers' developmental timetables for young children.

The study examined Balinese mothers' expectations for children's development and mothers' child-rearing practices, as influenced by selected variables (child's gender and ordinal position, mother's education, and rural or urban residence). Rural (n = 100) and urban (n = 100) mothers responded to structured questionnaires read aloud to them by trained interviewers who recorded responses. All children were between 4 and 6 years. Equal numbers of male and female children were included, and the entire economic and educational ranges of families were represented. MANOVA results showed significant interaction effects of residential location and maternal education on mothers' expectations of children's cognitive, F(2, 170) = 4.31, p = . 04, and psychosocial development, F(2, 170) = 4.35, p = . 01. Significant interaction effects were found for maternal education, residential location, child's ordinal position, and gender, F(3, 170) = 5.92, p = . 001, on maternal child-rearing practices. Two developmental timetables were constructed.
Induction of neural differentiation in rat C6 glioma cells with taxol

Glioblastoma is a common and aggressive type of primary brain tumor. Several anticancer drugs affect GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) cells on cell growth and morphology. Taxol is one of the widely used antineoplastic drugs against many types of solid tumors, such as breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers. However, the effect of taxol on GBM cells remains unclear and requires further investigation.
Modeling the Temperature- and Age-Dependent Survival, Development, and Oviposition Rates of Stable Flies (Stomoxys calcitrans) (Diptera: Muscidae)

Abstract Stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans (L.)) can be a serious pest associated with cattle facilities. In Denmark, they occur most abundantly at organic farms, where they cannot be controlled by means of insecticides. On traditional farms, where chemical control is widely used, development of resistance is of increasing concern. Therefore, interest in biological control or other alternative methods has been growing during the recent years. In order to understand the complex relationships between a pest and its natural enemies in a variable environment, it is necessary to know how temperature affects the dynamics of the involved species. In this paper, we apply data derived from several existing sources to investigate the influence of temperature on development and survival of eggs, larvae, pupae, and adult stable flies, as well as on the fecundity of adult females. We demonstrate that the same modeling framework (called SANDY), previously applied to lifetable data of the pteromalid pupal parasitoid (Spalangia cameroni Perkins), a biological control agent used against stable flies, can also be used to model S. calcitrans. However, the predicted temperature responses depend on the data sources used to parameterize the model, which is reflected by differences in estimated population growth rates obtained from American and non-American studies. Elasticity analysis shows that growth rates are more sensitive to changes in viability, in particular of adult flies, than in fecundity, which may have implications for the management of stable fly populations.
Vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy: Double‐blind, randomized clinical trial of safety and effectiveness

The need, safety, and effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy remain controversial. In this randomized, controlled trial, women with a singleton pregnancy at 12 to 16 weeks' gestation received 400, 2000, or 4000 IU of vitamin D3 per day until delivery. The primary outcome was maternal/neonatal circulating 25‐hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration at delivery, with secondary outcomes of a 25(OH)D concentration of 80 nmol/L or greater achieved and the 25(OH)D concentration required to achieve maximal 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25(OH)2D3] production. Of the 494 women enrolled, 350 women continued until delivery: Mean 25(OH)D concentrations by group at delivery and 1 month before delivery were significantly different (p < 0.0001), and the percent who achieved sufficiency was significantly different by group, greatest in 4000‐IU group (p < 0.0001). The relative risk (RR) for achieving a concentration of 80 nmol/L or greater within 1 month of delivery was significantly different between the 2000‐ and the 400‐IU groups (RR = 1.52, 95% CI 1.24–1.86), the 4000‐ and the 400‐IU groups (RR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.32–1.95) but not between the 4000‐ and. 2000‐IU groups (RR = 1.06, 95% CI 0.93–1.19). Circulating 25(OH)D had a direct influence on circulating 1,25(OH)2D3 concentrations throughout pregnancy (p < 0.0001), with maximal production of 1,25(OH)2D3 in all strata in the 4000‐IU group. There were no differences between groups on any safety measure. Not a single adverse event was attributed to vitamin D supplementation or circulating 25(OH)D levels. It is concluded that vitamin D supplementation of 4000 IU/d for pregnant women is safe and most effective in achieving sufficiency in all women and their neonates regardless of race, whereas the current estimated average requirement is comparatively ineffective at achieving adequate circulating 25(OH)D concentrations, especially in African Americans. © 2011 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
A Comparison of Sequence-to-Sequence Models for Speech Recognition

