Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SAHA Decreases HDAC 2 and 4 Levels In Vivo and Improves Molecular Phenotypes in the R6/2 Mouse Model of Huntington's Disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurological disorder for which there are no disease-modifying treatments. Transcriptional dysregulation is a major molecular feature of HD, which significantly contributes to disease progression. Therefore, the development of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as therapeutics for HD has been energetically pursued. Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) – a class I HDAC as well an HDAC6 inhibitor, improved motor impairment in the R6/2 mouse model of HD. Recently it has been found that SAHA can also promote the degradation of HDAC4 and possibly other class IIa HDACs at the protein level in various cancer cell lines. To elucidate whether SAHA is a potent modifier of HDAC protein levels in vivo, we performed two independent mouse trials. Both WT and R6/2 mice were chronically treated with SAHA and vehicle. We found that prolonged SAHA treatment causes the degradation of HDAC4 in cortex and brain stem, but not hippocampus, without affecting its transcript levels in vivo. Similarly, SAHA also decreased HDAC2 levels without modifying the expression of its mRNA. Consistent with our previous data, SAHA treatment diminishes Hdac7 transcript levels in both wild type and R6/2 brains and unexpectedly was found to decrease Hdac11 in R6/2 but not wild type. We investigated the effects of SAHA administration on well-characterised molecular readouts of disease progression. We found that SAHA reduces SDS-insoluble aggregate load in the cortex and brain stem but not in the hippocampus of the R6/2 brains, and that this was accompanied by restoration of Bdnf cortical transcript levels.
Detection of hypoventilation during deep sedation in patients undergoing ambulatory gynaecological hysteroscopy: a comparison between transcutaneous and nasal end-tidal carbon dioxide measurements.

BACKGROUND Transcutaneous measurement of carbon dioxide (Tc(co(2))) provides a non-invasive estimation of arterial carbon dioxide (Pa(co(2))). Nasal capnography (Pe'(co(2))) is used to assess ventilation during monitored anaesthesia care (MAC) with sedation since it can readily detect apnoea. We compared the agreement between Tc(co(2)) and Pe'(co(2)) with Pa(co(2)) and the ability to detect hypercarbia in patients under deep sedation. METHODS Forty healthy female subjects receiving deep sedation for hysteroscopy were studied. A Tc(co(2)) (TOSCA 500, Radiometer, Inc., Westlake, OH, USA) electrode was applied to the earlobe and Pe'(co(2)) capnography was monitored using nasal side-stream sampling. All subjects received oxygen (3 litre min(-1)). Subjects were evaluated at intervals using a modified Ramsay sedation score until they reached a score >or=5. Arterial blood gas values were compared with Tc(co(2)) and Pe'(co(2)) values. Bland-Altman, linear regression, and receiver operator characteristics analysis were performed. RESULTS The mean (sd) absolute difference between the Tc(co(2)), Pe'(co(2)), and the Pa(co(2)) were 0.43 (0.35) and 1.06 (0.8) kPa, respectively (P=0.002). Tc(co(2)) demonstrated a mean bias (2 sd) of 0.23 (0.07-0.4) kPa with Pa(co(2)) compared with -0.93 (-1.24 to -0.63) kPa for Pe'(co(2)). One minute before blood sampling, the sensitivity of the Tc(co(2)) monitor for detecting Pa(co(2)) >6.65 kPa was greater than for Pe'(co(2)) (66.7% vs 33.3%, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Tc(co(2)) demonstrated better agreement with Pa(co(2)) than Pe'(co(2)) for patients under MAC with deep sedation. Tc(co(2)) monitoring was more sensitive for detection of Pa(co(2)) >6.65 kPa than Pe'(co(2)).
Does Movie Violence Increase Violent Crime?∗

