Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Triptolide is a traditional Chinese medicine-derived inhibitor of polycystic kidney disease

During kidney organogenesis, tubular epithelial cells proliferate until a functional tubule is formed as sensed by cilia bending in response to fluid flow. This flow-induced ciliary mechanosensation opens the calcium (Ca2+) channel polycystin-2 (PC2), resulting in a calcium flux-mediated cell cycle arrest. Loss or mutation of either PC2 or its regulatory protein polycystin-1 (PC1) results in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), characterized by cyst formation and growth and often leading to renal failure and death. Here we show that triptolide, the active diterpene in the traditional Chinese medicine Lei Gong Teng, induces Ca2+ release by a PC2-dependent mechanism. Furthermore, in a murine model of ADPKD, triptolide arrests cellular proliferation and attenuates overall cyst formation by restoring Ca2+ signaling in these cells. We anticipate that small molecule induction of PC2-dependent calcium release is likely to be a valid therapeutic strategy for ADPKD.
Effective nutrition from conception to adulthood

Abstract This article summarises presentations at the plenary session of the Annual Meeting of the British Fertility Society, on Effective nutrition from conception to adulthood, held in Sheffield, UK in January 2014. It highlights the pivotal role of the late David Barker (1938–2014) in revolutionising our understanding of the influence of maternal, gamete, embryo, foetal and infant nutrition on the health of the offspring in later life.
Impact of hepatic rearterialization on reperfusion injury and outcome after mouse liver transplantation1

Background. Nonarterialized mouse liver transplantation is a well-established model for immunologic studies on rejection and tolerance mechanisms. However, the importance of graft arterialization has—in contrast to rat liver transplantation—not been thoroughly examined in the mouse model. The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of arterial reconstruction on long-term graft survival, histologic alterations, ischemic liver damage, and early immunologic activation pathways. Methods and Results. All recipients of arterialized (n=6) and nonarterialized (n=8) syngeneic liver grafts survived indefinitely. There were no differences in their histologic architecture, including no evidence of bile duct proliferation, periductal fibrosis, or alterations in serum transaminases, in long-term survivors from either group. Twenty-four hours after syngeneic liver transplantation, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase levels were increased to an equivalent extent in both groups, in agreement with early reperfusion injury and solitary traumatic injuries as assessed histologically (n=3 per group). Visualized by immunohistochemistry, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 expression was increased on sinusoidal and hepatic vein endothelium at both 1 and 100 days after transplantation, in both arterialized and nonarterialized grafts. Messenger RNA for interleukin-1, interferon-&ggr;, and tumor necrosis factor-&agr; were measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction 24 hr after transplantation. No significant changes in the expression of cytokine mRNA levels were observed. Conclusions. Arterialization of mouse liver grafts does not appear to have a major impact on survival rate or the degree of immunologic activation. Therefore, the value of arterial reconstruction in mouse liver transplantation for experimental investigations is negligible.
Outcome of patients with low‐risk and intermediate‐1‐risk myelodysplastic syndrome after hypomethylating agent failure: A report on behalf of the MDS Clinical Research Consortium

The hypomethylating agents (HMAs) azacitidine and decitabine are most commonly used to treat patients with higher‐risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). To the authors' knowledge, the prognosis of patients with low‐risk and intermediate‐1–risk MDS by the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) after HMA failure has not been explored comprehensively.
Identifying Speakers and Listeners of Quoted Speech in Literary Works

We present the first study that evaluates both speaker and listener identification for direct speech in literary texts. Our approach consists of two steps: identification of speakers and listeners near the quotes, and dialogue chain segmentation. Evaluation results show that this approach outperforms a rule-based approach that is state-of-the-art on a corpus of literary texts.
Importance of early lighting conditions in maternal care by dam as well as anxiety and memory later in life of offspring

Rodent studies have revealed that the early rearing environment plays an important role in the development of stress vulnerability, memory and cognition. Although early lighting conditions (ELC) are involved in these neuronal developments through both maternal and offspring behavior, their influence has not been fully elucidated. Thus, by using Sprague‐Dawley rats, we examined whether ELC affected maternal care by the dam and the subsequent neurodevelopment of the offspring. Prolonged dark phase conditions (PDC) (light/dark, 6/18 h) and prolonged light phase conditions (light/dark, 18/6 h) were administered from postnatal day 2 to postnatal day 14. Throughout this period, maternal care and the circadian rhythmicity of dams were investigated. In adolescence and adulthood of the offspring, we measured anxiety‐like behavior, social interaction, object recognition memory, activity rhythm and corticosterone response to stress with hippocampal expression of N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate and glucocorticoid receptor mRNAs. PDC altered maternal care and circadian rhythmicity in the dam compared with normal lighting conditions and prolonged light phase conditions. PDC markedly increased anxiety‐like behavior, decreased social interaction and object recognition memory, and inhibited corticosterone feedback in offspring later in life. Furthermore, hippocampal levels of glucocorticoid receptor mRNA and N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptor 2B mRNA in rats subjected to PDC were significantly lower than in animals subjected to normal lighting conditions. In the adult offspring, the circadian rhythm of locomotor activity was not affected. These findings suggested that ELC affect mother–infant interactions and subsequently at least partially alter the neurobehavioral development of offspring.
Facing off on twitter: a Generation Y interpretation of professional athlete profile pictures.