In this work, we conduct a detailed evaluation of various all-neural, end-to-end trained, sequence-to-sequence models applied to the task of speech recognition. Notably, each of these systems directly predicts graphemes in the written domain, without using an external pronunciation lexicon, or a separate language model. We examine several sequence-to-sequence models including connectionist temporal classiﬁcation (CTC), the recurrent neural network (RNN) transducer, an attention-based model, and a model which augments the RNN transducer with an attention mechanism. We ﬁnd that the sequence-to-sequence models are competitive with traditional state-of-the-art approaches on dictation test sets, although the baseline, which uses a separate pronunciation and language model, outperforms these models on voice-search test sets.
Airway abnormalities at flexible bronchoscopy in patients with chronic cough

The algorithms utilised in the diagnosis of chronic cough advocate sequential investigations and treatment trials for asthma-like syndromes, post-nasal drip and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease; however, the role of bronchoscopy is unclear. In the present authors’ specialist clinic (North West Lung Centre Cough Clinic, Manchester, UK), flexible bronchoscopy is included in the diagnostic work-up of patients with chronic unexplained cough. In a retrospective review, the authors report on their experiences. Over an 18-month period, patients followed a diagnostic algorithm that included: chest radiography; pulmonary function; methacholine challenge; ear, nose and throat examination; and empirical reflux treatment. Where diagnosis remained elusive, bronchoscopy was performed. A total of 82 bronchoscopies were carried out for the sole indication of chronic cough. Patient age (mean±sd) was 54.9±11.22 yrs, with a median (range) cough duration of 5 (0.5–30) yrs. In nine (11%) subjects, a diagnosis was made on inspection or biopsy. These included seven cases of tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica (TPO), one case of elongated uvula and one case of endobronchial amyloidosis. All TPO patients had early changes, with a typical nodular appearance to the tracheal cartilage, without significant airway obstruction. These subtle changes could not have been predicted from less invasive procedures and would have been missed without bronchoscopy. Flexible bronchoscopy is indicated in persistent unexplained cough and may reveal contributing pathology.
Combined paravertebral plexus block and parasacral sciatic block in healthy dogs.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of paravertebral lumbar plexus block combined with parasacral sciatic block to anesthetize one hind limb in awake dogs. STUDY DESIGN Randomized, controlled, blinded experimental study. ANIMALS Eight healthy mongrel dogs weighing 12.4 ± 4.5 kg and aged 7 ± 2.33 years. METHODS After sedation with medetomidine, dogs received B1: bupivacaine 0.25%, 0.2 mL kg(-1), B2: bupivacaine 0.5%, 0.2 mL kg(-1) , B3: bupivacaine 0.25% 0.4 mL kg(-1), P1: NaCl 0.2 mL kg(-1), P2: NaCl 0.4 mL kg(-1) . The lumbosacral plexus was blocked through a paravertebral block of the fourth, fifth and sixth lumbar nerves combined with a parasacral block. The relevant nerves were located using a nerve stimulator and injections of each treatment were administered. Degree and durations of sensory blockade were determined through the response to a Halsted clamp pressure on the skin innervated by the saphenous/femoral and lateral cutaneous femoral nerves (lumbar dermatomes) and by the peroneal and tibial nerves. The degree and duration of motor blockade was assessed evaluating the ability to walk normally and proprioception. RESULTS P1 and P2 treatments did not show any grade of sensory or motor blockade. The B2 treatment produced a higher degree of sensory blockade compared to B1 and B3 for both lumbar and sciatic dermatomes. There was no significant difference in the degree of sensory blockade comparing B1 to B3. The B2 treatment had greater motor blockade compared to B1 and B3. The duration of sensory and motor blockade was longer in B2 compared to B1 and B3. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE When the nerve stimulator is used to perform the lumbosacral plexus block, the concentration of the bupivacaine has a more important role than the volume to produce a more solid and longer block.
THE CEPHEID PERIOD–LUMINOSITY RELATION (THE LEAVITT LAW) AT MID-INFRARED WAVELENGTHS. III. CEPHEIDS IN NGC 6822

