Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aberrant default-mode network-hippocampus connectivity after sad memory-recall in remitted-depression

Abstract Rumination and cognitive reactivity (dysfunctional cognitions after sad mood-induction) remain high in remitted Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and can contribute to new episodes. These factors have been linked to increased fMRI resting-state functional-connectivity within the Default-Mode Network (DMN). It remains unclear whether (I) increased DMN-connectivity persists during MDD-remission, and (II) whether sad mood-induction differentially affects DMN-connectivity in remitted-MDD vs controls. Moreover, DMN-connectivity studies in remitted-MDD were previously confounded by antidepressant-use. Sixty-two MDD-patients remitted from ≥2 episodes, psychotropic-medication free, and 41 controls, participated in two 5-min neutral and sad mood-inductions by autobiographical-recall and neutral/sad music, each followed by 8-min resting-state fMRI-scanning. We identified DMN-components using Independent Component Analysis and entered subject- and sessions-specific components into a repeated measures analysis of variance. Connectivity-differences were extracted and correlated with baseline cognitive reactivity and rumination as measures of vulnerability for recurrence. After sad vs neutral mood-induction, controls, but not remitted-MDD, showed an increase in connectivity between the posterior-DMN and a cluster consisting mostly of the hippocampus (P = 0.006). Less posterior-DMN-hippocampal connectivity was associated with higher cognitive reactivity (r = −0.21, P = 0.046) and rumination (r = −0.27, P = 0.017). After recalling sad autobiographical-memories, aberrant posterior-DMN-hippocampal connectivity, associated with cognitive reactivity and rumination, remains a neural vulnerability in MDD-remission.
Title Effects of a herbal compound containing bupleurum on humanlymphocytes

Effects of a herbal compound containing bupleurum on human lymphocytes Bupleurum-containing compounds, such as KY88 Liver Livo are thought to have immunomodulatory effects. This study investigated the effects of KY88 Liver Livo on the mitogenic induction of lymphocytes in vitro. Fifteen healthy human adult volunteers, aged between 20 and 50 years, provided peripheral blood samples from which lymphocytes were obtained by Ficoll-Hypaque centrifugation. The separated lymphocytes were stimulated by phytohaemagglutinin and KY88 Liver Livo in varying concentrations for 72 hours, with greater cluster and colony formation evident compared with lymphocytes in a control preparation. KY88 Liver Livo was also found to induce the secretion of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in a dose-dependent fashion. These preliminary in vitro studies suggest that KY88 Liver Livo may have potential clinical value in the treatment of chronic viral infection and in the management of immunocompromised patients.
Influence Maximization in Social Networks using Learning Automata

Influence maximization problem is one of the challenges in online social networks. This problem refers to finding a small set of members of a social network, by activation of whichinformation propagation can be maximized using one of the propagation models such as independent cascade model. For the maximization problem, the greedy algorithm has beenpresented which isclose to optimal response by 67% in terms of accuracy; but, the problem of this method is its inefficiency in the social networks with a large number of members. The performed works on the improvement of the greedy algorithm have been mostly faced with the problem of scalability, dependence on graph structure, or need for large memory. In this paper, a method was presented using automata learning which could preserve its efficiency in large social networks and obtainresults with near-optimal values. For this purpose, space of the problem was reduced by removing low-degree nodes and the effective nodes for starting propagation in social network was found by automata learning which is optimal for achieving global optimization. The obtained results of this paper showed that the proposed method was efficient in large social networks and its results wereclose to the ones obtained by the greedy algorithm in terms of accuracy.
Accurate in vivo measurement of polyethylene wear in total knee arthroplasty.

This study describes a new technique to evaluate accurate linear polyethylene wear and reports the in vivo annual linear wear rate in total knee arthroplasty. Patients (n = 69) were assessed using a single standing anteroposterior radiograph with 8 reference markers around the knee, where 3-dimensional (3D) locations of markers and 3D geometry of the implant were known. By matching the 3D locations of the markers and their projected points on the radiograph, 3D/2D transformation parameters were estimated. Using these parameters, the 3D coordinates of the implant were estimated from the projected x-ray silhouette. After calculating the femorotibial shortest distance, wear and creep deformity of the polyethylene was defined with an accuracy of 0.1 mm or better. Measured linear wear in the 69 knees varied from 0 mm (1 month postoperatively) to 2.71 mm (7 years postoperatively). The correlation of linear wear (Y) and year (X) was Y = 0.23 X -0.11 (P<.001). This study revealed that annual wear rate was 0.23 mm and 2 times greater than the average annual wear rate in total hip arthroplasties.
Angiotensin II Stimulates Renin in Inner Medullary Collecting Duct Cells via Protein Kinase C and Independent of Epithelial Sodium Channel and Mineralocorticoid Receptor Activity

