Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of Endothelin in Mediating Tumor Necrosis Factor-Induced Hypertension in Pregnant Rats

Hypertension during preeclampsia is associated with an increase in plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, a cytokine known to contribute to endothelial dysfunction. Recently, our laboratory reported that a 2-fold increase in plasma TNF-α produces hypertension in pregnant rats. Endothelin is also elevated in preeclampsia and endothelin synthesis is enhanced by TNF-α. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of endothlelin in mediating TNF-α–induced hypertension in pregnant rats. To achieve this goal, TNF-α (50 ng/d for 5 days) was infused into control pregnant rats and pregnant rats treated with an endothelin receptor A antagonist, ABT 627 (5 mg/kg per day for 5 days). At day 19 of gestation, arterial pressure was measured and aorta, kidneys, and placentas were harvested. Infusion of TNF-α into pregnant rats increased plasma concentration of TNF-α (13.5±0.8 to 28.0±3.7 pg/mL) and arterial pressure (101±2 to 122±1 mm Hg). The increase in arterial pressure was associated with an increase in preproendothelin mRNA expression in placenta, aorta, and kidneys measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Pretreatment with the endothelin receptor A antagonist completely abolished the blood pressure response to TNF-α in pregnant rats (105±1 versus 97±2 mm Hg). In sharp contrast, the ETA receptor antagonist had no effect on arterial pressure in normal pregnant rats (97±2 versus 101±2 mm Hg). Moreover, chronic infusion of TNF-α had no significant effect on arterial pressure or renal preproendothelin levels in virgin rats. These results suggest an important role for endothelin in mediating TNF-α–induced hypertension in pregnant rats.
Hemoglobinopathy: Molecular Epidemiological Characteristics and Health Effects on Hakka People in the Meizhou Region, Southern China

Background Hemoglobinopathies are the most common inherited diseases in southern China. However, there have been only a few epidemiological studies of hemoglobinopathies in Guangdong province. Materials and Methods Peripheral blood samples were collected from 15299 “healthy” unrelated subjects of dominantly ethnic Hakka in the Meizhou region, on which hemoglobin electrophoresis and routine blood tests were performed. Suspected cases with hemoglobin variants and hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) were further characterized by PCR, DNA sequencing, reverse dot blot (RDB) or multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). In addition, 1743 samples were randomly selected from the 15299 subjects for thalassemia screening, and suspected thalassemia carriers were identified by PCR and RDB. Results The gene frequency of hemoglobin variants was 0.477% (73/15299). The five main subgroups of the ten hemoglobin variants were Hb E, Hb G-Chinese, Hb Q-Tahiland, Hb New York and Hb J-Bangkok. 277 cases (15.89%, 277/1743) of suspected thalassemia carriers with microcytosis (MCV<82 fl) were found by thalassemia screening, and were tested by a RDB gene chip to reveal a total of 196 mutant chromosomes: including 124 α-thalassemia mutant chromosomes and 72 β-thalassemia mutant chromosomes. These results give a heterozygote frequency of 11.24% for common α and β thalassemia in the Hakka population in the Meizhou region. 3 cases of HPFH/δβ-thalassemia were found, including 2 cases of Vietnamese HPFH (FPFH-7) and a rare Belgian Gγ(Aγδβ)0–thalassemia identified in Chinese. Conclusions Our results provide a detailed prevalence and molecular characterization of hemoglobinopathies in Hakka people of the Meizhou region. The estimated numbers of pregnancies each year in the Meizhou region, in which the fetus would be at risk for β thalassemia major or intermedia, Bart’s hydrops fetalis, and Hb H disease, are 25 (95% CI, 15 to 38), 40 (95% CI, 26 to 57), and 15 (95% CI, 8 to 23), respectively.
Neural Recruitment and Cognitive Aging: Two Hemispheres Are Better Than One, Especially as You Age

Several neuroimaging studies have reported that older adults show weaker activations in some brain areas together with stronger activations in other areas, compared with younger adults performing the same task. This pattern may reflect neural recruitment that compensates for age-related neural declines. The recruitment hypothesis was tested in a visual laterality study that investigated age differences in the efficiency of bihemispheric processing. Letter-matching tasks of varying complexity were performed under two conditions: (a) matching letters projected to the same visual field (hemisphere) and (b) matching letters projected to opposite visual fields (hemispheres). As predicted by the recruitment hypothesis, older adults generally performed better in the bilateral than unilateral condition, whereas younger adults showed this pattern only for the most complex task. We discuss the relation between these results and neuroimaging evidence for recruitment, and the relevance of the present bihemispheric advantage to other evidence for age-related changes in interhemispheric transfer.
Retention Intervals and Serial List Memory

Pictorial stimuli were presented in serial lists and tested for recognition. 11 men and 9 women participated at retention intervals of 5, 15, and 25 sec. The length of retention interval interacted with primacy and recency effects as observed in earlier studies of abstract stimuli, indicating similar basic memory functions for different types of visual stimuli. A shift from recency to primacy dominance remained despite the likelihood of verbal rehearsal. At short retention intervals a recency effect predominated and with longer delays a primacy effect predominated recognition.
Identifying cervical infection among pregnant women in Nairobi, Kenya: limitations of risk assessment and symptom-based approaches.

