Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quality of reporting statistics in two Indian pharmacology journals

Objective: To evaluate the reporting of the statistical methods in articles published in two Indian pharmacology journals. Materials and Methods: All original articles published since 2002 were downloaded from the journals’ (Indian Journal of Pharmacology (IJP) and Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology (IJPP)) website. These articles were evaluated on the basis of appropriateness of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics was evaluated on the basis of reporting of method of description and central tendencies. Inferential statistics was evaluated on the basis of fulfilling of assumption of statistical methods and appropriateness of statistical tests. Values are described as frequencies, percentage, and 95% confidence interval (CI) around the percentages. Results: Inappropriate descriptive statistics was observed in 150 (78.1%, 95% CI 71.7–83.3%) articles. Most common reason for this inappropriate descriptive statistics was use of mean ± SEM at the place of “mean (SD)” or “mean ± SD. ” Most common statistical method used was one-way ANOVA (58.4%). Information regarding checking of assumption of statistical test was mentioned in only two articles. Inappropriate statistical test was observed in 61 (31.7%, 95% CI 25.6–38.6%) articles. Most common reason for inappropriate statistical test was the use of two group test for three or more groups. Conclusion: Articles published in two Indian pharmacology journals are not devoid of statistical errors.
Carbenoxolone Blockade of Neuronal Network Activity in Culture is not Mediated by an Action on Gap Junctions

Spontaneous activity in the central nervous system is strongly suppressed by blockers of gap junctions (GJs), suggesting that GJs contribute to network activity. However, the lack of selective GJ blockers prohibits the determination of their site of action, i.e. neuronal versus glial. Astrocytes are strongly coupled through GJs and have recently been shown to modulate synaptic transmission, yet their role in neuronal network activity was not analysed. The present study investigated the effects and site of action of the GJ blocker, carbenoxolone (CBX), on neuronal network activity. To this end, we used cultures of hippocampal or cortical neurons, plated on astrocytes. In these cultures neurons display spontaneous synchronous activity and GJs are found only in astrocytes. CBX induced in these neurons a reversible suppression of spontaneous action potential discharges, synaptic currents and synchronised calcium oscillations. Moreover, CBX inhibited oscillatory activity induced by the GABAA antagonist, bicuculline. These effects were not due to blockade of astrocytic GJs, since they were not mimicked nor occluded by endothelin‐1 (ET‐1), a peptide known to block astrocytic GJs. Also, these effects were still present in co‐cultures of wild‐type neurons plated on astrocytes originating from connexin‐43 (Cx43) knockout mice, and in neuronal cultures which contain few isolated astrocytes. CBX was not likely to exert its effect through neuronal GJs either, as immunostaining for major neuronal connexins (Cx) as well as dye or electrical coupling, were not detected in the different models of cultured neurons examined. Finally while CBX (at 100 μm) did not modify presynaptic transmitter release and postsynaptic responses to glutamate, it did cause an increase in the action potential threshold and strongly decreased the firing rate in response to a sustained depolarising current. These data demonstrate that CBX does not exert its action on network activity of cultured neurons through astrocytic GJs and suggest that it has direct effects on neurons, not involving GJs.
ErbB2 blockade with Herceptin (trastuzumab) enhances peripheral nerve regeneration after repair of acute or chronic peripheral nerve injury

Attenuation of the growth supportive environment within the distal nerve stump after delayed peripheral nerve repair profoundly limits nerve regeneration. Levels of the potent Schwann cell mitogen neuregulin and its receptor ErbB2 decline during this period, but the regenerative impact of this change is not completely understood. Herein, the ErbB2 receptor pathway is inhibited with the selective monoclonal antibody Herceptin (trastuzumab) to determine its significance in regulating acute and chronic regeneration in a rat hindlimb.
Possibly similar genetic basis of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ab protein in 3 resistant colonies of the sugarcane borer collected from Louisiana, USA

The sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.), is a major maize borer pest and a target of transgenic maize expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins in South America and the mid‐southern region of the United States. Evolution of resistance in target pest populations is a great threat to the long‐term efficacy of Bt crops. In this study, we compared the genetic basis of resistance to Cry1Ab protein in 3 resistant colonies of sugarcane borer established from field populations in Louisiana, USA. Responses of larvae to the Cry1Ab protein for the parental and 10 other cross colonies were assayed in a diet‐incorporated bioassay. All 3 resistant colonies were highly resistant to the Cry1Ab protein with a resistance ratio of >555.6 fold. No maternal effect or sex linkage was evident for the resistance in the 3 colonies; and the resistance was functionally nonrecessive at the Cry1Ab concentrations of ≤ 3.16 μg/g, but it became recessive at ≥10 μg/g. In an interstrain complementation test for allelism, the F1 progeny from crosses between any 2 of the 3 resistant colonies exhibited the similar resistance levels as their parental colonies, indicating that the 3 colonies most likely shared a locus of Cry1Ab resistance. Results generated from this study should provide useful information in developing effective strategies for managing Bt resistance in the insect.
Identification and quantification of transitional modes of behaviour in sediments of Venice lagoon

An analysis was made of an extensive series of oedometer and triaxial tests on intact samples of silts and silty clays from the lagoon of Venice, as well as a more limited series of carefully controlled oedometer tests on reconstituted specimens. The soils appear to have transitional modes of behaviour with compression curves that converge only slowly in the v–log σ ′ v plane and critical state lines defined for triaxial compression that are non-unique in the v–ln p′ plane. Two means of quantifying the degree of transitional behaviour are introduced, one factor, m, being based on the oedometer data and the second, P, on the critical state data. The values of m were in general lower than those of P, because of the higher stress level considered. The values of m were also found to depend on unloading, which must be accounted for when comparing data from intact and reconstituted specimens.
Laurentian and Amazonian sediment sources to Neoproterozoic–lower Paleozoic Maryland Piedmont rocks

Several terranes of variable tectonic affinity and history underlie the central Appalachian Piedmont Province (eastern United States). These terranes mostly consist of widespread metasedimentary and lesser metavolcanic rocks. Intense and pervasive deformation and metamorphism have made the depositional ages and provenance of sediment in these rocks difficult to determine. The lack of tight constraints on such basic information led to a century-long debate about the tectonic significance of these rocks, particularly how they correlate to similar rocks along and across strike in the Appalachian orogen. We address these issues using U/Pb isotopic ages from single spots in 2433 zircon grains from 18 metasedimentary rock samples distributed across the Maryland Piedmont. The resulting age signatures indicate that the Marburg Formation and Prettyboy Schist, heretofore assigned to the Westminster terrane, actually belong to the Potomac terrane, making the Hyattstown thrust the contact between the two terranes. Ediacaran Laurentia could have supplied all Potomac terrane sediment except for the detritus in one sample from the northern part of the terrane that likely came from Amazonia. This is one of the first recognitions of a Gondwana-derived terrane between Carolinia to the south and Ganderia to the north. Maximum depositional ages for Potomac terrane suprasubduction zone sedimentary rocks are latest Neoproterozoic or early Cambrian, and some may have been deposited ca. 510 Ma. Continental rifting ended ca. 560 Ma at the longitude of our study, so the transition from rifting to subduction at this location in eastern Laurentia may have lasted only 50 M.y. Lower Ordovician arc intrusions into these rocks demonstrate that the transition lasted no longer than 90 M.y. The Iapetan margin of central-eastern Laurentia was one of the shortest lived passive margins that formed in Neoproterozoic time.
Triple risk: do difficult temperament and family conflict increase the likelihood of behavioral maladjustment in children born low birth weight and preterm?