Collecting duct (CD) renin is stimulated by angiotensin (Ang) II, providing a pathway for Ang I generation and further conversion to Ang II. Ang II stimulates the epithelial sodium channel via the Ang II type 1 receptor and increases mineralocorticoid receptor activity attributed to increased aldosterone release. Our objective was to determine whether CD renin augmentation is mediated directly by Ang II type 1 receptor or via the epithelial sodium channel and mineralocorticoid receptor. In vivo studies examined the effects of epithelial sodium channel blockade (amiloride; 5 mg/kg per day) on CD renin expression and urinary renin content in Ang II–infused rats (80 ng/min, 2 weeks). Ang II infusion increased systolic blood pressure, medullary renin mRNA, urinary renin content, and intrarenal Ang II levels. Amiloride cotreatment did not alter these responses despite a reduction in the rate of progression of systolic blood pressure. In primary cultures of inner medullary CD cells, renin mRNA and (pro)renin protein levels increased with Ang II (100 nmol/L), and candesartan (Ang II type 1 receptor antagonist) prevented this effect. Aldosterone (10−10 to 10−7 mol/L) with or without amiloride did not modify the upregulation of renin mRNA in Ang II–treated cells. However, inhibition of protein kinase C with calphostin C prevented the Ang II–mediated increases in renin mRNA and (pro)renin protein levels. Furthermore, protein kinase C activation with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate increased renin expression to the same extent as Ang II. These data indicate that an Ang II type 1 receptor–mediated increase in CD renin is induced directly by Ang II via the protein kinase C pathway and that this regulation is independent of mineralocorticoid receptor activation or epithelial sodium channel activity.
Awareness, Attitude, and Knowledge of Basic Life Support among Medical, Dental, and Nursing Faculties and Students in the University Hospital

Objective: To assess the awareness, attitude, and knowledge about basic life support (BLS) among medical, dental, and nursing students and faculties and the proposal of BLS skills in the academic curriculum of undergraduate (UG) course. Recognition, prevention, and effective management of life-threatening emergencies are the responsibility of health-care professionals. These situations can be successfully managed by proper knowledge and training of the BLS skills. These life-saving maneuvers can be given through the structured resuscitation programs, which are lacking in the academic curriculum. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire study consisting of 20 questions was conducted among 659 participants in the Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, KIIT University. Medical junior residents, BDS faculties, interns, nursing faculties, and 3rd-year and final-year UG students from both medical and dental colleges were chosen. The statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS software version 20.0 (Armonk, NY:IBM Corp). Results: After collecting the data, the values were statistically analyzed and tabulated. Statistical analysis was performed using Mann–Whitney U-test. The results with P < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Our participants were aware of BLS, showed positive attitude toward it, whereas the knowledge about BLS was lacking, with the statistically significant P value. Conclusion: By introducing BLS regularly in the academic curriculum and by routine hands on workshops, all the health-care providers should be well versed with the BLS skills for effectively managing the life-threatening emergencies.
Teaching medical students the important connection between communication and clinical reasoning

BACKGROUND: Medical students are rarely taught how to integrate communication and clinical reasoning. Not understanding the relation between these skills may lead students to undervalue the connection between psychosocial and biomedical aspects of patient care.OBJECTIVE: To improve medical students’ communication and clinical reasoning and their appreciation of how these skills interrelate in medical practice.DESIGN: In 2003, we conducted a randomized trial of a curricular intervention at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In a 6-week course, participants learned communication and clinical reasoning skills in an integrative fashion using small group exercises with role-play, reflection and feedback through a structured iterative reflective process.PARTICIPANTS: Second-year medical students.MEASUREMENTS: All students interviewed standardized patients who evaluated their communication skills in establishing rapport, data gathering and patient education/counseling on a 5-point scale (1=poor; 5=excellent). We assessed clinical reasoning through the number of correct problems listed and differential diagnoses generated and the Diagnostic Thinking Inventory. Students rated the importance of learning these skills in an integrated fashion.RESULTS: Standardized patients rated curricular students more favorably in establishing rapport (4.1 vs 3.9; P=.05). Curricular participants listed more psychosocial history items on their problem lists (65% of curricular students listing ≥1 item vs 44% of controls; P=.008). Groups did not differ significantly in other communication or clinical reasoning measures. Ninety-five percent of participants rated the integration of these skills as important.CONCLUSIONS: Intervention students performed better in certain communication and clinical reasoning skills. These students recognized the importance of biomedical and psychosocial issues in patient care. Educators may wish to teach the integration of these skills early in medical training.
Acute Infantile Gastroenteritis Associated with Human Enteric Viruses in Tunisia