OBJECTIVES: To examine characteristics of pregnant women associated with cervical infection, and to evaluate the accuracy of symptom-based and risk assessment systems which have been developed for identifying cervical infection in antenatal women. METHODS: Interviews were conducted and physical examinations performed on 291 consecutive antenatal clinic attenders in nairobi, Kenya. Vaginal, cervical, urine and blood specimens were also obtained for analysis. RESULTS: The following disease prevalences were observed: candidiasis 26.2%; trichomoniasis 19.9%; bacterial vaginosis 20.6%; any vaginal infection 53.8%; chlamydial cervicitis (CT) 8.8%; gonococcal cervicitis (GC) 2.4%; any cervical infection 10.8%. The only statistically significant association with GC and/or CT cervical infection was the presence of cervical friability (OR = 2.1, P = 0.05). There were trends towards associations with the presence of endocervical mucopus (OR = 2.6, P = 0.06), reporting a new sex partner in the past 3 months (OR = 2.2, P = 0.16) and reporting that a sex partner had an STD-related symptom (OR = 4.4, P = 0.13). There were no associations with other demographic, behavioural or medical characteristics. Risk scores previously developed for detecting GC/CT cervicitis in developing country antenatal populations generally performed poorly. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalences of vaginal and cervical infection observed were extremely high among these "low risk" women. Owing probably to high levels of vaginal infection and to behavioural characteristics of this urban population, factors which elsewhere have been associated with cervical infection were not found to be so in this setting. Further work on symptom-based approaches and risk assessment for STD case detection in pregnant women is required before STD management recommendations can be generalised.
Risk factors for the incidence of calcium oxalate uroliths or magnesium ammonium phosphate uroliths for dogs in Ontario, Canada, from 1998 to 2006.

OBJECTIVE To investigate individual- and community-level contextual variables as risk factors for submission of calcium oxalate (CaOx) uroliths or magnesium ammonium phosphate (ie, struvite) uroliths for dogs to a national urolith center, as determined on the basis of urolith submission patterns. SAMPLE POPULATION Records of 7,297 dogs from Ontario, Canada, with CaOx or struvite uroliths submitted to the Canadian Veterinary Urolith Centre from 1998 through 2006. PROCEDURES Data were analyzed via multilevel multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS Individual-level main effects and interactions significantly associated with the risk of submission of CaOx uroliths rather than struvite uroliths included age, sex, breed group, neuter status, body condition, dietary moisture content, diet type, sex-neuter status interaction, sex-age interaction, body condition-age interaction, and breed group-dietary moisture content interaction. In addition, median community family income and being located within a major urban center (ie, Toronto) were significant risk factors for submission of CaOx uroliths, compared with submission of struvite uroliths. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Individual-level and dietary factors for dogs affected the risk of submission of CaOx uroliths, relative to that of struvite uroliths. Interactions among these variables need to be considered when assessing the impact of these risk factors. In addition, community-level or contextual factors (such as community family income and residing in a densely populated area of Ontario) also affected submission patterns, although most of the variance in the risk for submission of CaOx uroliths, compared with the risk for submission of struvite uroliths, was explained by individual-level factors.
Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation Dovepress Differences in Onset and Abuse/dependence Episodes between Prescription Opioids and Heroin: Results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

Objectives: To examine patterns of onset and abuse/dependence episodes of prescription opioid (PO) and heroin use disorders in a national sample of adults, and to explore differences by gender and substance abuse treatment status. Results: Of all respondents, 5% (n = 1815) reported a history of nonmedical PO use (NMPOU) and 0.3% (n = 150) a history of heroin use. Abuse was more prevalent than dependence among NMPOUs (PO abuse, 29%; dependence, 7%) and heroin users (heroin abuse, 63%; dependence, 28%). Heroin users reported a short mean interval from first use to onset of abuse (1.5 years) or dependence (2.0 years), and a lengthy mean duration for the longest episode of abuse (66 months) or dependence (59 months); the corresponding mean estimates for PO abuse and dependence among NMPOUs were 2.6 and 2.9 years, respectively, and 31 and 49 months, respectively. The mean number of years from first use to remission from the most recent episode was 6.9 years for PO abuse and 8.1 years for dependence; the mean number of years from first heroin use to remission from the most recent episode was 8.5 years for heroin abuse and 9.7 years for dependence. Most individuals with PO or heroin use disorders were remitted from the most recent episode. Treated individuals, whether their problem was heroin or POs, tended to have a longer mean duration of an episode than untreated individuals. Conclusion: Periodic remissions from opioid or heroin abuse or dependence episodes occur commonly but take a long time. Timely and effective use of treatment services are needed to mitigate the many adverse consequences from opioid/heroin abuse and dependence.
In Vivo Applications of Single Chain Fv (Variable Domain) (scFv) Fragments