What is the short-run impact of media violence on crime? Laboratory experiments in psychology find that exposure to media violence increases aggression. In this paper, we provide field evidence on this question. We exploit variation in the violence of blockbuster movies between 1995 and 2004, and study the effect on same-day assaults. We find that violent crime decreases on days with larger theater audiences for violent movies. The effect is partly due to incapacitation: between 6PM and 12AM, an increase of one million in the audience for violent movies reduces violent crime by 0.5 to 0.9 percent. However, after exposure to the movie, between 12AM and 6AM, crime is reduced by an even larger percentage (albeit from a lower base). This decrease does not appear to be due to a cathartic effect specific to violent movies, since non-violent movies that appeal to young males have the same effect. The finding is most likely due to extended incapacitation and a decrease in alcohol consumption. Overall, we find no evidence of a temporary surge in violent crime due to exposure to movie violence. Rather, our estimates suggest that in the short-run violent movies deter 175 assaults daily. The differences compared with the experimental results may be due to experimental procedures, or to sorting into violent movies in the field. Our design does not allow us to estimate long-run effects. ∗Preliminary and incomplete; please do not cite without permission. Eli Berman, Sofia Berto Villas-Boas, Saurabh Bhargava, David Card, Christopher Carpenter, Ing-Haw Cheng, Julie Cullen, Liran Einav, Matthew Gentzkow, Jay Hamilton, Ethan Kaplan, Lawrence F. Katz, Ulrike Malmendier, Julie Mortimer, Anne Piehl, Mikael Priks, Uri Simonsohn, and audiences at the Munich 2006 Conference on Economics and Psychology, at the NBER 2006 Summer Institute (Labor Studies), at the University of Tennesee, Knoxville, at the 2006 SITE in Psychology and Economics, and at the Trento 2006 Summer School in Behavioral Economics provided useful comments. We would like to thank kids-in-mind.com for generously providing their movie violence rating. Scott Baker and Thomas Barrios provided excellent research assistance.
Spillovers from Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Water and Energy Use

This paper provides experimental evidence that behavioral interventions spill over to untreated sectors by altering consumer choice. We use a randomized controlled trial and high-frequency data to test the effect of social norms messaging about residential water use on electricity consumption. Messaging appears to induce a small reduction in summertime electricity use. Empirical tests and household survey data support the hypothesis that this nudge alters electricity choices. An engineering simulation suggests that complementarities between appliances that use water and electricity explain roughly a quarter of the electricity reduction. Incorporating the cross-sectoral spillover increases the net benefits of the intervention substantially.
β-adrenergic receptor responsiveness in aging heart and clinical implications

Elderly healthy individuals have a reduced exercise tolerance and a decreased left ventricle inotropic reserve related to increased vascular afterload, arterial-ventricular load mismatching, physical deconditioning and impaired autonomic regulation (the so called “β-adrenergic desensitization”). Adrenergic responsiveness is altered with aging and the age-related changes are limited to the β-adrenergic receptor density reduction and to the β-adrenoceptor-G-protein(s)-adenylyl cyclase system abnormalities, while the type and level of abnormalities change with species and tissues. Epidemiological studies have shown an high incidence and prevalence of heart failure in the elderly and a great body of evidence correlate the changes of β-adrenergic system with heart failure pathogenesis. In particular it is well known that: (a) levels of cathecolamines are directly correlated with mortality and functional status in heart failure, (b) β1-adrenergic receptor subtype is down-regulated in heart failure, (c) heart failure-dependent cardiac adrenergic responsiveness reduction is related to changes in G proteins activity. In this review we focus on the cardiovascular β-adrenergic changes involvement in the aging process and on similarities and differences between aging heart and heart failure.
Social Influence Bias in Recommender Systems : A Methodology for Learning , Analyzing , and Mitigating Bias in Ratings