ABSTRACT This prospective study, conducted from January 2003 to June 2005, investigated the incidence and the clinical role of various enteric viruses responsible for infantile gastroenteritis in 632 Tunisian children presenting in dispensaries (380 children) or hospitalized (252 children) for acute diarrhea. At least one enteric virus was found in each of 276 samples (43.7%). A single pathogen was observed in 234 samples, and mixed infections were found in 42 samples. In terms of frequency, rotavirus and norovirus were detected in 22.5 and 17.4% of the samples, respectively, followed by astrovirus (4.1%), Aichi virus (3.5%), adenovirus types 40 and 41 (2.7%), and sapovirus (1.0%). The seasonal distribution of viral gastroenteritis showed a winter peak but also an unusual peak from May to September. The severity of the diarrhea was evaluated for hospitalized infants. No significant differences were observed between rotavirus and norovirus infections with regard to the incidence and the clinical severity of the disease, especially in dehydration.
Role of Tim 3 in Mediating T Cell Exhaustion During Chronic Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infection

Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. One third of the population is estimated to be infected, however only 5-10% of those individuals can transmit the disease. While T cell immunity initially limits mycobacterium growth, it is unclear why T cell immunity fails to sterilize the infection and prevent subsequent recrudescence. One hypothesis is T cell exhaustion is mediating the failure of T cell immunity late during infection. Here we show the development of T cell exhaustion during chronic infection, and that the inhibitory receptor T cellimmunoglobulin and mucin domain containing 3 (TIM3) mediates the development of T cell exhaustion. TIM3 accumulates on the surface of T cells throughout the course of infection and there is a subsequent decrease in effector cytokine production, such as IL-2, TNFα, and IFNγ. Furthermore, antibody blockade of TIM3 restores T cell function and improves bacterial control. Our results show that TIM3 is mediating T cell exhaustion during chronic TB infection and leading to suboptimal bacterial control.
Molecular Typing of Staphylococcus Aureus Strains from Ovine Mastitis by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis and Polymerase Chain Reaction Based on Coagulase and Protein A Gene Polymorphisms

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important etiologic agents of ovine mastitis. To develop effective control measures for mastitis, it is important to type S. aureus strains that have considerable genetic heterogeneity. In the current study, 47 S. aureus strains isolated from ovine mastitis were typed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on coagulase (coa) and protein A (spa) polymorphisms and by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Eight different coa types and 4 spa types were identified by PCR. While the most prevalent coa type was CG2 (42.56%), the spa types S4 and S1 were the most commonly observed (44.68% and 38.29%, respectively). Nineteen different pulsotypes were identified, and 12 of these were represented by a single isolate. Pulsotypes J and K were predominant and each represented 9 isolates (19.14%). All isolates belonging to J and K pulsotypes were CG2. Although all 9 isolates belonging to the J pulsotype were S4, all isolates in the K pulsotype were S1. While PFGE was found to be the best discriminatory technique for distinguishing strains, coa and spa types were found to be in correlation with PFGE types and can be used for quick, preliminary epidemiologic studies for detecting strains that may cause mastitis.
Relationship to place among Spanish immigrants in the United Kingdom: effects on perceived prejudice / Relación con el lugar de inmigrantes españoles residentes en Reino Unido: efectos en el prejuicio percibido

Abstract Spanish citizens have migrated to other European countries in recent years, looking for employment and new opportunities. This study examines the relationship to place developed by Spanish immigrants in the UK using residential satisfaction, place attachment and place identity. It also assesses the possible influence of these variables on perceived prejudice. Place was conceptualized as an interchangeable relationship between physical-spatial characteristics and social-human ones. With a sample of 474 participants, the results showed that people felt satisfied in their new places of residence and attached to them, although those places were largely not part of their identity. It was also noted that the longer the length of residence, the higher the levels of the psycho-environmental variables measured. However, higher income levels in the new country only had positive effects on residential satisfaction. Finally, with regard to perceived prejudice, residential satisfaction was the only explanatory factor with a residual effect (5.5%) in the sample dataset. However, taking into consideration length of residence, it was noted that for those residents who had lived in the country for more than five years, residential satisfaction was a key factor that explained 42.9% of perceived prejudice.
System exploration of SystemC designs

Due to increasing design complexity new methodologies for system modeling have been established in VLSI CAD. The SystemC methodology gains a significant reduction of design cycles by introducing an executable specification and a top down refinement strategy. But still the size and the complexity of SystemC models grow, making it harder to understand the basic ideas architects and their designs intend. This extends the familiarization phase for coworkers and project partners. In modern design flows, this can become a significant problem. In this work, we present an approach for interactive system exploration of SystemC designs and its implementation. The aim of our approach is to facilitate the orientation towards complex SystemC models without the need for simulation based techniques. Our tool accomplishes system exploration by allowing to navigate hierarchically through SystemC designs. It uses schematic visualization at different levels of abstraction to display the structure and the behavior of the design. Further support is given for different schematic views, a source code view, crossprobing, path fragment navigation and module exploration.
An Image Authentication Algorithm Using Combined Approach of Watermarking and Vector Quantization