This study investigated how professional athletes present themselves in their Twitter profile pictures and how athlete self-presentation is interpreted by a Generation Y audience (N = 206). Goffman’s theory of self-presentation guided the analysis with a specific focus on the notions of front- and backstage performances as they relate to impression-management strategies. Participants assessed a sample of profile photos of the most followed male and female athletes on Twitter by providing their first impressions of each athlete’s image and then evaluating photo favorability and effectiveness. This research provides evidence to suggest that individuals invest meaning in the social cues provided in athlete profile pictures. Athletes who highlighted a sport context were consistently ranked most favorably and effectively and were linked with positive word associations. These findings underscore the importance of a strategic alignment between social-media profile content, profile photos, and the brand establish.
Throughput-storage tradeoff in ad hoc networks

Gupta and Kumar (2000) showed that the throughput capacity of static ad hoc networks with n randomly positioned nodes is /spl Theta/(/spl radic/(n/log n)). Grossglauser and Tse showed that node mobility increases the capacity to /spl Theta/(n), a substantial improvement. Achieving maximum capacity requires nodes to relay transmissions through other nodes. Each node must have a relay buffer for temporarily storing packets before forwarding them to their destination. We establish that if relay buffer sizes are bounded above by a constant, then mobility does not substantially increase the throughput capacity of mobile ad hoc networks. In particular, we show that the capacity of mobile networks with finite buffers is at most /spl Theta/(/spl radic/n). Finally we establish a scaling law relationship that characterizes the fundamental tradeoff between throughput capacity and relay buffer size. In particular, we show that the throughput capacity is at most /spl Theta/(/spl radic/(nb/sub n/)), where b/sub n/ is the size of the relay buffers.
The role of type of tobacco and type of alcoholic beverage in oral carcinogenesis

Incidence rates of oral and oropharyngeal cancers (oral cancer) in Spain are among the highest in Europe. Spain has a population heavily exposed to various types of tobacco and alcoholic beverages but the role and impact of tobacco type and beverage type in oral carcinogenesis remain controversial. To estimate the independent and joint effects of tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking habits on the risk of developing oral cancer, we carried out a multicenter, hospital‐based, case‐control study in Spain. Data from 375 patients newly diagnosed with cancer of the oral cavity or oropharynx and 375 matched control subjects were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression procedures. All exposure characteristics of amount, duration and cessation of both tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking were strongly associated with cancer risk following a dose‐dependent relationship. At equal intake or duration levels, black‐tobacco smoking and drinking of spirits were both associated with a 2‐ to 4‐fold increase in cancer risk compared to blond tobacco smoking or drinking of wine or beer, respectively. While ever exposure to smoking only or drinking only was associated with a moderate and nonsignificant increase in cancer risk, a history of simultaneous exposure to both habits was associated with a 13‐fold increase that was compatible with a synergistic effect model (p‐value for interaction: 0.008). Exposure to black tobacco smoking and/or drinking of spirits may account for up to 77% of oral cancer occurrence in Spain. Both black tobacco smoking and drinking of spirits place individuals at a very high risk of developing oral cancer. Simultaneous exposure to tobacco and alcohol consumption increases oral cancer risk in a synergistic fashion, even when consumption levels are moderate. These results underline the importance of type of tobacco and alcohol concentration in oral carcinogenesis. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mechanism of Protection by Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibition in Type 2 Diabetic Stroke

Inhibition of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) is a potential target of therapy for ischemic injury. sEH metabolizes neuroprotective epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs). We recently demonstrated that sEH inhibition reduces infarct size after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in type 1 diabetic mice. We hypothesized that inhibition of sEH would protect against ischemic injury in type 2 diabetic mice. Type 2 diabetes was produced by combined high-fat diet, nicotinamide and streptozotocin in male mice. Diabetic and control mice were treated with vehicle or the sEH inhibitor t-AUCB then subjected to 60-min MCAO. Compared to chow-fed mice, high fat diet-fed mice exhibited an upregulation of sEH mRNA and protein in brain, but no differences in brain EETs levels were observed between groups. Type 2 diabetic mice had increased blood glucose levels at baseline and throughout ischemia, decreased laser-Doppler perfusion of the MCA territory after reperfusion, and sustained larger cortical infarcts compared to control mice. t-AUCB decreased fasting glucose levels at baseline and throughout ischemia, improved cortical perfusion after MCAO and significantly reduced infarct size in diabetic mice. We conclude that sEH inhibition, as a preventative treatment, improves glycemic status, post-ischemic reperfusion in the ischemic territory, and stroke outcome in type 2 diabetic mice.
Immobilized N-Methyl-D-glucamine as an Arsenate-Selective Resin

