Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Zebrafish Embryonic Neurons Transport Messenger RNA to Axons and Growth Cones In Vivo

Although mRNA was once thought to be excluded from the axonal compartment, the existence of protein synthesis in growing or regenerating axons in culture is now generally accepted. However, its extent and functional importance remain a subject of intense investigation. Furthermore, unambiguous evidence of mRNA axonal transport and local translation in vivo, in the context of a whole developing organism is still lacking. Here, we provide direct evidence of the presence of mRNAs of the tubb5, nefma, and stmnb2 genes in several types of axons in the developing zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo, with frequent accumulation at the growth cone. We further show that axonal localization of mRNA is a specific property of a subset of genes, as mRNAs of the huc and neurod genes, abundantly expressed in neurons, were not found in axons. We set up a reporter system in which the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of candidate mRNA, fused to a fluorescent protein coding sequence, was expressed in isolated neurons of the zebrafish embryo. Using this reporter, we identified in the 3′UTR of tubb5 mRNA a motif necessary and sufficient for axonal localization. Our work thus establishes the zebrafish as a model system to study axonal transport in a whole developing vertebrate organism, provides an experimental frame to assay this transport in vivo and to study its mechanisms, and identifies a new zipcode involved in axonal mRNA localization.
Improved left ventricular mechanics from acute VDD pacing in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and ventricular conduction delay.

BACKGROUND Ventricular pacing can improve hemodynamics in heart failure patients, but direct effects on left ventricular (LV) function from varying pacing site and atrioventricular (AV) delay remain unknown. We hypothesized that the magnitude and location of basal intraventricular conduction delay critically influences pacing responses and that single-site pacing in the delay-activated region yields similar or better responses to biventricular pacing. METHODS AND RESULTS Aortic and LV pressures were measured in 18 heart failure patients (mean+/-SD: LV ejection fraction, 19+/-7%; LV end-diastolic pressure, 25+/-8 mm Hg; QRS duration, 157+/-36 ms). Data under normal sinus rhythm were compared with ventricular pacing (VDD) at varying sites and AV delays (randomized order). Right ventricular (RV) apical or midseptal pacing had negligible contractile/systolic effects. However, LV free-wall pacing raised dP/dtmax by 23.7+/-19.0% and pulse-pressure by 18.0+/-18.4% (P<0.01). Biventricular pacing yielded less change (+12.8+/-9.3% in dP/dtmax, P<0.05 versus LV). Pressure-volume analysis performed in 11 patients consistently revealed minimal changes with RV pacing but increased stroke work and lower end-systolic volumes with LV pacing. Optimal AV intervals averaged 125+/-49 ms, and within this range, AV delay had less influence on LV function than pacing site. Basal QRS duration positively correlated with %DeltadP/dtmax (P<0.005), but pacing efficacy was not associated with QRS narrowing. Conduction delay pattern generally predicted pacing sites with most effect. CONCLUSIONS VDD pacing acutely enhances contractile function in heart failure patients with intraventricular conduction delay. Single-site pacing at the site of greatest delay achieves similar or greater benefits to biventricular pacing in such patients. These data clarify pacing-effect mechanisms and should help in candidate identification for future studies.
Prevalence and correlates of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease without dementia

A cross‐sectional study of the profile of psychiatric symptoms and their relationships to medications, executive performance, and excessive daytime somnolence (EDS) was conducted on 1351 consecutive Parkinson's disease patients without dementia (PD‐ND). Ratings were: neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI); hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS); executive performance (semantic, phonemic, and alternating verbal fluencies); and the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS). Eighty‐seven percent of the subjects reported at least one psychiatric symptom. The most common were depression (70%), anxiety (69%), apathy (48%), and irritability (47%). Fifty percent of the patients had HADS‐depression scores ranging from possible (8–10; 22%) to probable (≥11; 28%) depression. Executive impairment was found in 41% and EDS in 26% of subjects. All considered variables were significantly more common with longer duration and more severe disease. Only depression appeared to be influenced by type of medication, being less prevalent among patients treated with DAs. Five NPI clusters were identified among patients scoring ≥1 on the NPI (87.3%): patients exhibiting predominantly apathy (12.7%), psychosis (3%), depression (13%), anxiety (15.6%), and “low‐total NPI” (43.2%). Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in nondemented PD patients suggesting that they are an integral part of PD from the beginning of the disease and appears more related to disease progression than to the type of antiparkinsonian medication. Apathy emerged as an independent construct in PD‐ND, indicating the need to address specific therapeutical approaches targeted toward this particular symptom. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society
On Cluster Validity and the Information Need of Users

