Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behavioral and Brain Functions

Background: Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), posterior parietal cortex, and regions in the occipital cortex have been identified as neural sites for visual working memory (WM). The exact involvement of the DLPFC in verbal and non-verbal working memory processes, and how these processes depend on the time-span for retention, remains disputed. Methods: We used functional MRI to explore the neural correlates of the delayed discrimination of Gabor stimuli differing in orientation. Twelve subjects were instructed to code the relative orientation either verbally or non-verbally with memory delays of short (2 s) or long (8 s) duration. Results: Blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) 3-Tesla fMRI revealed significantly more activity for the short verbal condition compared to the short non-verbal condition in bilateral superior temporal gyrus, insula and supramarginal gyrus. Activity in the long verbal condition was greater than in the long non-verbal condition in left language-associated areas (STG) and bilateral posterior parietal areas, including precuneus. Interestingly, right DLPFC and bilateral superior frontal gyrus was more active in the non-verbal long delay condition than in the long verbal condition. Conclusion: The results point to a dissociation between the cortical sites involved in verbal and non-verbal WM for long and short delays. Right DLPFC seems to be engaged in non-verbal WM tasks especially for long delays. Furthermore, the results indicate that even slightly different memory maintenance intervals engage largely differing networks and that this novel finding may explain differing results in previous verbal/non-verbal WM studies. Background Working Memory (WM) is the ability to keep a limited amount of information online for immediate use during short intervals [1]. In typical WM experiments 1 to 10 items are maintained in memory for periods up to and including 60 s [2]. The classical model of WM consists of the central executive and three subsidiary systems, namely the visuo-spatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, and the recently proposed episodic buffer [3]. Published: 25 October 2007 Behavioral and Brain Functions 2007, 3:56 doi:10.1186/1744-9081-3-56 Received: 4 September 2007 Accepted: 25 October 2007 This article is available from: http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions. com/content/3/1/56 © 2007 Rothmayr et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The human body retention time of environmental organically bound tritium

Tritium in the UK environment causes low radiation doses to the public, but uncertainty exists in the dose coefficient for the organically bound component of tritium (OBT). This can affect the assessment of effective doses to representative persons. Contributing to that uncertainty is poor knowledge of the body retention time of OBT and how this varies for different OBT compounds in food. This study was undertaken to measure the retention time of tritium by volunteers after eating sole from Cardiff Bay, which may contain OBT from discharges from the GE Healthcare Ltd plant. Five volunteers provided samples of excreta over periods up to 150 days after intake. The results, which are presented in raw form to allow independent analysis, suggest retention of total tritium with body half-times ranging from 4 to 11 days, with no evidence (subject to experimental noise) of a significant contribution due to retention with a longer half-time. This range covers the half-time of 10 days used by the ICRP for tritiated water. The short timescale could be due to rapid hydrolysis in body tissues of the particular form of OBT used in this study. Implications for the dose coefficient for OBT are that the use of the ICRP value of 4.2 × 10−11 Sv Bq−1 may be cautious in this specific situation. These observations on dose coefficients are separate from any implications of recent discussion on whether the tritium radiation weighting factor should be increased from 1 to 2.
Limb deficiencies in newborn infants.

OBJECTIVE The prevalence rate of all types of limb reduction defects in general and those that potentially are caused by vascular disruption in particular is needed to provide a baseline for the evaluation of infants who are exposed in utero to teratogens that cause vascular disruption. The objective of this study was to determine this prevalence rate. METHODS All infants with any limb deficiency among 161 252 liveborn and stillborn infants and elective terminations were identified in a hospital-based Active Malformations Surveillance Program in Boston in the years 1972 to 1974 and 1979 to 1994. An extensive search was made to identify infants who were missed by the Surveillance Program; an additional 8 infants (7.3% of total) were identified. The limb reduction defects were classified in 3 ways: 1) by the anatomic location of the defect, that is longitudinal, terminal, intercalary, etc; 2) for infants with absence/hypoplasia of fingers or toes, a tabulation of which digit or digits were affected; and 3) by apparent cause. RESULTS The prevalence rate for all types of limb deficiency was 0.69/1000. The apparent causes included single mutant genes, familial occurrence, and known syndromes (24%); chromosome abnormalities (6%); teratogens (4%); vascular disruption (35%); and unknown cause (32%). CONCLUSIONS A hospital-based surveillance program can be used to establish the prevalence of limb reduction defects, if ascertainment is extended to include elective terminations for fetal abnormalities. An apparent cause can be established for most limb defects when the clinical findings are used rather than reliance only on the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, codes of the discharge diagnoses. The prevalence rate of limb reduction defects as a result of presumed vascular disruption was 0.22/1000.
Replicated analysis of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits in two wild great tit populations