OBJECTIVE This study examined the impact of family conflict on internalizing and externalizing behavior at age 8 for children born low birth weight (LBW) and preterm (PT), with specific attention to the moderating role of early temperament. METHODS The sample included 728 families enrolled in the longitudinal study of the Infant Health and Development Program. The study relied on maternal reports of child temperament at age 1, family conflict at age 6(1/2) years and 8 years, and child behavior at age 8 years. RESULTS Children exposed to high levels of family conflict had more internalizing problems. Child temperament assessed in infancy moderated the impact of family conflict on externalizing but not internalizing problem behavior. DISCUSSION LBW/PT children with a difficult temperament are more at risk for poor developmental outcomes, such as externalizing behavior problems, when exposed to family conflict than children with a less difficult temperament.
Protective effect of bile acids on the onset of fructose-induced hepatic steatosis in mice

Fructose intake is being discussed as a key dietary factor in the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Bile acids have been shown to modulate energy metabolism. We tested the effects of bile acids on fructose-induced hepatic steatosis. In C57BL/6J mice treated with a combination of chenodeoxycholic acid and cholic acid (100 mg/kg body weight each) while drinking water or a 30% fructose solution for eight weeks and appropriate controls, markers of hepatic steatosis, portal endotoxin levels, and markers of hepatic lipogenesis were determined. In mice concomitantly treated with bile acids, the onset of fructose-induced hepatic steatosis was markedly attenuated compared to mice only fed fructose. The protective effects of the bile acid treatment were associated with a downregulation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α, sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)1, FAS mRNA expression, and lipid peroxidation in the liver, whereas hepatic farnesoid X receptor (FXR) or short heterodimer partner (SHP) protein concentration did not differ between groups fed fructose. Rather, bile acid treatment normalized occludin protein concentration in the duodenum, portal endotoxin levels, and markers of Kupffer cell activation to the level of water controls. Taken together, these data suggest that bile acids prevent fructose-induced hepatic steatosis in mice through mechanisms involving protection against the fructose-induced translocation of intestinal bacterial endotoxin.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Regulating the Interpersonal Self: Strategic Self-regulation for Coping with Rejection Sensitivity Theoretical Framework: the Cognitive-affective Processing System

People high in rejection sensitivity (RS) anxiously expect rejection and are at risk for interpersonal and personal distress. Two studies examined the role of self-regulation through strategic attention deployment in moderating the link between RS and maladaptive outcomes. Self-regulation was assessed by the delay of gratification (DG) paradigm in childhood. In Study 1, preschoolers from the Stanford University community who participated in the DG paradigm were assessed 20 years later. Study 2 assessed low-income, minority middle school children on comparable measures. DG ability buffered high-RS people from interpersonal difficulties (aggression, peer rejection) and diminished well-being (e.g., low self-worth, higher drug use). The protective effect of DG ability on high-RS children's self-worth is explained by reduced interpersonal problems. Attentional mechanisms underlying the interaction between RS and strategic self-regulation are discussed. People's fears and doubts about whether others will meet their needs for acceptance and belonging can cause them to behave in ways that erode their relationships and their sense of well-being 1980). Compared with those who expect acceptance from significant others, people who expect rejection act in more hostile, aggressive ways in relationships (e. Despite the apparent link between anxious rejection expectations and maladaptive outcomes, however, there is reason to be-776 lieve that not everybody who fears and expects .rejection experiences personal and interpersonal difficulties to the same extent A theoretically relevant factor related to better functioning in vulnerable individuals may be how well they can regulate themselves under More specifically, the effective regulation of negative arousal not only may enable the inhibition of undesired, impulsive behaviors that are potentiated by stress but also may facilitate execution of problem-solving strategies (Ar-riaga & Rusbult, 1998; Ayduk & Mischel, in press). In the present studies, we specifically explored the role of self-regulation through strategic attention deployment (assessed in the classic self-imposed childhood delay of gratification [DG] paradigm) and expected that it would protect individuals with anxious rejection expectations against the negative interpersonal and personal consequences associated with such expectations. The predicted interaction between rejection expectations and strategic attention deployment in particular, and between vulner-abilities and protective factors in general, was conceptualized from a Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS) framework In the CAPS model, behavior is mediated by a set of cognitive-affective units (CAUs), consisting of mental representations such as encodings, expectations and beliefs, affects, goals, and competencies, as well as self-regulatory strategies such as attention control. These CAUs are organized and interact dynamically within …
MARVIN: Efficient and Comprehensive Mobile App Classification through Static and Dynamic Analysis