In the field of information retrieval, clustering algorithms are used to analyze large collections of documents with the objective to form groups of similar documents. Clustering a document collection is an ambiguous task: A clustering, i. e. a set of document groups, depends on the chosen clustering algorithm as well as on the algorithm’s parameter settings. To find the best among several clusterings, it is common practice to evaluate their internal structures with a cluster validity measure. A clustering is considered to be useful to a user if particular structural properties are well developed. Nevertheless, the presence of certain structural properties may not guarantee usefulness from an information retrieval standpoint, say, whether or not the found document groups resemble the classification of a human editor. The paper in hand investigates this point: Based on already classified document collections we generate clusterings and compare the predicted quality to their real quality. Our analysis includes the classical cluster validity measures from Dunn and Davies-Bouldin as well as the new graph-based measures Λ (weighted edge connectivity) and ρ (expected edge density). The experiments show interesting results: The classical measures behave in a consistent manner insofar as mediocre and poor clusterings are identified as such. On real-world document clustering data, however, they are definitely outperformed by the expected edge density ρ. This superiority of the graph-based measures can be explained by their independence of cluster forms and distances.
Can a Machine Generate Humanlike Language Descriptions for a Remote Sensing Image?

This paper investigates an intriguing question in the remote sensing field: “can a machine generate humanlike language descriptions for a remote sensing image? ” The automatic description of a remote sensing image (namely, remote sensing image captioning) is an important but rarely studied task for artificial intelligence. It is more challenging as the description must not only capture the ground elements of different scales, but also express their attributes as well as how these elements interact with each other. Despite the difficulties, we have proposed a remote sensing image captioning framework by leveraging the techniques of the recent fast development of deep learning and fully convolutional networks. The experimental results on a set of high-resolution optical images including Google Earth images and GaoFen-2 satellite images demonstrate that the proposed method is able to generate robust and comprehensive sentence description with desirable speed performance.
Role of Dendritic Cells in Antibody-Dependent Enhancement of Dengue Virus Infection

