Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Cyclooxygenase Inhibitors Indomethacin and Rofecoxib Reduce Regional Cerebral Blood Flow Evoked by Somatosensory Stimulation in Rats

The present study was designed to investigate whether administration of indomethacin (IMC), a non-selective cyclooxygenase (COX-1 and COX-2) inhibitor, and Rofecoxib, a highly selective COX-2 inhibitor, affect the regulation of regional cerebral blood flow response evoked by somatosensory activation (evoked rCBF). IMC and Rofecoxib were applied intravenously (6.25 and 3 mg/kg/hr, respectively). Somatosensory activation was induced by electrical hind paw stimuli of 0.2, 1, and 5 Hz (5-sec duration, 1.5 mA). The evoked rCBF was measured in α-chloralose anesthetized rats using laser-Doppler flowmetry. Before and after drug application, the evoked rCBF showed a frequency-dependent increase in the range of 0.2–5 Hz stimulation. IMC reduced significantly (about 50%–60%) evoked rCBF in response to all frequencies of hind paw stimulation (P< 0.05). Rofecoxib reduced significantly (about 50%) evoked rCBF in response to 1 and 5 Hz stimulation (P < 0.05), but did not affect evoked rCBF at 0.2 Hz. After IMC or Rofecoxib application, the normalized evoked rCBF curves peaked earlier as compared with that before their application (P < 0.05), although the rise time of 0.5 sec was nearly constant regardless of the stimulus frequency. The termination time of evoked rCBF curves was changed significantly after IMC application at 0.2 Hz stimulation (P < 0.05), but was not affected after Rofecoxib application. Neither COX inhibitor significantly affected the baseline level of CBF. The results suggest a participation of COX products in the regulation of evoked rCBF in response to somatosensory stimulation in the brain.
Distance, shape and more: recognition of object features during active electrolocation in a weakly electric fish

SUMMARY In the absence of light, the weakly electric fish Gnathonemus petersii detects and distinguishes objects in the environment through active electrolocation. In order to test which features of an object the fish use under these conditions to discriminate between differently shaped objects, we trained eight individuals in a food-rewarded, two-alternative, forced-choice procedure. All fish learned to discriminate between two objects of different shapes and volumes. When new object combinations were offered in non-rewarded test trials, fish preferred those objects that resembled the one they had been trained to (S+) and avoided objects resembling the one that had not been rewarded (S–). For a decision, fish paid attention to the relative differences between the two objects they had to discriminate. For discrimination, fish used several object features, the most important ones being volume, material and shape. The importance of shape was demonstrated by reducing the objects to their 3-dimensional contours, which sufficed for the fish to distinguish differently shaped objects. Our results also showed that fish attended strongly to the feature `volume', because all individuals tended to avoid the larger one of two objects. When confronted with metal versus plastic objects, all fish avoided metal and preferred plastic objects, irrespective of training. In addition to volume, material and shape, fish attended to additional parameters, such as corners or rounded edges. When confronted with two unknown objects, fish weighed up the positive and negative properties of these novel objects and based their decision on the outcome of this comparison. Our results suggest that fish are able to link and assemble local features of an electrolocation pattern to construct a representation of an object, suggesting that some form of a feature extraction mechanism enables them to solve a complex object recognition task.
Estimating the Fundamental Limits is Easier Than Achieving the Fundamental Limits

We show through case studies that it is easier to estimate the fundamental limits of data processing than to construct the explicit algorithms to achieve those limits. Focusing on binary classification, data compression, and prediction under logarithmic loss, we show that in the finite space setting, when it is possible to construct an estimator of the limits with vanishing error with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$ </tex-math></inline-formula> samples, it may require at least <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n\ln n$ </tex-math></inline-formula> samples to construct an explicit algorithm to achieve the limits.
Approximal Caries Development in Adolescents with Low to Moderate Caries Risk after Different 3-Year School-Based Supervised Fluoride Mouth Rinsing Programmes