Currently, there is much debate on the genetic architecture of quantitative traits in wild populations. Is trait variation influenced by many genes of small effect or by a few genes of major effect? Where is additive genetic variation located in the genome? Do the same loci cause similar phenotypic variation in different populations? Great tits (Parus major) have been studied extensively in long‐term studies across Europe and consequently are considered an ecological ‘model organism’. Recently, genomic resources have been developed for the great tit, including a custom SNP chip and genetic linkage map. In this study, we used a suite of approaches to investigate the genetic architecture of eight quantitative traits in two long‐term study populations of great tits—one in the Netherlands and the other in the United Kingdom. Overall, we found little evidence for the presence of genes of large effects in either population. Instead, traits appeared to be influenced by many genes of small effect, with conservative estimates of the number of contributing loci ranging from 31 to 310. Despite concordance between population‐specific heritabilities, we found no evidence for the presence of loci having similar effects in both populations. While population‐specific genetic architectures are possible, an undetected shared architecture cannot be rejected because of limited power to map loci of small and moderate effects. This study is one of few examples of genetic architecture analysis in replicated wild populations and highlights some of the challenges and limitations researchers will face when attempting similar molecular quantitative genetic studies in free‐living populations.
Study on the change of Caspase-3 and protective effect of EGb in hypoxic ischemic brain damage of neonatal rats

To assess the expression of Caspase-3 protein in brain after hypoxic ischemic (HI) and investigate the protective effect of extract of ginkgo biloba (EGb) on hypoxic ischemic brain damage (HIBD) in neonatal rats. The HIBD animal models were made by ligating the uterine arteries of pregnant rat. EGb was injected into the HIBD models. The expression of Caspase-3 protein in brain after HI was observed. As a Result Caspase-3 protein expression was elevated after HI and reperfusion while apoptosis of cerebral cells were also elevated. The study showed that the Caspase-3 protein was decreased with the treatment of EGb after HI. EGb decreased the apoptosis of cerebral cells. This indicates Caspase-3 may be function as a cell death effector protein. EGb has protective effect on HIBD which minimize the expression of Caspase-3 protein.
Cancer Antigen 125: Lost to Follow-Up?

Abstract A recent study on the use of cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) in follow-up of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer after complete response on primary treatment is critically reviewed. As it has been suggested to refrain from CA-125 altogether, this European Society of Gynaecologic Oncology report has also reviewed possible disadvantages, even possible harm, and potentially missed opportunities when such policy would be implemented. It is concluded that indeed routine use of CA-125 does not provide patient benefit in survival or quality of life. However, there may be other reasons for monitoring CA-125, which are discussed in this review. It is noted that the lack of benefit of CA-125 monitoring has only been proven for a specific subset of ovarian cancer patients with serous histology and frequent follow-up visits including imaging and in a clinical environment where, particularly, surgery for recurrent disease and clinical studies on new second-line agents will not be considered. A special warning is issued not to stop tumor marker follow-up in other than epithelial ovarian cancers and in follow-up of patients who not have been treated with chemotherapy.
Race/ethnicity, social class, and leisure-time physical inactivity.

PURPOSE The aims of this study were to determine 1) prevalence of leisure-time physical inactivity in a nationally representative sample of non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic men and women; 2) prevalence of leisure-time inactivity by racial/ethnic group across social class indicators; and 3) the relationship between leisure-time inactivity and occupational physical activity, independent of other social class indicators. METHODS The National Physical Activity and Weight Loss Survey was a telephone survey of noninstitutionalized U.S. adults (4695 men, 6516 women) conducted by random digit dialing between September and December 2002. Self-reported physical activity was assessed using questions from the 2001 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Respondents who reported no moderate- or vigorous-intensity physical activity during leisure time in a usual week were classified as inactive. Indicators of social class were education, family income, employment status, and marital status. RESULTS Age-adjusted prevalence of leisure-time inactivity was 9.9% +/- 0.6 SE (standard error) and 12.0 +/- 0.6 for white men and women, respectively; 19.0 +/- 2.5 and 25.2 +/- 2.1 for non-Hispanic black men and women, and 20.9 +/- 2.1 and 27.3 +/- 2.5 for Hispanic men and women. Within each racial/ethnic group, prevalence of leisure-time inactivity was highest among participants of lower social class. Differences in inactivity by racial/ethnic group were less evident after adjustment for social class. Odds of inactivity were similar across quartiles of occupational physical activity after adjustment for age, sex, and social class. CONCLUSIONS Non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics were more inactive during their leisure time than were non-Hispanic whites. Social class but not occupational physical activity seems to moderate the relationship between race/ethnicity and leisure-time physical inactivity.
Understanding the Barriers to Physical Activity for Cancer Patients