ABSTRACT Dengue viruses (DV), composed of four distinct serotypes (DV1 to DV4), cause 50 to 100 million infections annually. Durable homotypic immunity follows infection but may predispose to severe subsequent heterotypic infections, a risk conferred in part by the immune response itself. Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), a process best described in vitro, is epidemiologically linked to complicated DV infections, especially in Southeast Asia. Here we report for the first time the ADE phenomenon in primary human dendritic cells (DC), early targets of DV infection, and human cell lines bearing Fc receptors. We show that ADE is inversely correlated with surface expression of DC-SIGN (DC-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing nonintegrin) and requires Fc gamma receptor IIa (FcγRIIa). Mature DC exhibited ADE, whereas immature DC, expressing higher levels of DC-SIGN and similar FcγRIIa levels, did not undergo ADE. ADE results in increased intracellular de novo DV protein synthesis, increased viral RNA production and release, and increased infectivity of the supernatants in mature DC. Interestingly, tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-6 (IL-6), but not IL-10 and gamma interferon, were released in the presence of dengue patient sera but generally only at enhancement titers, suggesting a signaling component of ADE. FcγRIIa inhibition with monoclonal antibodies abrogated ADE and associated downstream consequences. DV versatility in entry routes (FcγRIIa or DC-SIGN) in mature DC broadens target options and suggests additional ways for DC to contribute to the pathogenesis of severe DV infection. Studying the cellular targets of DV infection and their susceptibility to ADE will aid our understanding of complex disease and contribute to the field of vaccine development.
Care satisfaction among older people receiving public care and service at home or in special accommodation.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore care satisfaction in relation to place of living, health-related quality of life, functional dependency and health complaints among people 65 years or older, receiving public care and service. The concept public care and service concerns formal care from the municipality, including home help, home nursing care, rehabilitation and a special accommodation. BACKGROUND To be able to provide care and service of high quality to older people, knowledge about factors influencing their experience of satisfaction with the care is essential. DESIGN Cross-sectional, including comparison and correlation. METHODS One-hundred sixty-six people receiving public care and service from the municipality were interviewed regarding demography, functional ability, perceived health complaints and care. Health-related quality of life was measured with SF-12, and self-rated care satisfaction was measured with a questionnaire. RESULTS Low self-rated care satisfaction was associated with dependency in Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, blindness, faeces incontinence and anxiety, while high self-rated care satisfaction was associated with dependency in Personal Activities of Daily Living. Those at home rated an overall higher care satisfaction and were more satisfied with care continuity and personal relations; they thought that the staff had more time and were more respectful and quiet, than the ratings by those in a special accommodation (equivalent to a nursing home). CONCLUSIONS Care satisfaction and health-related quality of life among older people was more associated with functional impairment and health complaints than to whether care and service was received at home or in a special accommodation. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE An approach using intervention focused on functional ability and health complaints is important for development of improved care satisfaction for older people receiving public care and service.
Intraluminal Thrombus, Intraplaque Hemorrhage, Plaque Thickness, and Current Smoking Optimally Predict Carotid Stroke

Background and Purpose— Intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) is associated with acute and future stroke. IPH is also associated with lumen markers of stroke risk including stenosis, plaque thickness, and ulceration. Whether IPH adds further predictive value to these other variables is unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether IPH improves carotid-source stroke prediction. Methods— In this retrospective cross-sectional study, patients undergoing stroke workup were imaged with MRI and IPH detection. Seven hundred twenty-six carotid-brain image pairs were analyzed after excluding vessels with noncarotid plaque stroke sources (420) and occlusions (7) or near-occlusions (3). Carotid imaging characteristics were recorded, including percent diameter and mm stenosis, plaque thickness, ulceration, intraluminal thrombus, and IPH. Clinical confounders were recorded, and a multivariable logistic regression model was fitted. Backward elimination was used to determine essential carotid-source stroke predictors with a threshold 2-sided P<0.10. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to determine discriminatory value. Results— Significant predictors of carotid-source stroke included intraluminal thrombus (odds ratio=103.6; P<0.001), IPH (odds ratio=25.2; P<0.001), current smoking (odds ratio=2.78; P=0.004), and thickness (odds ratio=1.24; P=0.020). The final model discriminatory value was excellent (area under the curve=0.862). This was significantly higher than the final model without IPH (area under the curve=0.814), or models using only stenosis as a continuous variable (area under the curve=0.770) or cutoffs of 50% and 70% (area under the curve=0.669), P<0.001. Conclusions— After excluding patients with noncarotid plaque stroke sources, optimal discrimination of carotid-source stroke was obtained with intraluminal thrombus, IPH, plaque thickness, and smoking history but not ulceration and stenosis.
The Ecarin Clotting Time, a Universal Method to Quantify Direct Thrombin Inhibitors

The ecarin clotting time (ECT) is a meizothrombin generation test that allows for precise quantification of direct thrombin inhibitors. The ECT has demonstrated its usefulness for more than 10 years in biochemical-pharmacological investigations as well as in clinical research and in the clinical routine. It has proved valuable especially as a drug-monitoring method in r-hirudin therapy. This test has been adjusted to clinical requirements by numerous modifications. Following the description of the biochemical background and the measuring principle of the ECT, this article gives a short survey of several modifications of the ECT for both preclinical and clinical use, e.g., for biochemical investigations, as a point-of-care method and for cardiac surgery. Advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed.
Magnetic Susceptibility and Saturation Magnetization of some Carbonyl Iron Powders used in Magnetorheological Fluids