To facilitate browsing and selection, almost all recommender systems display an aggregate statistic (the average/mean or median rating value) for each item. This value has potential to influence a participant’s individual rating for an item due to what is known in the survey and psychology literature as Social Influence Bias; the tendency for individuals to conform to what they perceive as the “norm” in a community. As a result, ratings can be closer to the average and less diverse than they would be otherwise. We propose a methodology to 1) learn, 2) analyze, and 3) mitigate the effect of social influence bias in recommender systems. In the Learning phase, a baseline dataset is established with an initial set of participants by allowing them to rate items twice: before seeing the median rating, and again after seeing it. In the Analysis phase, a new non-parametric significance test based on the Wilcoxon statistic can quantify the extent of social influence bias in this data. If this bias is significant, we propose a Mitigation phase where mathematical models are constructed from this data using polynomial regression and the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and then inverted to produce a filter that can reduce the effect of social influence bias. As a case study, we apply this methodology to the California Report Card (CRC), a new recommender system that encourages political engagement. After the Learning phase collected 9390 ratings, the non-parametric test in the Analysis phase rejected the null hypothesis, identifying significant social influence bias: ratings after display of the median were on average 19.3% closer to the median value. In the Mitigating phase, the learned polynomial models were able to predict changed ratings with a normalized RMSE of 12.8% and reduce bias by 76.3%. Results suggest that social influence bias can be significant in recommender systems and that this bias can be substantially reduced with machine learning. The CRC, our data, and experimental code can be found at: http://californiareportcard.org/data/
High Sensitivity Twist Sensor Based on Helical Long-Period Grating Written in Two-Mode Fiber

We demonstrate the fabrication of the helical long-period grating (HLPG) in a two-mode fiber (TMF) with CO2 laser. The torsion characteristics of the helical gratings are experimentally investigated. It was found that the resonance wavelength of the TMF-HLPG linearly shifts with a twist sensitivity of 0.47 nm/(rad/m), which is an order magnitude higher than that of the conventional long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs). The temperature sensitivity of the TMF-HPFG was measured to be 23.9 pm/°C, which is one third of that of the conventional LPFGs. The proposed TMF-HLPG-based twist sensor would have a promising application for the twist monitor.
Is floral structure a reliable indicator of breeding system in the Brassicaceae?

This study investigated the usefulness of floral characters as a potential indicator of breeding system in the Brassicaceae. Initially, pod set, seed set and pollen tube growth experiments were carried out to confirm the breeding systems of 53 lines representing 25 different cultivated and weedy species from the Brassicaceae. The results of the pod set tests clearly differentiated between self-compatible and self-incompatible species. Floral characters were then evaluated on one or more lines of each of the 25 species. Fourteen floral characters were evaluated including, flower diameter, Cruden’s outcrossing index, timing and direction of dehiscence and pollen-ovule ratio. Significant differences between species were evident in all of the floral characteristics evaluated. Flower diameter was generally larger in self-incompatible species than self-compatible species and pollen/ovule ratio was generally higher in self-incompatible species than self-compatible species. However, none of the floral characteristics was able to clearly differentiate the self-compatible and self-incompatible species and allow prediction of the breeding system with absolute confidence. The floral characteristic which was most effective at differentiating the two groups was anther direction at dehiscence.
Effects of the six-minute walking test on dyspnea and activities of daily living in pneumoconiosis patients

