Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electroconvulsive Therapy and the Alpha-2 Noradrenergic Receptor: Implications of Treatment Schedule Effects

Six factorially designed studies evaluated the effects of different schedules of electroconvulsive shocks (ECSs) on alpha-2 adrenoceptor function in the rat brain. Attenuation of the hypomotility response to a clonidine challenge was taken to indicate alpha-2 adrenoceptor downregulation, a putative mediator of antidepressant action. Six daily and six alternate-day ECSs were shown separately to produce this receptor change. Three alternate-day ECSs produced comparable downregulation for a comparable period as six daily ECSs; this suggests that ECS produces time-dependent effects. No changes were elicited with a single ECS, which indicates that a single ECS may not influence alpha-2 receptor function. Three daily ECSs produced brief downregulation, which has implications for receptor dynamics as a function of the ECS schedule. Finally, maintenance ECSs sustained alpha-2 adrenoceptor downregulation over 6 weeks, which suggests a possible neurochemical basis for maintenance electroconvulsive therapy. The clinical relevance and scope for further research are discussed.
Predicting intention to use voluntary HIV counseling and testing services among health professionals in Jimma, Ethiopia, using the theory of planned behavior

Background To endorse involvement in voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT), it is essential to recognize factors that influence people in deciding whether to access VCT services and their underlying route factors. Theory of planned behavior (TPB) constitutes a proficient framework for predicting behaviors and intentions. Objective The aim of the study reported here was to assess the predicting ability of TPB in determining the intended use of VCT services among health professionals in Jimma, southwest Ethiopia. Methods This was an institution-based cross-sectional quantitative study of a sample of 336 health professionals in 12 selected districts of Jimma, southwest Ethiopia between February 5 to March 28, 2012. Data were collected using structured questionnaire self-administered by the study participants. A hierarchal multivariable linear regression model was used to predict the role of TPB constructs that can influence the intention to use VCT services. Results The constructs of TPB explained the variability in intention to use VCT by 27% (R2 adjusted = 0.27). The standardized regression coefficients showed that the strongest predictor of intention to use VCT was subjective norms (β = 0.32, P < 0.0005) followed by attitude (β = 0.21, P < 0.002). Perceived behavioral control was not a significant predictor of intention to use VCT among the study group (P = 0.12). Conclusion The study revealed the possibility of describing the intention to use VCT among health professionals using TPB, with perceived social pressure being the leading predictor. In light of this, health intervention programs should be designed to develop health professionals’ ability to resist norms that oppose the use of VCT and to change community-held norms against VCT use, provided they help individuals develop a positive attitude toward the services.
Soil Quality Assessment after Weed‐Control Tillage in a No‐Till Wheat–Fallow Cropping System

Adoption of reduced-tillage fallow systems in the western USA is limited by winter annual grass weeds such as downy brome (Bromus tectorum L.). Moldboard plowing is an effective means of controlling downy brome in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-fallow systems. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of plowing and secondary tillage operations, for the purpose of weed control, on soil quality attributes of a silt loam soil that had been cropped in a subtill or no-till (NT) winter wheat-fallow system for more than 20 yr. Compared with undisturbed NT, downy brome populations in plowed NT decreased 97 and 41% in the first and third crops following tillage, respectively. Wheat yields in plowed NT treatments were 30 and 9% greater in the first and third crops following tillage, respectively, compared with undisturbed NT. Soil quality indicators assessed were organic C (OC), total N, inorganic N, pH, electrical conductivity, bulk density, water infiltration rate, and pore-size distribution. Five years after tillage, soil OC decline in the 0- to 7.5-cm depth was 20% in plowed compared with undisturbed NT; however, OC increased 15% in the 7.5- to 15-cm depth and was not different in the 0- to 30-cm depth. Total soil N followed similar trends. Soil inorganic N in plowed NT decreased 37%, and soil pH increased 9%, compared with undisturbed NT, at the 0- to 7.5-cm depth. Occasional tillage with the moldboard plow in a reduced- or no-tillage management system will help control winter annual grass weeds, while retaining many of the soil quality benefits of conservation-tillage management.
Estimates of muscle function in human gait depend on how foot-ground contact is modelled

Computational analyses of leg-muscle function in human locomotion commonly assume that contact between the foot and the ground occurs at discrete points on the sole of the foot. Kinematic constraints acting at these contact points restrict the motion of the foot and, therefore, alter model calculations of muscle function. The aim of this study was to evaluate how predictions of muscle function obtained from musculoskeletal models are influenced by the model used to simulate ground contact. Both single- and multiple-point contact models were evaluated. Muscle function during walking and running was determined by quantifying the contributions of individual muscles to the vertical, fore-aft and mediolateral components of the ground reaction force (GRF). The results showed that two factors – the number of foot-ground contact points assumed in the model and the type of kinematic constraint enforced at each point – affect the model predictions of muscle coordination. Whereas single- and multiple-point contact models produced similar predictions of muscle function in the sagittal plane, inconsistent results were obtained in the mediolateral direction. Kinematic constraints applied in the sagittal plane altered the model predictions of muscle contributions to the vertical and fore-aft GRFs, while constraints applied in the frontal plane altered the calculations of muscle contributions to the mediolateral GRF. The results illustrate the sensitivity of calculations of muscle coordination to the model used to simulate foot-ground contact.
The influence of inhaled corticosteroid discontinuation in children with well-controlled asthma