The aim was to evaluate a 3-year randomised controlled trial of school-based fluoride mouth rinsing (FMR) on approximal caries development in 13- to 16-year-olds with low to moderate caries risk. The adolescents used F toothpaste at home and underwent prophylactic treatment at yearly check-ups at public dental clinics. Out of 788 randomly selected 13-year-olds, 622 completed the trial, carried out in 1999–2003. Supervised by a dental nurse, the subjects rinsed with a 0.2% NaF solution at different intervals. Group 1 rinsed their teeth on the first three schooldays every semester; group 2 on the first three and the last three schooldays every semester; group 3 on three consecutive days once a month during semesters; group 4 once every fortnight during semesters, and group 5 (control) did not rinse. Radiographic recording of approximal caries was performed. FMR on the three first and the three last schooldays every semester (group 2) had a prevented fraction of 59%, with approximal enamel lesions as a diagnostic threshold. Corresponding figures for groups 1, 3 and 4 were 30, 47 and 41%, respectively. The control group differed statistically from groups 2–4 for new enamel and dentin lesions and fillings (p < 0.01). Enamel lesions constituted more than 90% of the new caries lesions. Caries progression was low for all groups and no significant differences were found between groups. The main conclusion from this randomised controlled trial is that school-based FMR, as a supplement to the daily use of F toothpaste, reduces caries incidence on approximal surfaces in adolescents with low to moderate caries risk.
Naturally occurring genetic transfer of hydrogen-oxidizing ability between strains of Alcaligenes eutrophus

Mutants defective in chemolithoautotrophic growth (Aut-) have been isolated from Alcaligenes eutrophus strains H16, N9A, G27, and TF93. Spontaneous Aut- mutants were obtained only with strain TF93. Mutants of the other strains were selected after conventional mutagenesis or treatment with mitomycin. Most of the mutants, including the spontaneous Aut- strains, lacked hydrogenase activity (Hox-) but possessed the ability to fix carbon dioxide (Cfx+). Agar mating of A. eutrophus H16 with Hox- mutants of the various strains resulted in transconjugants which had recovered the ability to grow autotrophically and to express activity of hydrogenase as examined by enzymatic and immunochemical analysis. Transfer of hydrogen-oxidizing ability occurred in the absence of a mobilizing plasmid such as Rp4. The transfer frequency was particularly high (ca. 10(-2) per donor) when the spontaneous Hox- mutants of strain TF93 were used as recipients. These strains proved to be plasmid free, whereas donors, transconjugants, and the mutagen-treated Hox- mutants contained a large plasmid (molecular weight, 270 +/- 10 X 10(6) revealed by agarose gel electrophoresis. The results allow the conclusion that A. eutrophus H16 harbors a self-transmissible plasmid designated pHG1, which carries information for hydrogen-oxidizing ability.
On-Line Rigid Object Tracking via Discriminative Feature Classification

SUMMARY This paper proposes an on-line rigid object tracking framework via discriminative object appearance modeling and learning. Strong classiﬁers are combined with 2D scale-rotation invariant local features to treat tracking as a keypoint matching problem. For on-line boosting, we correspond a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to each weak clas-siﬁer and propose a GMM-based classifying mechanism. Meanwhile, self-organizing theory is applied to perform automatic clustering for sequential updating. Beneﬁting from the invariance of the SURF feature and the proposed on-line classifying technique, we can easily ﬁnd reliable matching pairs and thus perform accurate and stable tracking. Experiments show that the proposed method achieves better performance than previously reported trackers.
Association between left atrial function assessed by speckle-tracking echocardiography and the presence of left atrial appendage thrombus in patients with atrial fibrillation