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of walking exercise through a 6-min walking test on subjective dyspnea, pulmonary function test, arterial blood gas analysis, and activities of daily living to provide base data for the nursing intervention of pneumoconiosis patients. The subjects were pneumoconiosis patients men aged over 60. This quasi-experimental study was designed with a non-equivalent control group pre- and post-test design, and the study period was September to December 2013. Of the pneumoconiosis inpatient subjects, 39 were assigned to the experimental group and the 39 to the control group. Only the experimental group was subjected to a 6-min walking test three times a week for 10 weeks. Subjective dyspnea was measured based on anxiety about dyspnea during and after the exercise. FEV1% prediction and FEV1/FVC% were used to measure the pulmonary function. The arterial blood gas was measured based on the pH, PaO2, PaCO2, and activities of daily living. The data were analyzed through an χ2 and t-test. The study results showed that the 6-min walking test reduced the anxiety about dyspnea of the pneumoconiosis patients during the exercise, moderated the dyspnea index after the performance of the activities, and improved the patients’ ability to perform activities of daily living. Thus, walking exercise seems to be an effective nursing intervention to maintain the respiratory rehabilitation outcomes by minimizing the pneumoconiosis patients’ burden.
Genetic and epigenetic variation in Spartina alterniflora following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Catastrophic events offer unique opportunities to study rapid population response to stress in natural settings. In concert with genetic variation, epigenetic mechanisms may allow populations to persist through severe environmental challenges. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill devastated large portions of the coastline along the Gulf of Mexico. However, the foundational salt marsh grass, Spartina alterniflora, showed high resilience to this strong environmental disturbance. Following the spill, we simultaneously examined the genetic and epigenetic structure of recovering populations of S. alterniflora to oil exposure. We quantified genetic and DNA methylation variation using amplified fragment length polymorphism and methylation sensitive fragment length polymorphism (MS‐AFLP) to test the hypothesis that response to oil exposure in S. alterniflora resulted in genetically and epigenetically based population differentiation. We found high genetic and epigenetic variation within and among sites and found significant genetic differentiation between contaminated and uncontaminated sites, which may reflect nonrandom mortality in response to oil exposure. Additionally, despite a lack of genomewide patterns in DNA methylation between contaminated and uncontaminated sites, we found five MS‐AFLP loci (12% of polymorphic MS‐AFLP loci) that were correlated with oil exposure. Overall, our findings support genetically based differentiation correlated with exposure to the oil spill in this system, but also suggest a potential role for epigenetic mechanisms in population differentiation.
Intracerebral Transplantation of Dopamine Neurons: Understanding the Functional Role of the Mesolimbocortical Dopamine System and Developing a Therapy for Parkinson's Disease a

The first reports of successful neural grafting to the mammalian brain originate from the turn of the century. ' However, the field never gained much attention until the 1970s when the first reports appeared showing that grafted neurons could affect the behavior of the recipient mammal and reduce the neurological symptoms induced by a prior lesion of the host b ~ a i n . ~ , ~ These findings stimulated an almost explosive interest in the field of neural grafting and led to the engagement of several diverse disciplines of the neurosciences that have, using a multidisciplinary approach, contributed to ad increased understanding of the capacity and limitations of grafted neurons. In many respects, experiments involving grafts of fetal dopamine (DA) neurons have come to
Effects of personality traits on collaborative performance in problem-based learning tutorials

Objectives To examine the relationship between students’ collaborative performance in a problem-based learning (PBL) environment and their personality traits. Methods This retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted using student data of a PBL program between 2013 and 2014 at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. Eighty students were included in the study. Student data from the Temperament and Character Inventory were used as a measure of their personality traits. Peer evaluation scores during PBL were used as a measure of students’ collaborative performance. Results Simple regression analyses indicated that participation was negatively related to harm avoidance and positively related to persistence, whereas preparedness for the group work was negatively related to reward dependence. On multiple regression analyses, low reward dependence remained a significant predictor of preparedness. Grade-point average (GPA) was negatively associated with novelty seeking and cooperativeness and was positively associated with persistence. Conclusion Medical students who are less dependent on social reward are more likely to complete assigned independent work to prepare for the PBL tutorials. The findings of this study can help educators better understand and support medical students who are at risk of struggling in collaborative learning environments.
Electrical machine iron loss predictions - A unique engineering approach utilizing transient finite element methods - Part 2: Application and validation

This paper is part 2 of a two paper series on electrical machine iron loss predictions. The part 2 paper is focused on application of, and experimental data comparisons for, a new and unique method for predicting machine iron losses using transient finite element methods (FEM). A significant difference of the new method is the manner in which the predictive surface function of loss versus frequency and flux density is arrived at given lamination steel experimental loss test data.
Effects of Sling Exercise Therapy on Trunk Muscle Activation and Balance in Chronic Hemiplegic Patients