Abstract Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that requires adherence to both preventative and therapeutic interventions in disease management. Children with asthma are likely to discontinue inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), especially when symptoms are under control. We aimed to investigate the impact of ICS adherence in children whose symptoms were under control. The study is cohort study; 35 children with controlled asthma that had undergone 3 years of follow-up were included. Serum eosinophil count, serum total IgE (tIgE), and lung function (FEV1, FEV1/FVC, PEF, FEF20–75%, and PC20) were evaluated at the beginning and end of the follow-up. At baseline, patients in both the adherent and nonadherent groups were similar. After 3 years, the nonadherent group who had discontinued ICS had a decrease in FEV1 (P < .05), FEV1/FVC (P < .05), PEF (P < .05), and FEF20–75% (P < .05). The nonadherent group had no significant improvement in PC20 compared with their values at the beginning of the follow-up, whereas the adherent group had improvement in PC20. Furthermore, there was an increase in serum eosinophil (P < .001) and tIgE (P < .05) in the nonadherent compared with the adherent group. Despite good asthma control, airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) was detected in a large proportion of children with asthma. ICS discontinuation affected lung function, serum eosinophil count, tIgE, and AHR. Adequate adherence is important in asthma management. The benefits of ICS and the influence of drug discontinuation despite good asthma control may encourage better adherence from patients.
Insulin stimulates the halting, tethering, and fusion of mobile GLUT4 vesicles in rat adipose cells

Glucose transport in adipose cells is regulated by changing the distribution of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) between the cell interior and the plasma membrane (PM). Insulin shifts this distribution by augmenting the rate of exocytosis of specialized GLUT4 vesicles. We applied time-lapse total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to dissect intermediates of this GLUT4 translocation in rat adipose cells in primary culture. Without insulin, GLUT4 vesicles rapidly moved along a microtubule network covering the entire PM, periodically stopping, most often just briefly, by loosely tethering to the PM. Insulin halted this traffic by tightly tethering vesicles to the PM where they formed clusters and slowly fused to the PM. This slow release of GLUT4 determined the overall increase of the PM GLUT4. Thus, insulin initially recruits GLUT4 sequestered in mobile vesicles near the PM. It is likely that the primary mechanism of insulin action in GLUT4 translocation is to stimulate tethering and fusion of trafficking vesicles to specific fusion sites in the PM.
Exact Outage Analysis of SIMO Relay-Aided Underlay Communications with Limited Feedback

In a spectrum-sharing underlay environment, we carry out a comprehensive outage probability analysis for a secondary (unlicensed) system operating with a limited feedback from the primary (licensed) system. We focus on single-user single- input multiple-output (SIMO) secondary communications where the direct link is being assisted by a set of single-antenna decode-and- forward (DF) relay nodes acting in a halfduplex selective-and-incremental relaying mode. For practicality reasons, we consider that the secondary system transmitting nodes are only capable of acquiring a limited interference channel state information (I-CSI) of the underlying cognitive radio interference channels. Accordingly, the cumulative distribution functions (CDF) of the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the secondary receiving nodes are devised in recursive and tractable closed-form expressions. These statistics are then used to derive the exact end-to-end secondary system outage probability. Also, we investigate the asymptotic outage analysis of the secondary network, and derive the achievable diversity-and-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT). Finally, the analytical and simulation results are compared and interestingly shown to perfectly match while revealing that limited I-CSI acquisition by the secondary system is more favored than its spectrum-consuming counterpart.
Cellulose nanocrystals as barrier performance enhancer of extrusion-blown PLA films for food applications

This paper examined the effect of cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) addition on the water vapor and oxygen transmission rates of extrusion-blown poly(lactic) acid (PLA)/CNC nanocomposite films recorded at various temperatures and relative humidities (RH). Experimental results indicate that the addition of CNCs into PLA matrix through a melt processing approach improves the barrier properties of PLA, irrespective of RH or temperature. The addition of only 1% CNC into PLA matrix improved the water vapor and oxygen barrier performance of nanocomposite films by 33% and 62% respectively due to the tortuosity effect caused by cellulose nanocrystalsinduced crystallinity in the matrix. Both RH and temperature had less influence on water vapor barrier properties when CNCs were added into the films. This implies that novel bio-based composites with improved barrier properties suitable for packaging applications could be developed by combining CNCs with PLA.
The word-level models for efficient computation of multiple-valued functions I. LAR based model