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate whether the deformation of left atrium (LA) measured by speckle-tracking analysis (STE) is associated with the presence of LA appendage thrombus (LAAT) during non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods: Eighty-seven patients (mean age 67 years, 59% men) were included to retrospective cross-sectional study. On top of standard echocardiography we assessed: LA longitudinal systolic strain (LS), systolic (LSSR) and early diastolic strain rate (LESR) in four-chamber and two-chamber apical views. All patients underwent transesophageal echocardiography disclosing LAAT in 36 (41%) patients. Results: Subgroups with and without thrombi did not differ with regard to clinical characteristics. Univariate factors associated with LAAT were as follows: CH2ADS2-VASc Score, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), LV mass, and STE measurements. In a multivariate model only LVEF (p=0.002), LS (p=0.02), LESR (p=0.008), and LSSR (p=0.045) were independently associated with LAAT presence. Moreover, LVEF and LA STE measurements provided incremental value over the CH2ADS2-VASc Score. Conclusion: Speckle-tracking TTE may be used to describe LA reservoir and conduit function during AF, allowing the identification of patients with higher risk of LAAT and providing incremental value over the CH2ADS2-VASc Score.
Phylogenetic Reconstruction and DNA Barcoding for Closely Related Pine Moth Species (Dendrolimus) in China with Multiple Gene Markers

Unlike distinct species, closely related species offer a great challenge for phylogeny reconstruction and species identification with DNA barcoding due to their often overlapping genetic variation. We tested a sibling species group of pine moth pests in China with a standard cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene and two alternative internal transcribed spacer (ITS) genes (ITS1 and ITS2). Five different phylogenetic/DNA barcoding analysis methods (Maximum likelihood (ML)/Neighbor-joining (NJ), “best close match” (BCM), Minimum distance (MD), and BP-based method (BP)), representing commonly used methodology (tree-based and non-tree based) in the field, were applied to both single-gene and multiple-gene analyses. Our results demonstrated clear reciprocal species monophyly for three relatively distant related species, Dendrolimus superans, D. houi, D. kikuchii, as recovered by both single and multiple genes while the phylogenetic relationship of three closely related species, D. punctatus, D. tabulaeformis, D. spectabilis, could not be resolved with the traditional tree-building methods. Additionally, we find the standard COI barcode outperforms two nuclear ITS genes, whatever the methods used. On average, the COI barcode achieved a success rate of 94.10–97.40%, while ITS1 and ITS2 obtained a success rate of 64.70–81.60%, indicating ITS genes are less suitable for species identification in this case. We propose the use of an overall success rate of species identification that takes both sequencing success and assignation success into account, since species identification success rates with multiple-gene barcoding system were generally overestimated, especially by tree-based methods, where only successfully sequenced DNA sequences were used to construct a phylogenetic tree. Non-tree based methods, such as MD, BCM, and BP approaches, presented advantages over tree-based methods by reporting the overall success rates with statistical significance. In addition, our results indicate that the most closely related species D. punctatus, D. tabulaeformis, and D. spectabilis, may be still in the process of incomplete lineage sorting, with occasional hybridizations occurring among them.
The phenomenology and diagnosis of psychiatric illness in people with Prader–Willi syndrome

Background Psychotic illness is strongly associated with the maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD) genetic subtype of Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS), but not the deletion subtype (delPWS). This study investigates the clinical features of psychiatric illness associated with PWS. We consider possible genetic and other mechanisms that may be responsible for the development of psychotic illness, predominantly in those with mUPD. Method The study sample comprised 119 individuals with genetically confirmed PWS, of whom 46 had a history of psychiatric illness. A detailed clinical and family psychiatric history was obtained from these 46 using the PAS-ADD, OPCRIT, Family History and Life Events Questionnaires. Results Individuals with mUPD had a higher rate of psychiatric illness than those with delPWS (22/34 v. 24/85, p<0.001). The profile of psychiatric illness in both genetic subtypes resembled an atypical affective disorder with or without psychotic symptoms. Those with delPWS were more likely to have developed a non-psychotic depressive illness (p=0.005) and those with mUPD a bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms (p=0.00005). Individuals with delPWS and psychotic illness had an increased family history of affective disorder. This was confined exclusively to their mothers. Conclusions Psychiatric illness in PWS is predominately affective with atypical features. The prevalence and possibly the severity of illness are greater in those with mUPD. We present a ‘two-hit’ hypothesis, involving imprinted genes on chromosome 15, for the development of affective psychosis in people with PWS, regardless of genetic subtype.
Given® Capsule Endoscopy in Celiac Disease: Evaluation of Diagnostic Accuracy and Interobserver Agreement