Abstract This paper presents a two-stage watermarking technique for image authentication adapting the advantages of vector quantization (VQ). In the proposed algorithm, robust watermark and semifragile watermark are embedded independently in two successive stages. Robust watermark and VQ enhance the security of the system by providing double protection to the designed system, while semifragile watermark helps in authenticating the received image. Watermarks of varying sizes are embedded in the cover image, and their performance is measured in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), weighted PSNR, and bit error rate. A threshold-based approach is suggested for identification of attacks as acceptable or malicious. The experimental results demonstrate the capabilities of the method in classifying attacks and correctly locating the tampered area. It is possible to detect and determine tampering with very high sensitivity. The present scheme outperforms previous algorithms in terms of imperceptibility, attack classification criteria, robustness feature, and tamper detection feature.
Perioperative Minimal Induction Therapy: A Further Step toward More Effective Immunosuppression in Transplantation

Dual induction with low doses of rabbit anti-human thymoglobulin (RATG) and basiliximab effectively and safely prevented allograft rejection in high-risk renal transplant recipients. To assess whether treatment timing affects efficacy and tolerability, in this single-center, matched-cohort study, we compared posttransplant outcomes in 25 patients and 50 gender-, age-, and treatment-matched reference patients induced with the same course of 7 daily RATG infusions (0.5 mg/kg/day) started before or after engraftment, respectively. All subjects received basiliximab (20 mg) before and 4 days after transplantation, withdrew steroids within 6 days after surgery, and were maintained on steroid-free immunosuppression with cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil or azathioprine. Over 12 months after transplant, 1 patient (4%) and 13 reference patients (26%) had acute rejection episodes. One patient and 5 reference-patients required dialysis therapy because of delayed graft function. In all patients circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes were fully depleted before engraftment. Both treatments were well tolerated. In kidney transplantation, perioperative RATG infusion enhances the protective effect of low-dose RATG and basiliximab induction against graft rejection and delayed function, possibly because of more effective inhibition of early interactions between circulating T cells and graft antigens.
Geodesic illumination basis: compensating for illumination variations in any pose for face recognition

Proposes a model of illumination variations of the object appearance, called the geodesic illumination basis model. It calculates pose-independent illumination bases on a 3D model, and these bases are warped into view-dependent bases in any pose. We experimentally evaluate how many illumination samples and bases are necessary, and show that our model can compensate for any illumination variations in any pose. A face recognition system incorporating our proposed model is constructed, and its performance is tested using a database of 3D models and test images of 42 individuals captured in drastically differing pose and illumination conditions. Our system achieves a first-choice success ratio of 97.3% when the position and pose of the target face are known.
Involvement of caspase-3 in epigallocatechin-3-gallate-mediated apoptosis of human chondrosarcoma cells.

Green tea polyphenol-(-)epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG)-is a potent chemopreventive agent in many test systems and has been shown to inhibit tumor promotion and induce apoptosis. In this study we describe a novel observation that EGCG displayed strong inhibitory effects on the proliferation and viability of HTB-94 human chondrosarcoma cells in a dose-dependent manner and induced apoptosis. Investigation of the mechanism of EGCG-induced apoptosis revealed that treatment with EGCG resulted in DNA fragmentation, induction of caspase-3/CPP32 activity, and cleavage of the death substrate poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP). Pretreatment of cells with a synthetic pan-caspase inhibitor (Z-VAD-FMK) and a caspase-3-specific inhibitor (DEVD-CHO) prevented EGCG-induced PARP cleavage. The induction of apoptosis by EGCG via activation of caspase-3/CPP32-like proteases may provide a mechanistic explanation for its antitumor effects.
Aligning Knowledge Sources in the UMLS: Methods, Quantitative Results, and Applications

The UMLS Semantic Network and Metathesaurus are two complementary knowledge sources. While many studies compare relationships across the two structures, their alignment has never been attempted. We applied two methods based on lexical and conceptual similarity to aligning the Semantic Network with the UMLS Metathesaurus. Approximately two thirds of the semantic types could be aligned by lexical similarity. Conceptual similarity suggested mappings in all but ten cases. Potential applications enabled by the alignment are discussed, namely auditing the consistency between the Semantic Network and the Metathesaurus and extending the Semantic Network downwards. The relative contribution and limitations of the two methods used for the alignment are also discussed.