Android dominates the smartphone operating system market and consequently has attracted the attention of malware authors and researchers alike. Despite the considerable number of proposed malware analysis systems, comprehensive and practical malware analysis solutions are scarce and often short-lived. Systems relying on static analysis alone struggle with increasingly popular obfuscation and dynamic code loading techniques, while purely dynamic analysis systems are prone to analysis evasion. We present MARVIN, a system that combines static with dynamic analysis and which leverages machine learning techniques to assess the risk associated with unknown Android apps in the form of a malice score. MARVIN performs static and dynamic analysis, both off-device, to represent properties and behavioral aspects of an app through a rich and comprehensive feature set. In our evaluation on the largest Android malware classification data set to date, comprised of over 135,000 Android apps and 15,000 malware samples, MARVIN correctly classifies 98.24% of malicious apps with less than 0.04% false positives. We further estimate the necessary retraining interval to maintain the detection performance and demonstrate the long-term practicality of our approach.
Evolution, Properties, and Spatial Variability of MJO Convection near and off the Equator during DYNAMO

AbstractThis study investigates the evolution, structure, and spatial variability of Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) convection observed during the 2011/12 Dynamics of the MJO (DYNAMO) field campaign. Generally, the C-band radars located in the near-equatorial Indian Ocean—Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching Radar (SMART-R) on Addu Atoll (Gan) and NASA TOGA on the R/V Roger Revelle (Revelle)—observed similar trends in echo-top heights, stratiform rain fraction, and precipitation feature size across the MJO life cycle. These trends are closely related to changes in mid- to upper-tropospheric moisture, sea surface temperature (SST), zonal wind, and diagnosed vertical air motions. However, the evolution of convection, moisture, and vertical air motion at the R/V Mirai (Mirai), located in the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) at 8°S, exhibited a pattern nearly opposite to Gan and Revelle. When the MJO was active over the equator, convection was suppressed around Mirai owing to induced subsiden.
Brain Asymmetry in Emotional Processing in Asperger Syndrome

The role of brain asymmetry in emotional processing in Asperger syndrome (AS) is still largely unknown. Although the valence hypothesis predicts that positive emotions are processed preferentially by the left hemisphere and negative emotions by the right hemisphere, reports concerning laterality of emotion point to a left hemisphere advantage for complex emotion versus a right hemisphere advantage for basic emotions (the “type hypothesis”). In this study, we investigated the lateralization of basic versus complex (negative and positive) eye expressions in adults with AS in 2 consecutive experiments: in the first experiment, the performance of AS and healthy controls were compared in a divided visual field task. In the second experiment, the ability of participants with AS to identify eye expressions varying in valence and type was compared with that of patients with localized lesions in either the right or the left hemispheres. Controls were better in recognizing negative emotions presented to the left visual field and positive emotions presented to the right visual field, whereas individuals with AS failed to show this interaction effect. Lateralization of basic versus complex emotions was less evident although indeed controls identified better basic emotions presented to the right visual field. Furthermore, participants with AS exhibited a similar pattern of recognition of negative versus positive emotions to that of patients with left hemisphere damage. It is suggested that the pattern of performance of individuals with AS resembles that of patients with left hemisphere dysfunction.
Tsukamurella catheter-related bloodstream infection in a pediatric patient with pulmonary hypertension

Catheter-related bloodstream infections (CR-BSI) are important complications in patients with long-term indwelling central venous catheters. In this report, we present the case of a 14-year-old male with pulmonary hypertension treated with continuous treprostinil infusion, who presented with a CR-BSI caused by a Tsukamurella species. This case highlights the potential for this unusual organism to cause infection in immunocompetent patients.
Holding the line: family responses to pregnancy and the desire for a child in the context of HIV in Vietnam