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Capsule endoscopy (CE) has been increasingly used for diagnosing diseases of the small bowel. It is an attractive technique for assessing celiac disease (CD) because it is noninvasive and provides a close and magnified view of the mucosa of the entire small bowel. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of CE and interobserver agreement in recognizing villous atrophy (VA) using histopathology as the reference. We also explored the extent of small bowel involvement with CD and the relationship between the length of the affected bowel and the clinical presentation.METHODS:Ten CD patients with histologically proven VA and the same number of controls were subjected to CE. Four, blinded to histology findings, investigators (two with and two without prestudy CE experience) were asked to diagnose VA on CE images.RESULTS:Based on assessment of all four investigators, the overall sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of CE in diagnosing VA were 70%, 100%, 100%, and 77%, respectively. The sensitivity and the specificity of the test was 100% when the reports of experienced capsule endoscopists only were analyzed. The interobserver agreement was perfect (κ= 1.0) between investigators with prestudy CE experience and poor (κ= 0.2) between the investigators who had limited prestudy exposure to CE. Celiac patients with extensive small bowel involvement had typical symptoms of malabsorption (diarrhea, weight loss) as opposed to mild and nonspecific symptoms in patients whose disease was limited to the proximal small bowel. CE was tolerated well by all study participants with 95% reporting absence of any discomfort.CONCLUSIONS:Although based on a small sample size, the study suggests that CE may be useful in assessing patients with CD. Familiarity with CE technology appears to be a critical factor affecting the accuracy of the test. Larger studies are warranted to more precisely define the advantages and limitations of CE in CD.
Rapid digital architecture design of orthogonal matching pursuit

Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) is a greedy algorithm well-known for its applications to Compressed Sensing. For this work it serves as a toy problem of a rapid digital design flow based on high-level synthesis (HLS). HLS facilitates extensive design space exploration in connection with a data type-agnostic programming methodology. Nonetheless, some algorithmic transformations are needed to obtain optimised digital architectures. OMP contains a least squares orthogonalisation step, yet its iterative selection strategy makes rank-1 updating possible. We furthermore propose to compute complex mathematical operations, e.g. the needed reciprocal square root operation, with the help of the logarithmic number system to optimise HLS results. Our results can compete with prior works in terms of latency and resource utilisation. Additionally and to the best of our knowledge, we can report on the first complex-valued digital architecture of OMP, which is able to recover a vector of length 128 with 5 non-zero elements in 17.1 μs.
Journal of Interactive Online Learning Social Influence for Perceived Usefulness and Ease-of-use of Course Delivery Systems

This study explores the extent to which subjective norm beliefs of online learners shape perceptions of ease-of-use and usefulness for the use of course delivery systems. Subjective norm beliefs represent the influence that instructors, mentors, and peers have on students to use the course delivery system. The results show that instructor and mentor influences are significant contributors to students' perceived usefulness of the course delivery system. However, only mentor influence is significant to students' perceived ease-of-use of the learning system. These results indicate the importance of the instructors' roles in shaping impressions of the value of using the course delivery systems and the potential underutilization of peer influence to shape behavior in online courses.
Randomized Cross-Sectional Study to Compare HIV-1 Specific Antibody and Cytokine Concentrations in Female Genital Secretions Obtained by Menstrual Cup and Cervicovaginal Lavage

Introduction Optimizing methods for genital specimen collection to accurately characterize mucosal immune responses is a priority for the HIV prevention field. The menstrual cup (MC) has been proposed as an alternative to other methods including cervicovaginal lavage (CVL), but no study has yet formally compared these two methods. Methods Forty HIV-infected, antiretroviral therapy-naïve women from the CAPRISA 002 acute HIV infection cohort study were randomized to have genital fluid collected using the MC with subsequent CVL, or by CVL alone. Qualitative data, which assessed levels of comfort and acceptability of MC using a 5-point Likert scale, was collected. Luminex multiplex assays were used to measure HIV-specific IgG against multiple gene products and 48 cytokines. Results The majority (94%) of participants indicated that insertion, wearing and removal of the MC was comfortable. Nineteen MCs with 18 matching, subsequent CVLs and 20 randomized CVLs were available for analysis. Mucosal IgG responses against four HIV-antigens were detected in 99% of MCs compared to only 80% of randomized CVLs (p = 0.029). Higher specific antibody activity and total antibodies were observed in MCs compared to CVL (all p<0.001). In MCs, 42/48 (88%) cytokines were in the detectable range in all participants compared to 27/48 (54%) in CVL (p<0.001). Concentrations of 22/41 cytokines (53.7%) were significantly higher in fluid collected by MC. Both total IgG (r = 0.63; p = 0.005) and cytokine concentrations (r = 0.90; p<0.001) correlated strongly between MC and corresponding post-MC CVL. Conclusions MC sampling improves the detection of mucosal cytokines and antibodies, particularly those present at low concentrations. MC may therefore represent an ideal tool to assess immunological parameters in genital secretions, without interfering with concurrent collection of conventional CVL samples.
Experimental human exposure to high concentrations of carbon monoxide.