Single chain variable domain (Fv) fragments (scFv) are powerful tools in research and clinical settings, owing to better pharmacokinetic properties compared to the parent monoclonal antibodies and the relative ease of producing them in large quantities, at low cost. Though they offer several advantages, they suffer from lower binding affinity and rapid clearance from circulation, which limits their therapeutic potential. However, these fragments can be genetically modified to enhance desirable properties, such as multivalency, high target retention and slower blood clearance, and as such, a variety of scFv formats have been generated. ScFvs can be administered by systemic injection for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. They can be expressed in vivo through viral vectors in instances where large infection rates and sustenance of high levels of the antibody is required. ScFvs have found applications as tools for in vivo loss-of-function studies and inactivation of specific protein domains, diagnostic imaging, tumor therapy and treatment for neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. This review will focus on their in vivo applications.
Power: Its Social Psychology

Abstract Power differences are an inherent feature of most organizations and relationships. However, little attention was devoted to their study within Social Psychology until the last two decades. In recent years, a group of scholars have tried to bring power to the forefront of research in Social Psychology studying its antecedents, effects, and psychological underpinnings. The results of their research have shown that power can have both positive and negative effects, and some moderators (e.g. its legitimacy and stability) tilt the balance toward one side or the other. The collection of studies included in this issue attempts to show the importance of the topic in current research in the area of Social Psychology.
Does Variation in Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) Vector Competence Enable Outbreaks of West Nile Virus in California?

Abstract Since the invasion of California by West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) in 2003, we have annually monitored vector competence for the NY99 strain in Culex tarsalis Coquillett, Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus Say, Culex p. pipiens L. , and Culex stigmatosoma Dyar populations from four areas: deserts of Coachella Valley, densely urbanized maritime Los Angeles, southern San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, and southern Sacramento Valley near Davis in Sacramento County. Overall, Cx. stigmatosoma was the most competent vector species, followed by Cx. tarsalis and the Cx. pipiens complex. The median infectious dose (ID50) of WNV required to infect 50% of the F1 female progeny reared from wild-caught females, a measure of mesenteronal susceptibility, ranged between 5 and 8 log10 plaque forming units/ml and was not correlated with annual human case incidence or summer maximum likelihood mosquito infection estimates. Odds ratios comparing nonoutbreak years with referent outbreak years were variable and failed to show a distinct pattern for Cx. tarsalis or Cx. pipiens complex females. Apparently factors other than midgut susceptibility within the ranges we measured enabled WNV outbreaks in California. Culex populations remained competent for St. Louis encephalitis virus, indicating that the disappearance of this virus was not related to a loss of vector competence.
Individualism versus collectivism or versus authoritarianism

Although there has been progress in the definition, antecedents, and consequences of individualism and collectivism, there are some fundamental issues that need to be resolved. This study examined two such issues: the dimensionality of individualism and collectivism, and the relationship of these constructs to authoritarianism. Thirty-eight American undergraduates judged the similarity among 15 concepts that have previously been shown to be reflective of elements of individualism, collectivism, and authoritarianism. Multidimensional scaling revealed two dimensions: individualism versus authoritarianism and active collectivism versus withdrawal from group involvement. Unlike the conception by Hofstede (1980) that individualism and collectivism are opposites, these results strongly suggest they are orthogonal. Furthermore, authoritarianism was construed as the opposite of individualism. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.
'What' and 'Where' in Visual Attention: Evidence from the Neglect Syndrome

Abstract : From what types of visual representations does attention select stimuli for further processing? Two alternatives that have been investigated within cognitive psychology are: Array, or location-based representations, and object-based representations. We briefly review the literature on this issue in normal subjects, and then report two experiments on the same issue using parietal-damaged patients with visual neglect. The findings from neglect patients are then discussed with respect to: The clinical literature on the effects of bilateral parietal damage, and the classical distinction between the spatial functions of the dorsal visual system and the object identification functions of the ventral system.
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia prediction model for 7-day-old infants.