Abstract For individuals who experience cancer, regular adherence to physical activity has been shown to provide benefits ranging from alleviation of symptoms to improvements in physical function and quality of life. However, research about barriers to participation that compromise adherence and subsequent benefits has been identified as needed. The purposes of this article were to (1) systematically review the barriers to research and make recommendations, (2) consider unique symptoms of disease and treatment regarding their barrier-related impact on exercise therapy, and (3) present an organizational framework that will aid the investigation and understanding of barriers as they affect adherence to prescribed exercise therapy for cancer treatment and recovery.
Development of etoposide-loaded bovine serum albumin nanosuspensions for parenteral delivery

Abstract Nanosuspensions emerge as a promising strategy for delivery of poorly water-soluble drugs. Albumin is a versatile protein carrier for drug delivery and targeting. The purpose of this study was to develop a formulation of etoposide-loaded bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanosuspensions, to study in vitro characterization, and to estimate the in vivo safety and tissue distribution of etoposide-loaded BSA nanosuspensions for parenteral delivery. Etoposide-loaded BSA nanosuspensions were prepared by high-pressure homogenization-solvent precipitation method. The particle size, zeta potential, drug entrapment efficiency, and drug loading of the lyophilized formulation were 182.3 nm, −22.18 mV, 86.44%, and 8.49% respectively. In vitro release files of the formulation presented sustained release properties. Preliminary safety study was conducted to evaluate the delivery system, and results indicated that myelosuppression effect of the etoposide-loaded BSA nanosuspensions group was significantly lower than the Injection® group. Furthermore, results of tissue distribution studies showed that the concentration and AUC of etoposide were increased significantly in lung, liver, spleen while reduced in heart, kidney compared with the etoposide injection® group after i.v. administration of etoposide-loaded BSA nanosuspensions. The formulation played a role in targeting delivery to lung, reduce toxicity, and side effects of etoposide. In conclusion, etoposide-loaded BSA nanosuspensions were promising for parenteral delivery of etoposide.
A New Vaccine against Tuberculosis Affords Greater Survival after Challenge than the Current Vaccine in the Guinea Pig Model of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

ABSTRACT Tuberculosis (TB) remains an enormous global health problem, and a new vaccine against TB more potent than the current inadequate vaccine, Mycobacteriumbovis BCG, is urgently needed. We describe a recombinant BCG vaccine (rBCG30) expressing and secreting the 30-kDa major secretory protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the primary causative agent of TB, that affords greater survival after challenge than parental BCG in the highly demanding guinea pig model of pulmonary TB. Animals immunized with rBCG30 and then challenged by aerosol with a highly virulent strain of M. tuberculosis survived significantly longer than animals immunized with conventional BCG. The parental and recombinant vaccine strains are comparably avirulent in guinea pigs, as they display a similar pattern of growth and clearance in the lung, spleen, and regional lymph nodes. The pMTB30 plasmid encoding the 30-kDa protein is neither self-transmissible nor mobilizable to other bacteria, including mycobacteria. The pMTB30 plasmid can be stably maintained in Escherichia coli but is expressed only in mycobacteria. The recombinant and parental strains are sensitive to the same antimycobacterial antibiotics. rBCG30, the first vaccine against TB more potent than nearly century-old BCG, is being readied for human clinical trials.
Low-complexity proportionate algorithms with sparsity-promoting penalties

There are two main families of algorithms that tackle the problem of sparse system identification: the proportionate family and the one that employs sparsity-promoting penalty functions. Recently, a new approach was proposed with the l0-IPAPA algorithm, which combines proportionate updates with sparsity-promoting penalties. This paper proposes some modifications to the l0-IPAPA algorithm in order to decrease its computational complexity while preserving its good convergence properties. Among these modifications, the inclusion of a data-selection mechanism provides promising results. Some enlightening simulation results are provided in order to verify and compare the performance of the proposed algorithms.
Small‐fibre neuropathy can be detected in patients with chronic idiopathic axonal polyneuropathy

Background: The main sensory presenting symptoms of chronic idiopathic axonal polyneuropathy (CIAP) are paraesthesias, numbness and burning pain in the feet. Although these symptoms indicate the involvement of small nerve fibres, clinical analysis or electrophysiological investigations have not yet been studied in detail.
9 Aseptic Meningitis Caused by Enteroviruses