Immobilization of N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMDG) on poly(vinylbenzyl chloride) beads yields an effective and highly selective sorbent for arsenate ions. Three important parameters in the resin’s high As(V) affinity and selectivity are the structure of the ligand, its ionic form, and the crosslink density of the polymer. The NMDG resin crosslinked with 2 wt % divinylbenzene is far more selective than commercially available analogues, especially when sulfate and chloride ions are present in solution at high concentrations. Selectivity studies at neutral pH indicate that the protonated tertiary amine moiety is an important component of the complexation mechanism. The NMDG resin also has a high affinity for the un-ionized As(V) species at pH 1.
Rapid Breast Cancer Disease Progression Following Cyclin Dependent Kinase 4 and 6 Inhibitor Discontinuation

Background: CDK 4 and 6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i), which arrest unregulated cancer cell proliferation, show clinical efficacy in breast cancer. Unexpectedly, a patient treated on a CDK4/6i-based trial, as first-line therapy in metastatic breast cancer, developed rapid disease progression following discontinuation of study drug while receiving standard second-line therapy off trial. We thus sought to expand this observation within a population of patients treated similarly at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Methods: Using an IRB-approved protocol, 4 patients previously enrolled on CDK4/6i trials were analyzed for outcomes after discontinuing study drug. These patients were treated on a randomized trial of first-line endocrine therapy +/- a CDK4/6i. Rapid disease progression was defined as progression occurring within 4 months of CDK4/6i discontinuation. Results: In total, 4 patients developed rapid disease progression and died; 2 of whom died within 6 months of CDK4/6i discontinuation. Conclusion: This case series suggests a potential for rapid disease progression following CDK4/6i discontinuation. However, the clinical course following progression must be validated in large CDK4/6i clinical trials and standard-of-care cohorts. If confirmed, such observations may alter the algorithm for subsequent therapy in patients with disease progression on CDK4/6i. Nevertheless, the need remains to define a mechanistic basis for this rapid progression and formulate alternative therapeutic strategies.
Imaging and Quantitative Analysis of the Interstitial Space in the Caudate Nucleus in a Rotenone-Induced Rat Model of Parkinson’s Disease Using Tracer-based MRI

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by pathological changes within several deep structures of the brain, including the substantia nigra and caudate nucleus. However, changes in interstitial fluid (ISF) flow and the microstructure of the interstitial space (ISS) in the caudate nucleus in PD have not been reported. In this study, we used tracer-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantitatively investigate the alterations in ISS and visualize ISF flow in the caudate nucleus in a rotenone-induced rat model of PD treated with and without madopar. In the rotenone-induced rat model, the ISF flow was slowed and the tortuosity of the ISS was significantly decreased. Administration of madopar partially prevented these changes of ISS and ISF. Therefore, our data suggest that tracer-based MRI can be used to monitor the parameters related to ISF flow and ISS microstructure. It is a promising technique to investigate the microstructure and functional changes in the deep brain regions of PD.
Use of Generative Adversarial Network for Cross-Domain Change Detection

This paper addresses the problem of cross-domain change detection from a novel perspective of image-to-image translation. In general, change detection aims to identify interesting changes between a given query image and a reference image of the same scene taken at a different time. This problem becomes a challenging one when query and reference images involve different domains (e.g., time of the day, weather, and season) due to variations in object appearance and a limited amount of training examples. In this study, we address the above issue by leveraging a generative adversarial network (GAN). Our key concept is to use a limited amount of training data to train a GAN-based image translator that maps a reference image to a virtual image that cannot be discriminated from query domain images. This enables us to treat the cross-domain change detection task as an in-domain image comparison. This allows us to leverage the large body of literature on in-domain generic change detectors. In addition, we also consider the use of visual place recognition as a method for mining more appropriate reference images over the space of virtual images. Experiments validate efficacy of the proposed approach.
Multi-scale gyrokinetic simulation of tokamak plasmas: enhanced heat loss due to cross-scale coupling of plasma turbulence