A new model of a multi-level combinational multiple-valued logic (MVL) circuit with no feedback and no learning is introduced. This model includes neuron-like gates (NLGs), each represents a level of the MVL circuit, so that the number of NLGs in the corresponding neural-like network (NLN) is equal to the number of levels in the circuit. The formal description of an NLG is a linear arithmetic expression (LAR) that is directly mapped to the linear word-level decision diagram (LDD) planar by its nature. Thus, an l-level MVL circuit is described by a set of l LDDs. The experiments on simulation of large MVL circuits show that the LDD format of an MVL circuit consumes 5-20 times less memory than EDIF and ISCAS formats. The proposed technique allows to simulate an arbitrary MVL circuit by an NLN and corresponding set of LDDs. In particular, we successfully simulated an NLN with about 250 NLGs corresponding to an MVL circuit with more than 8000 ternary gates that has been impossible by any recently reported threshold gate-based network.
Purification and Structural Characterization of Sulfated Polysaccharide from Sargassum myriocystum and its Efficacy in Scavenging Free Radicals

Sulfated polysaccharides from marine algae are one of the commercially beneficial compounds with a range of pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. They are testified to be effective against free radicals and related health complications. This study aims to determine the antioxidant potential of the sulfated polysaccharide from Sargassum myriocystum, followed by its purification and structural characterization. Amount of extract obtained was 5% from 10 g of plant material. The carbohydrate and sulfate content were found to be 31 and 0.34 mg/10 g of plant material, respectively. Total sulfated polysaccharide extract showed a good radical scavenging activity at lower concentrations. The active principle from the total sulfated polysaccharide was fractionated in anion exchange and gel filtration columns followed by structural characterization using Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Fraction 12 closely matched with the Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of fucoidan. Based on the results obtained, we conclude that sulfated polysaccharide from Sargassum myriocystum is identified as Fucoidan with potential radical scavenging activity compared to butylated hydroxyl toluene.
From Intellectual Capital to Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Management Capabilities

The importance of intellectual capital (IC) in organizations is well accepted. Several authors have examined the effects of IC on innovation and firm performance. We argue that IC does not directly affect innovation or firm performance; instead, the firm's knowledge management (KM) capabilities mediate the effect of IC on innovation and firm performance. We propose a theoretical model of how two KM capabilities (knowledge enhancement and knowledge utilization) mediate the effects of three types of IC (social capital, human capital, and organizational capital) on innovation and firm performance. The model is tested using survey data and secondary data on 533 public-listed companies in Taiwan. The results of structural equation modeling support the theoretical model with two exceptions: the path from human capital to knowledge enhancement capability is not supported, and human capital has an unexpected direct effect on innovation. Other than this unexpected effect of human capital on innovation, the effect of IC on innovation is mediated by KM capabilities. Moreover, innovation fully mediates the effects of KM capabilities on firm performance. Overall, this study provides insights into the mediating roles of knowledge enhancement and knowledge utilization in the relationship between IC and innovation.
An Extraordinary Gobioid Fish Fossil from Southern France

Background The classification of gobioid fishes is still under discussion. Several lineages, including the Eleotridae and Butidae, remain difficult to characterize because synapomorphies are rare (Eleotridae) or have not yet been determined (Butidae). Moreover, the fossil record of these groups is scarce. Results Exceptionally well-preserved fish fossils with otoliths in situ from uppermost Oligocene sediments (≈23–24 Mio. y. ago) in Southern France provide the most in-depth description of a fossil gobioid to date. The species was initially described as Cottus aries Agassiz, then transferred to †Lepidocottus Sauvage, and subsequently assigned to Gobius. Based on a comparative analysis of meristic, osteological and otolith data, this species most likely is a member of the family Butidae. This discovery is important because it represents the first record of a fossil butid fish based on articulated skeletons from Europe. Significance The Butidae and Eleotridae are currently distributed in W-Africa, Madagascar, Asia and Australia, but they do not appear in Europe and also not in the Mediterranean Sea. The new results indicate that several species of the Butidae thrived in Europe during the Oligocene and Early Miocene. Similar to the recent Butidae and Eleotridae, these fishes were adapted to a wide range of salinities and thrived in freshwater, brackish and marginal marine habitats. The fossil Butidae disappeared from Europe and the Mediterranean and Paratethys areas during the Early Miocene, due probably to their lack of competitiveness compared to other Gobioidei that radiated during this period of time. In addition, this study documents the great value of otoliths for gobioid systematics.
4K-based intra and interprediction techniques for HEVC

HEVC/H.265 standard was released in 2013. It allows reducing by half the required bandwidth in comparison with the previous H.264 standard. This opens the door to many relevant applications in the multimedia video coding and transmission context. Thanks to the HEVC improvements, the 4K and 8K Ultra High Definition Video real time constraints can be met. Nonetheless, HEVC implementations require a vast amount of resources. In this contribution we propose intra and inter prediction techniques in order to diminish the HEVC complexity, while complying with the real time and quality constraints. The performance is noticeably increased when comparing with respect to the HM16.2 reference software as well as the x265 encoder, maintaining a similar quality too.
Osmopriming of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. cv. Bloomsdale) seeds and germination performance under temperature and water stress.