Six healthy male human volunteers were exposed to seven high carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations ranging from 1,000 ppm for ten minutes to 35,600 ppm for 45 seconds. Carbon monoxide was rapidly absorbed and the increase in percent carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) saturation in venous blood per liter of CO mixture inhaled could be accurately predicted by the equation, log (Δ% carboxyhemoglobsn/liter) = 1.036 log (ppm CO inhaled) -4.4793. The abrupt increase in carboxyhemoglobin concentration of 11.6% and 9.1% saturation in two subjects produced the immediate onset of mild frontal headache. The subject exposed to 35,600 ppm demonstrated slight sagging of the ST-segsnent of lead II. This occurred 20 seconds after the exposure had started and persisted for ten minutes after exposure. Neither the spontaneous nor the evoked electrical activity of the brain exhibited significant changes which could be attributed to CO exposure over the range studied.
Inorganic polyphosphate and specific induction of apoptosis in human plasma cells.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP), a ubiquitous phosphate polymer with ATP-like bonds, has recently been related to a variety of functions including blood coagulation and cell proliferation. We investigated the effects of polyP in the biology of human plasma cells (PC), responsible for the production and maintenance of antibodies in response to antigens. DESIGN AND METHODS The U266 myeloma cell line was used to study whether polyP affects immunoglobulin (Ig) secretion and survival. Different human cell lines were used to test the specificity of polyP on viability. We analyzed Ig secretion of PC from bone marrow and peripheral blood after polyP addition. A conventional tetanus toxoid booster immunization was used to increase the proportion of PC in order to examine the ex vivo effects of polyP. We also tested the effects of polyP on primary myeloma cells. Ig secretion and apoptosis were determined by ELISA and FACS respectively. RESULTS Addition of polyP to human PC produced an unexpected inhibition of Ig secretion and stimulation of apoptosis. PolyP generated apoptosis specifically in PC, myeloma (malignant PC) cell lines, primary myeloma cells, and B lymphoid cell lines. Normal B cells, T cells, total blood mononuclear cells, and non-lymphoid cell lines were not affected by polyP. In the U266 myeloma cell line, polyP induced externalization of phosphatidylserine, activation of caspase-3, and arrest of the cell cycle. The protective effects of interleukin-6 did not overcome the polyP-induced apoptosis Interpretation and CONCLUSIONS Taken together, our results suggest for the first time the relevance of the use of polyP to the humoral immune response and open prospects for polyP as a novel therapy for myeloma.
Random access transport capacity

We develop a new metric for quantifying end-to-end throughput in multihop wireless networks, which we term random access transport capacity, since the interference model presumes uncoordinated transmissions. The metric quantifies the average maximum rate of successful end-to-end transmissions, multiplied by the communication distance, and normalized by the network area. We show that a simple upper bound on this quantity is computable in closed-form in terms of key network parameters when the number of retransmissions is not restricted and the hops are assumed to be equally spaced on a line between the source and destination. We also derive the optimum number of hops and optimal per hop success probability and show that our result follows the well-known square root scaling law while providing exact expressions for the preconstants, which contain most of the design-relevant network parameters. Numerical results demonstrate that the upper bound is accurate for the purpose of determining the optimal hop count and success (or outage) probability.