The transport of heat in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas is dominated by the complex nonlinear dynamics of plasma turbulence. In magnetically confined plasmas used for fusion energy research, turbulence is responsible for cross-field transport that limits the performance of tokamak reactors. We report a set of novel gyrokinetic simulations that capture ion and electron-scale turbulence simultaneously, revealing the dynamics of cross-scale energy transfer and zonal flow modification that give rise to heat losses. Multi-scale simulations are required to match experimental ion and electron heat fluxes and electron profile stiffness, establishing the applicability of the newly discovered physics to experiment. Importantly, these results provide a likely explanation for the loss of electron heat from tokamak plasmas, the ‘great unsolved problem’ (Bachelor et al (2007 Plasma Sci. Technol. 9 312–87)) in plasma turbulence and the projected dominant loss channel in ITER.
Meaning as a Buffer Against Adolescent Psychopathology

This thesis investigates the function of meaning in life in adolescence to ascertain whether specific psychological resources may protect youths against threats to subjective well-being. Meaning in life and the search for the meaning in stressful occurrences were independently examined for their influence on stress impact and depression symptomatology. 201 American middle-school and high-school students between 12 and 19 years of age were recruited for this study. Participants reported on questionnaires targeting frequency of negative life events; depressive symptoms; sense of meaning; and tendency to reframe stressors in terms of their meaning, termed “stressor meaning seeking”. It was expected that having a higher sense of meaning and higher stressor meaning seeking would be positively related, and that each of these variables would be able to buffer the impact of stress and strengthen resilience to depression. Statistical analyses supported the hypotheses, suggesting that meaning can help adolescents manage stressor threats to well-being and be resistant to developing depression. In addition, the results provided evidence that framing stress in terms of its value can be an effective coping strategy for youth. This is among the first contributions that shed light on how meaning and its pursuit interact with threats to well-being in an adolescent sample. These findings have implications for both theoretical and practical applications, and interventions against adolescent stress and psychopathology may be informed by the relationships demonstrated in this investigation.
Ambiguity, Information Quality and Asset Pricing

When ambiguity averse investors process news of uncertain quality, they act as if they take a worst-case assessment of quality. As a result, they react more strongly to bad news than to good news. They also dislike assets for which information quality is poor, especially when the underlying fundamentals are volatile. These effects induce negative skewness in asset returns, increase price volatility and induce ambiguity premia that depend on idiosyncratic risk in fundamentals. Moreover, shocks to information quality can have persistent negative effects on prices even if fundamentals do not change. This helps to explain the reaction of markets to events like 9/11/2001.
ERP Evidence for a Sex-Specific Stroop Effect in Emotional Speech

The present study investigated the interaction of emotional prosody and word valence during emotional comprehension in men and women. In a prosody-word interference task, participants listened to positive, neutral, and negative words that were spoken with a happy, neutral, and angry prosody. Participants were asked to rate word valence while ignoring emotional prosody, or vice versa. Congruent stimuli were responded faster and more accurately as compared to incongruent emotional stimuli. This behavioral effect was more salient for the word valence task than for the prosodic task and was comparable between men and women. The event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed a smaller N400 amplitude for congruent as compared to emotionally incongruent stimuli. This ERP effect, however, was significant only for the word valence judgment and only for female listeners. The present data suggest that the word valence judgment was more difficult and more easily influenced by task-irrelevant emotional information than the prosodic task in both men and women. Furthermore, although emotional prosody and word valence may have a similar influence on an emotional judgment in both sexes, ERPs indicate sex differences in the underlying processing. Women, but not men, show an interaction between prosody and word valence during a semantic processing stage.
Construct Validity of the Children’s Music-Related Behavior Questionnaire

The purpose of this research was to investigate the construct validity of the Children’s Music-Related Behavior Questionnaire (CMRBQ), an instrument designed for parents to document music-related behaviors about their children and themselves. The research problem was to examine the hypothesized factorial structure of the questionnaire. From a national sample, parents of children 5 years old or younger returned 616 usable questionnaires. Items were parceled, and the model was subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis to assess the goodness of model-data fit for a one-factor solution using the parcels as indicators. Internal consistency of subscale reliability estimates ranged from α = . 77 to α = . 97. Three multiple fit indices suggested that the one-factor model adequately fit the data: standardized root square residual (.028), comparative fit index (.968), and Tucker-Lewis index (.955). Greater knowledge regarding parents’ observations of music’s role in children’s development may help researchers, practitioners, parents, and policy makers collaboratively consider how best to meet musical needs of young children in childcare and school settings.
Does the Watchdog Bite? Newspaper AD Watch Articles and Political Attack ADS

This study tested the influence of newspaper “ad watch” articles that monitor accuracy of televised political attack ads. Respondents read ad watch articles that either confirmed or disconfirmed ads, watched the ads, and evaluated candidates. Results indicate that attack ads that are confirmed boost the attacking candidate's evaluations while ads that are disconfirmed boomerang to hurt the attacking candidate's evaluations. It appears that newspaper ad watch articles can mediate the impact of television attack ads on candidate evaluations.