Some commercial carbonyl iron powders, from BASF AG, were characterized through their magnetic susceptibility and saturation magnetization. The saturation magnetization increases in the order: HQ < OX < CS < CC < CL SM. Although all the powders have 96% minimum of iron content, this result suggests that an investigation at higher magnetic fields, under simultaneous shear is very important. The reversibility and the reproducibility of the MR effect were satisfactory, confirming that carbonyl iron powders are good ferromagnetic materials to prepare magnetorheological fluids.
Estrogen Increases Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase via Estrogen Receptors in Rat Cerebral Blood Vessels: Effect Preserved After Concurrent Treatment With Medroxyprogesterone Acetate or Progesterone

Background and Purpose— In vivo and in vitro rat models of hormone therapy were used to test the following hypotheses: (1) estrogen acts directly on cerebrovascular estrogen receptors to increase endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS); (2) increased protein correlates with higher NOS activity; and (3) effects of estrogen on eNOS are altered by concurrent treatment with either medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) or progesterone. Methods— Blood vessels were isolated from brains of ovariectomized female rats; some were treated for 1 month with estrogen, estrogen and progesterone, or estrogen and MPA. Isolated cerebral vessels were also treated in vitro with estrogen in the absence and presence of progesterone, MPA, tamoxifen, and the estrogen receptor antagonist ICI 182 780. Levels of eNOS were measured by Western blot, and NOS activity was measured by [14C]arginine-[14C]citrulline conversion. Results— Chronic hormone treatment in vivo resulted in plasma levels of 17&bgr;-estradiol, progesterone, and MPA in the range of values found in humans. Estrogen treatment resulted in higher levels of cerebrovascular NOS activity that paralleled increases in eNOS protein. In vitro estrogen treatment for 18 hours also resulted in a concentration-dependent increase in eNOS protein (EC50 ≈300 pmol/L) that was completely prevented by estrogen receptor antagonists tamoxifen or ICI 182 780. However, cotreatment with progesterone or MPA, either in vivo or in vitro, did not alter the effect of estrogen on eNOS protein. Conclusions— Estrogen receptor activation in cerebrovascular tissue results in increased eNOS activity and protein levels. The latter effect persists in the presence of either progesterone or MPA. Thus, increased NO production by eNOS may contribute to the neuroprotective effects of estrogen.
Comparison of Analgesic Effect Between Gabapentin and Diclofenac on Post-Operative Pain in Patients Undergoing Tonsillectomy

Background Tonsillectomy is a common procedure causing considerable postoperative pain. Postoperative pain intensity of 60 - 70 in the scale of visual analog scale (VAS) has been reported up to 3 - 4 days which could continue until 11 days after the surgery. Objectives The current study aimed to compare the analgesic effect of gabapentin and diclofenac on pain after tonsillectomy with the control group. Patients and Methods In this double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 90 patients aged 10-25 years, ASA classes I and II were randomly selected to receive 20 mg/kg oral gabapentin (n = 30), 1.0 mg / kg rectal diclofenac (n = 30) or placebo (n = 30) preoperatively. Pain was evaluated postoperatively on a visual analogue scale at 2, 6, 12 and 24 h. Opioid consumption in the first 24 h after surgery and the side effects were also recorded. Results There was no significant difference in terms of age, sex, and time of surgery in the three groups. Patients in the gabapentin and diclofenac groups had significantly lower pain scores at all-time intervals than those in the placebo group. The total meperidine consumed in the gabapentin (14.16 ± 6.97 P = 0.001) and diclofenac (16.66 ± 8.95, P = 0.004) groups was significantly less than that of the placebo (33.4 ± 13.97) group. The frequency of side effects such as vomiting, dizziness, and headache was not significantly different among the groups. Conclusions It can be concluded that gabapentin and diclofenac reduced postoperative pain and opioid consumption without obvious side effects.
Hampered Foraging and Migratory Performance in Swans Infected with Low-Pathogenic Avian Influenza A Virus