We present the first application of mid-infrared period–luminosity relations to the determination of a Cepheid distance beyond the Magellanic Clouds. Using archival IRAC imaging data on NGC 6822 from Spitzer we were able to measure single-epoch magnitudes for 16 long-period (10–100 day) Cepheids at 3.6 μm, 14 at 4.5 μm, 10 at 5.8 μm, and four at 8.0 μm. The measured slopes and the observed scatter both conform to the relations previously measured for the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids, and fitting to those relations gives apparent distance moduli of μ3.6 = 23.57 ± 0.06, μ4.5 = 23.55 ± 0.07, μ5.8 = 23.60 ± 0.09, and μ8.0 = 23.51 ± 0.08 mag. A multiwavelength fit to the new IRAC moduli, and previously published BVRIJHK moduli, allows for a final correction for interstellar reddening and gives a true distance modulus of 23.49 ± 0.03 mag with E(B − V) = 0.26 mag, corresponding to a metric distance of 500 ± 8 kpc.
Bengali and Hindi to English Cross-language Text Retrieval under Limited Resources

This paper describes our experiment on two cross-lingual and one monolingual English text retrievals at CLEF 1 in the ad-hoc track. The cross-language task includes the retrieval of English documents in response to queries in two most widely spoken Indian languages, Hindi and Bengali. For our experiment, we had access to a HindiEnglish bilingual lexicon, ’Shabdanjali’, consisting of approx. 26K Hindi words. But neither we had any effective Bengali-English bilingual lexicon nor any parallel corpora to build the statistical lexicon. Under this limited resources, we mostly depended on our phoneme-based transliterations to generate equivalent English query from Hindi and Bengali topics. We adopted Automatic Query Generation and Machine Translation approach for our experiment. Other language-specific resources included a Bengali morphological analyzer, a Hindi stemmer and a set of 200 Hindi and 273 Bengali stop words. Lucene framework was used for stemming, indexing, retrieval and scoring of the corpus documents. The CLEF results suggested the need for a rich bilingual lexicon for CLIR involving Indian languages. The best MAP values for Bengali, Hindi and English queries for our experiment were 7.26, 4.77 and 36.49 respectively.
Interventions for female pattern hair loss

Clinical Question Which interventions are effective and safe for treating female pattern hair loss (FPHL)? Bottom Line There was low- to moderate-quality evidence that topical minoxidil (2% and 5%) was associated with improvements in FPHL. There was low-quality evidence that finasteride was no more effective than placebo. There were inconsistent results from studies that laser devices were effective, but total hair count increased compared with baseline (moderate- to low-quality evidence). Most treatments were not associated with higher adverse event rates than placebo.
Optimal multicarrier multi-hop non-regenerative MIMO relays with QoS constraints

In this paper, we derive the optimal source and relay matrices of a multicarrier multi-hop multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay system that guarantee the predetermined quality-of-service (QoS) criteria be attained with the minimal total transmission power. We consider the linear minimal mean-squared error (MMSE) receiver at the destination node and show that the solution to the original optimization problem can be upper-bounded by using a successive geometric programming (GP) approach and lower-bounded by utilizing a dual decomposition technique. Simulation results show that both bounds are tight, and to obtain the same QoS, the proposed MIMO relay system requires substantially less power than that of the suboptimal relay scheme.
On the performance of calibration techniques for cognitive radio systems

In Cognitive Radio (CR) systems, primary licensed and secondary unlicensed users share the same spectrum. To minimize the interference caused by secondary users to primary users, we use Beamforming (BF). To perform BF in time division duplex (TDD), we acquire Channel State Information (CSI) with the help of channel reciprocity. This reciprocity is in practice not perfect due to non reciprocal Radio Frequency (RF) front-ends, this non reciprocity can be compensated by calibration algorithms, using only CSI, pilots and signaling. This paper1 compares the performance of three calibration algorithms in OFDM-MIMO (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) context, namely a M × N SISO and two full MIMO techniques (Alternating Total Least-Squares MIMO: Alt TLS MIMO and TLS MIMO). Simulations performed on synthetic and measured channels show that the TLS MIMO successfully performs full calibration, whereas the less complex SISO method fails to compensate antenna mutual coupling. They also give an approximation of the required CSI to achieve calibration. The final objective is to implement a proper calibration scheme in an existing CR scenario on the EURECOM OpenAirInterface platform.
ON THE ELLIPTICITY OF SETS

Let χ be an one-to-one, hyper-algebraically bounded ring acting completely on a positive monoid. In [19], it is shown that Ψ ( PΓ,P ∪B, π ) = lim sup Q̃→1 i ∧ 0 → { א0 ∨ y : t (eX, γ) ≥ 1 0 sin−1 (∅) }