A broad range of microorganisms cause meningitis; viruses, bacteria, mycobacteria, mycoplasma, spirochetes, fungi, and protozoa have all been identified as causative agents. Some pathogens almost exclusively affect immunocompromised hosts, and some are confined only to endemic areas, but viruses are the most common pathogen worldwide. It is estimated that about 75,000 people in the United States suffer from viral meningitis annually. The annual incidence of bacterial meningitis in the United States is approximately 3 per 100,000 (Tunkel & Sheld, 1993), therefore, viral meningitis is far more common. Although the exact number of cases varies among countries, viral meningitis is the most common meningitis in almost all countries throughout the world.
Automatic Frame Length, Frame Overlap and Hidden Markov Model Topology for Speech Recognition of Animal Vocalizations

Preface Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is a useful tool that can facilitate the research and study of animal vocalizations. The use of human speech-based signal processing techniques for animal vocalizations has several pitfalls. Animal vocalizations may not share the same spectral or temporal characteristics as human speech. As a result , the typical ASR assumptions concerning the best frame length, frame overlap and HMM topology may not be suitable for various animal vocalizations. This paper proposes a technique for estimating the frame length, frame overlap and HMM topol-ogy from a single, clean, example animal vocalization. Multiple trials are run using the proposed technique, against the vocalizations of two distinct animal species: the Norwegian Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza Hortulana) and the African Elephant (Lox-odonta Africana). The results are examined, and the technique provides reasonable estimates for the frame length, the frame overlap and the HMM topology, given the quality of the example vocalizations. Specific recommendations are made for the continuation of this research into a usable tool for animal researches. ii Acknowledgments I thank all of the people that made this work possible; including, but not limited to, the following people: To my wife, Denise, for her love and support and for graciously accepting my absence from our living room every evening for the last year. To my children, Logan and Zoe, for gracing our lives. To my parents, James and Kathleen, and to the Holy Trinity, for providing me with the gifts that make my life's work possible. Finally, I thank Sun Tzu, for teaching me how to live purposefully: " Withdraw like a mountain in movement, advance like a rainstorm. Strike and crush with shattering force; go into battle like a tiger. " [1] iii iv I dedicate this work to my wife Denise, my son Logan and my daughter Zoe, whom are living examples of courage, unbounded energy and enthusiasm, respectively.
Gamma interferon limits access of Listeria monocytogenes to the macrophage cytoplasm

The effect of rIFN-gamma and rTNF on the fate of hemolytic and nonhemolytic (hly-) Listeria monocytogenes in cultured mouse peritoneal macrophages was investigated. In untreated macrophages, approximately 80% of the hemolytic bacteria were killed during the first 2 h of incubation, but the survivors doubled between two and three times. In rIFN-gamma-treated macrophages, although the bacterial killing was identical to the controls during the first 2 h, there was no subsequent bacterial growth, and bactericidal activity continued for the duration of the experiment. rTNF has no affect by itself, but acted synergistically with rIFN-gamma to promote bacterial killing. Infected macrophages with or without rIFN-gamma were examined by EM. The results clearly showed that the role of rIFN-gamma was to prevent access of L. monocytogenes to the macrophage cytoplasm, which would prevent cell-to- cell spread of the bacteria. In addition, rIFN-gamma-treated macrophages exhibited enhanced digestive capacity of the intracellular bacteria.
Logic and Learning: Turing's legacy

Turing's best known work is concerned with whether universal machines can decide the truth value of arbitrary logic formulae. However, in this paper it is shown that there is a direct evolution in Turing's ideas from his earlier investigations of computability to his later interests in machine intelligence and machine learning. Turing realised that machines which could learn would be able to avoid some of the consequences of Godes and his results on incompleteness and undecidability. Machines which learned could continuously add new axioms to their repertoire. Inspired by a radio talk given by Turing in 1951, Christopher Strachey went on to implement the world's first machine learning program. This particular first is usually attributed to A.L. Samuel. Strachey's program, which did rote learning in the game of Nim, preceded Samuel's checker playing program by four years. Neither Strachey's nor Samuel's system took up Turing's suggestion of learning logical formulae. Developments in this area were delayed until Gordon Plotkin's work in the early 1970's. Computer-based learning of logical formulae is the central theme of the research area of Inductive Logic Programming, which grew directly out of the earlier work of Plotkin and Shapiro. In the present paper the author describes the state of this new field and discusses areas for future development.
Facing challenges in evaluation of WSN energy efficiency with distributed energy measurements

Experimental evaluations of energy efficiency in WSNs on real nodes are very reliable, but also challenging. Due to the large amount of nodes and complex communication paths energy measurements have to be done in a distributed fashion. In this paper we analyze the challenges of distributed energy measurements and propose our approach to face them with WSN testbeds. In this context, we discuss existing energy measurement approaches and energy aware testbeds.