It is increasingly acknowledged that migratory birds, notably waterfowl, play a critical role in the maintenance and spread of influenza A viruses. In order to elucidate the epidemiology of influenza A viruses in their natural hosts, a better understanding of the pathological effects in these hosts is required. Here we report on the feeding and migratory performance of wild migratory Bewick's swans (Cygnus columbianus bewickii Yarrell) naturally infected with low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) A viruses of subtypes H6N2 and H6N8. Using information on geolocation data collected from Global Positioning Systems fitted to neck-collars, we show that infected swans experienced delayed migration, leaving their wintering site more than a month after uninfected animals. This was correlated with infected birds travelling shorter distances and fuelling and feeding at reduced rates. The data suggest that LPAI virus infections in wild migratory birds may have higher clinical and ecological impacts than previously recognised.
TIME-INTERLEAVED ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTERS FOR DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

Techniques to overcome the errors caused by the offset, gain, and sample-time mismatches among timeinterleaved analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) in highspeed digital communication systems are presented. The errors introduced by these mismatches are adaptively corrected using digital signal processing blocks. Sampletime errors are corrected by modifying the operation of the existing adaptive receive equalizer to reduce the hardware overhead. Simulations are presented that show that the gain, offset, and sample-time mismatches are corrected by the adaptive loops.
Changes in the rat intestine after x-irradiation of exteriorized short segments of ileum.

Segments of rat ileum 2.5 or 7.5 cm in length were x-irradiated with 3000 R or 5000 R under conditions of normal or restricted blood flow to the intestine. Most animals were allowed to live their life span for mortality studies, but others were killed between Day 5 and Day 44 for an assessment of the progression of histological changes in the irradiated segment. Time of death after irradiation was variable in each treatment category. Most animals died between 10 and 100 days; some lived beyond 200 days. The blood flow-restriction procedure extended the life span in the 3000 R-7.5-cm group, but was ineffective at 5000 R regardless of segment length. A lesion characterized by serosal fibrosis apparently secondary to mucosal ulceration was always produced, but the latent period between the events and the extent of fibrosis varied considerably. Death was almost always due to bowel obstruction. In the 2.5-cm segment exposed to 5000 R, the mucosa did not regenerate in 44 days, but in some of the 7.5-cm segments.
Response Bias Modulates the Speech Motor System during Syllable Discrimination

Recent evidence suggests that the speech motor system may play a significant role in speech perception. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to a speech region of premotor cortex impaired syllable identification, while stimulation of motor areas for different articulators selectively facilitated identification of phonemes relying on those articulators. However, in these experiments performance was not corrected for response bias. It is not currently known how response bias modulates activity in these networks. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment was designed to produce specific, measureable changes in response bias in a speech perception task. Minimal consonant-vowel stimulus pairs were presented between volume acquisitions for same-different discrimination. Speech stimuli were embedded in Gaussian noise at the psychophysically determined threshold level. We manipulated bias by changing the ratio of same-to-different trials: 1:3, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, 3:1. Ratios were blocked by run and subjects were cued to the upcoming ratio at the beginning of each run. The stimuli were physically identical across runs. Response bias (criterion, C) was measured in individual subjects for each ratio condition. Group mean bias varied in the expected direction. We predicted that activation in frontal but not temporal brain regions would co-vary with bias. Group-level regression of bias scores on percent signal change revealed a fronto-parietal network of motor and sensory-motor brain regions that were sensitive to changes in response bias. We identified several pre- and post-central clusters in the left hemisphere that overlap well with TMS targets from the aforementioned studies. Importantly, activity in these regions covaried with response bias even while the perceptual targets remained constant. Thus, previous results suggesting that speech motor cortex participates directly in the perceptual analysis of speech should be called into question.