Health services around the world offer many guidelines for HIV‐positive women who are pregnant or who want to become pregnant, and for women with HIV infected partners. These guidelines are addressed to women and, increasingly, also to men, but pay little or no attention to the role of other members of the family in fertility decisions. This study looked at factors influencing decisions about fertility in families with an HIV‐positive member. In Vietnam, the whole family takes a crucial role in deciding whether a woman should become pregnant and whether she will keep her child. This decision is taken in the context not only of the close family but also under the influence of ancestors and the weight given to them within the culture. Key in this regard is the need for parents and grandparents to have male offspring. Health workers share these ideas about preferred family composition and support men and women in the quest for male offspring. Policies and guidelines should take into account these additional family factors and goals as a basis for the design of appropriate programmes to reduce HIV transmission.
The Interplay of IL-21 and BAFF in the Formation and Maintenance of Human B Cell Memory

To date, IL-21 stands out as the most influential cytokine for human B cell activation and differentiation. Indeed, when compared to other important B cell tropic cytokines such as IL-2, IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10, IL-21 is clearly the most potent in terms of its ability to influence humoral immune responses in humans. IL-21 has wide reaching actions in determining how B cells will respond to co-stimulation ranging from induction of cell death upon BCR crosslinking to potent induction of class switch recombination and plasma cell differentiation when CD40 molecules are co-engaged. Another crucial B cell factor, exemplified in recent clinical trials, is BAFF/BLys. BAFF plays a critical role in the survival of human B cells and plasma blasts and influences B cell expansion and migration. Recent evidence has shown that IL-21 and BAFF can work in concert to promote and perhaps maintain humoral immunity in humans. Notably, BAFF has the unique ability to substitute for CD40L activities in regard to IL-21-co-stimulation and differentiation of a specific B cell subpopulation located in the human splenic marginal zone. However, and perhaps surprisingly, BAFF signals do not have the capability to override IL-21-driven cell death events when BCR is engaged. In stark contrast, anti-CD40 ligation of B cells co-activated with IL-21 and anti-IgM not only reverses this aforementioned activation-induced cell death, but transforms this death signal into one that drives plasma cell differentiation. Here we will discuss these two critical B cell factors, IL-21 and BAFF, and their distinct and complimentary effects on human B cell responses.
Prediction of successful outcome of microdissection testicular sperm extraction in men with idiopathic nonobstructive azoospermia.

PURPOSE Microsurgical techniques in testicular sperm extraction can improve sperm retrieval in patients with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA). However, spermatozoa retrieval rates have still been reported to be around 50% for patients with NOA. Thus, a reliable prediction method for successful outcome is needed to avoid unnecessary surgery. In this retrospective study we determined the diagnostic and predictive values of noninvasive parameters used in the treatment of patients with NOA. MATERIALS AND METHODS We analyzed 9 preoperative factors including patient age, testicular volume and endocrinological data of 100 patients with NOA using multivariate logistic modeling. Testicular spermatozoa were retrieved successfully in 41 of the 100 patients (41%). RESULTS We found that the concentrations of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), total testosterone (TT) and inhibin B were considered the most influential preoperative factors. We developed a formula to calculate the probability of successful outcome, P = [1 + exp(5.201 - 0.048 x FSH - 0.449 x TT - 0.021 x inhibin B)](-1). Association of predicted probabilities and observed responses was 0.77. A predicted probability of more than 15.7% was found to be the best cutoff. Sensitivity was 71.0% and specificity was 71.4% as determined by receiver operating characteristic analysis. CONCLUSIONS We concluded that our formula should be useful for doctors considering microdissection testicular sperm extraction for patients with NOA because our equation uses noninvasive parameters without a preoperative testicular biopsy, which is a relatively invasive examination.