OBJECTIVE To develop a predictive model capable of identifying which premature infants have the greatest probability of presenting bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), based on assessment at the end of their first week of life. METHODS Data were collected retrospectively from January 1998 to July 2001, and prospectively from August 2001 to July 2003. All children born at the Institution with gestational age < 34 weeks and birth weight < 1,500 g were included. The principal risk factors for BPD were subjected to univariate analysis followed by logistic regression. Significant variables were used to construct a formula to calculate the probability of BPD. The model was calibrated and its discriminative power assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Between August 2003 and July 2005 the model was then applied to a different population for validation. RESULTS The sample comprised 247 children, of whom 68 developed BPD, classified as follows: mild = 35 (51.4%), moderate = 20 (29.4%) and severe = 8 (11.7 %). Four variables maintained significance with relation to BPD: gestational age < or = 30 weeks, persistent ductus arteriosus, mechanical ventilation > 2 days and loss of > 15% of birth weight on the seventh day of life. Where patients exhibited all of these variables, the model had a 93.7% probability of being correct. The model was further validated when using another sample of 61 newborns; similar figures were obtained. CONCLUSIONS At the end of the first week of life, the predictive model developed from our population was capable of identifying newborn infants at increased risk of developing BPD with a high degree of sensitivity.
Internationalisation of higher education and nation building: resolving language policy dilemmas in Lithuania

Our paper discusses trends and challenges faced by Lithuanian Higher Education (HE) internationalisation policy processes in the context of European and global internationalisation tendencies. Using 2001–2011 EU mobility statistics and data from recent HE Lithuanian strategic programmes aimed at promoting the internationalisation of university education (for 2009–2010 and 2011–2012), we discuss implications of these developments for the country's language (education) policy and its practical implementation. The officially practiced policy approach that aims to strengthen the national language and culture (as is visible throughout the post-Soviet space) faces challenges with the development of societal multilingualism. This contrasts with Western policy practices, where common/mutual rationales and approaches seek to support multilingualism and multiculturalism. In the Baltic region, protectionist national political instruments have had to address dilemmas that have arisen in connection with Western-mediated HE internationalisation processes. This has led to the deployment of different internationalisation policy rationales that promote global and regional cooperation. New approaches focused on linking Baltic language studies centres with departments of Baltistics and Indo-European studies have worked to establish stronger bonds with structures at foreign universities. As a consequence common interests in the study, research, development and promotion of the languages in the Baltic are now more widely shared, both regionally and internationally.
Clinical characteristics of patients with benign nonlesional temporal lobe epilepsy

Purpose To evaluate the evolution of nonlesional temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE-NL) in patients treated exclusively with antiepileptic drugs and to elucidate clinical phenotypes related to the prognosis of these patients. Methods Clinical, radiological, and electroencephalographic (EEG) findings in 84 patients with TLE-NL were reviewed. A good response group (GRG) and a poor response group (PRG) were defined if the duration of their seizure-free period was >1 year, or <1 year, respectively. Results There were 46 (54.8%) patients in the GRG and 38 (45.2%) patients in the PRG. The number of antiepileptic drugs administered was significantly lower in the GRG than that in the PRG (1.3±0.8 vs 2.8±1.0, respectively; P<0.05). The GRG had a significantly older age of onset than the PRG and a lower occurrence of initial precipitating events, such as febrile seizures, central nervous system infection, and head trauma (P<0.05). The prevalence of EEG abnormality, presence of aura, generalized seizures, and automatism was less frequently observed in the GRG (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of automatism and initial precipitating events were significantly associated with a poor prognosis (P<0.05). Conclusion In contrast to the commonly assumed intractability of TLE, we found that more than 54% of patients with TLE-NL achieved a long seizure-free period. Older age at onset of TLE-NL was associated with a better prognosis. However, the presence of automatism and initial precipitating events were related to a poor prognosis. Future prospective studies with a much larger population are warranted.
Demystifying Faulty Code with LLM: Step-by-Step Reasoning for Explainable Fault Localization

Fault localization is a critical process that involves identifying specific program elements responsible for program failures. Manually pinpointing these elements, such as classes, methods, or statements, which are associated with a fault is laborious and time-consuming. To overcome this challenge, various fault localization tools have been developed. These tools typically generate a ranked list of suspicious program elements. However, this information alone is insufficient. A prior study emphasized that automated fault localization should offer a rationale. In this study, we investigate the step-by-step reasoning for explainable fault localization. We explore the potential of Large Language Models (LLM) in assisting developers in reasoning about code. We proposed FuseFL that utilizes several combinations of information to enhance the LLM results which are spectrum-based fault localization results, test case execution outcomes, and code description (i.e., explanation of what the given code is intended to do). We conducted our investigation using faulty code from Refactory dataset. First, we evaluate the performance of the automated fault localization. Our results demonstrate a more than 30% increase in the number of successfully localized faults at Top-1 compared to the baseline. To evaluate the explanations generated by FuseFL, we create a dataset of human explanations that provide step-by-step reasoning as to why specific lines of code are considered faulty. This dataset consists of 324 faulty code files, along with explanations for 600 faulty lines. Furthermore, we also conducted human studies to evaluate the explanations. We found that for 22 out of the 30 randomly sampled cases, FuseFL generated correct explanations.