Weakening of trunk muscles in stroke patients hinders functional ability, safety and balance. To confirm whether strengthening trunk muscles could facilitate rehabilitation of stroke patients, we investigated the effectiveness of sling exercise therapy (SET) using closed kinetic chain exercises to activate trunk muscles and improve balance in stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty stroke patients with chronic hemiplegia were equally divided into 2 groups, a SET group and a control group that performed regular exercises on a mat with the assistance of a table. Patients in both groups exercised for 30 min, three times per week for 4 weeks. Trunk muscle activity was measured using surface electromyography, whereas balance was measured using the Berg Balance Scale, Frailty and Injuries Cooperative Studies of Intervention Technique, Timed Up & Go test, and BioRescue before and after the 4-week experimental period. [Results] Trunk muscle activity and balance before and after intervention in both groups were significantly different. However, no significant differences were observed between the 2 groups. [Conclusion] Although SET was not more effective than regular exercise, significant improvement was observed before and after SET. Therefore, SET can be considered effective in strengthening trunk muscles in stroke patients with chronic hemiplegia.
Cadherin-dependent differential cell adhesion in Xenopus causes cell sorting in vitro but not in the embryo

Adhesion differences between cell populations are in principle a source of strong morphogenetic forces promoting cell sorting, boundary formation and tissue positioning, and cadherins are main mediators of cell adhesion. However, a direct link between cadherin expression, differential adhesion and morphogenesis has not yet been determined for a specific process in vivo. To identify such a connection, we modulated the expression of C-cadherin in the Xenopus laevis gastrula, and combined this with direct measurements of cell adhesion-related parameters. Our results show that gastrulation is surprisingly tolerant of overall changes in adhesion. Also, as expected, experimentally generated, cadherin-based adhesion differences promote cell sorting in vitro. Importantly, however, such differences do not lead to the sorting of cells in the embryo, showing that differential adhesion is not sufficient to drive morphogenesis in this system. Compensatory recruitment of cadherin protein to contacts between cadherin-deprived and -overexpressing cells could contribute to the prevention of sorting in vivo.
Radiation therapy for painful heel spurs: results of a prospective randomized study.

PURPOSE To evaluate the efficacy of two different dose-fractionation schedules for radiation therapy (RT) in patients with painful heel spurs. PATIENTS AND METHODS 130 patients were randomized into two groups: the low-dose (LD) group (n = 65 heels) received a total dose of 3.0 Gy given in two weekly fractions of 0.5 Gy; in the high-dose (HD) group (n = 65 heels), two weekly fractions of 1.0 Gy were applied over 3 weeks (total dose 6.0 Gy). In 24 sites of the HD group and 17 sites of the LD group, a second RT course was given. The results were assessed using a five-level function score which was documented before RT, at the end of each RT course, and at 6 weeks and 6 months thereafter. RESULTS At 6-month follow-up, RT led to a highly significant reduction of symptoms in both groups. In the HD group, 31 sites were classified as excellent (score: 90-100), 13 as good (score: 70-85), twelve as moderate (score: 45-65), and nine as poor (score: 0-40). In the LD group, 35 sites were classified as excellent, eight as good, ten as moderate, and twelve as poor. The comparison of the difference of the sum score and the single criteria before RT and at 6 months after RT using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney U-test revealed no statistically significant difference of response to RT between both groups. CONCLUSION RT is an effective treatment option for the management of inflammatory heel spurs. The dose for an RT course should not exceed 3.0 Gy.
Three-Dimensional Deformable Object Manipulation Using Fast Online Gaussian Process Regression

In this letter, we present a general approach to automatically visual servo control the position and shape of a deformable object whose deformation parameters are unknown. The servo control is achieved by online learning a model mapping between the robotic end-effector's movement and the object's deformation measurement. The model is learned using the Gaussian process regression (GPR) to deal with its highly nonlinear property, and once learned, the model is used for predicting the required control at each time step. To overcome GPR's high computational cost while dealing with long manipulation sequences, we implement a fast online GPR by selectively removing uninformative observation data from the regression process. We validate the performance of our controller on a set of deformable object manipulation tasks and demonstrate that our method can achieve effective and accurate servo control for general deformable objects with a wide variety of goal settings. Experiment videos are available at https://sites.google. com/view/mso-fogpr.