Seed priming has been suggested to improve germination performance under temperature or water stress. The objective of this study was to develop an optimal osmopriming protocol for spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. cv. Bloomsdale) seeds and examine its effect on the germination performance at suboptimal and supraoptimal temperatures, and under water stress. Standard germination tests at optimal germination temperature (10°C) was conducted to evaluate performance of ‘Bloomsdale’ spinach seeds primed in sixty different priming treatments arising from various combinations of osmoticum (PEG 8000 concentration), priming temperature and priming duration. Germination performance was evaluated by final germination percentage, germination rate, and uniformity. An optimal priming protocol was selected and used to test seed germination performance at suboptimal (5°C) and supraoptimal (20°C) temperatures, and three levels of water stress (-0.8, -1.2, and -1.6 MPa). Priming at -0.6 MPa at 15°C for 8 d was the optimal protocol for osmopriming ‘Bloomsdale’ spinach seeds. This treatment also improved seed stress tolerance by improving germination performance at 5 and 20°C, and water stress of -0.8 and -1.2 MPa.
Increased Heart Rate Is Associated With Higher Mortality in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation (AF): Results From the Outcomes Registry for Better Informed Treatment of AF (ORBIT-AF)

Background Most patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) require rate control; however, the optimal target heart rate remains under debate. We aimed to assess rate control and subsequent outcomes among patients with permanent AF. Methods and Results We studied 2812 US outpatients with permanent AF in the Outcomes Registry for Better Informed Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation. Resting heart rate was measured longitudinally and used as a time-dependent covariate in multivariable Cox models of all-cause and cause-specific mortality during a median follow-up of 24 months. At baseline, 7.4% (n=207) had resting heart rate <60 beats per minute (bpm), 62% (n=1755) 60 to 79 bpm, 29% (n=817) 80 to 109 bpm, and 1.2% (n=33) ≥110 bpm. Groups did not differ by age, previous cerebrovascular disease, heart failure status, CHA2DS2-VASc scores, renal function, or left ventricular function. There were significant differences in race (P=0.001), sinus node dysfunction (P=0.004), and treatment with calcium-channel blockers (P=0.006) and anticoagulation (P=0.009). In analyses of continuous heart rates, lower heart rate ≤65 bpm was associated with higher all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.15 per 5-bpm decrease; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.32; P=0.04). Similarly, increasing heart rate >65 bpm was associated with higher all-cause mortality (adjusted HR, 1.10 per 5-bpm increase; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.15; P<0.0001). This relationship was consistent across endpoints and in a broader sensitivity analysis of permanent and nonpermanent AF patients. Conclusions Among patients with permanent AF, there is a J-shaped relationship between heart rate and mortality. These data support current guideline recommendations, and clinical trials are warranted to determine optimal rate control. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT01165710.
Growth promotion of maize by desiccation tolerant Micrococcus luteus-chp37 isolated from Cholistan desert, Pakistan.

Present study deals with the isolation and characterization of desiccation tolerant bacteria Micrococcus luteus-chp37 from rhizosphere of plant growing in the Cholistan desert of Pakistan. To check the desiccation tolerance, strain was incubated at various levels of relative humidity (5, 27 and 100%) for a period of 6, 12 and 18 days. The surviving fractions of M. luteus-chp37 after 18 days of desiccation, under RH 5, 27 and 100% were 2, 4 and 0.6%, respectively. M. luteus-chp37 incubated under RH 5% and 100% lost its viability at much faster rates as compared to RH 27%. To check the plant growth promoting ability of this strain, pot experiments with Zea mays (under sandy and pure field soil) were conducted and various growth parameters (germination, root and shoot length, number of leaves, dry weight per gram fresh weight, chlorophyll contents) were measured after 90 days maize plants. M. luteus-chp37 inoculation resulted 8.5, 13, 23 and 54% increases in number of leaves, shoot length, root length and dry weight g-1 fresh weight, respectively, as compared to un-inoculated control maize plants. Beside this there were 159, 80, 84% and increase in chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total carotenoids respectively in pure field soil. This growth promotion was attributed as a result of production of plant growth promoting substances cytokine and hydrogen cyanide.