Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cholic Acid Induces a Cftr Dependent Biliary Secretion and Liver Growth Response in Mice

The cause of Cystic fibrosis liver disease (CFLD), is unknown. It is well recognized that hepatic exposure to hydrophobic bile salts is associated with the development of liver disease. For this reason, we hypothesize that, CFTR dependent variations, in the hepatic handling of hydrophobic bile salts, are related to the development CFLD. To test our hypothesis we studied, in Cftr-/- and control mice, bile production, bile composition and liver pathology, in normal feeding condition and during cholate exposure, either acute (intravenous) or chronic (three weeks via the diet). In Cftr-/- and control mice the basal bile production was comparable. Intravenous taurocholate increased bile production to the same extent in Cftr-/- and control mice. However, chronic cholate exposure increased the bile flow significantly less in Cftr-/- mice than in controls, together with significantly higher biliary bile salt concentration in Cftr-/- mice. Prolonged cholate exposure, however, did not induce CFLD like pathology in Cftr-/- mice. Chronic cholate exposure did induce a significant increase in liver mass in controls that was absent in Cftr-/- mice. Chronic cholate administration induces a cystic fibrosis-specific hepatobiliary phenotype, including changes in bile composition. These changes could not be associated with CFLD like pathological changes in CF mouse livers. However, chronic cholate administration induces liver growth in controls that is absent in Cftr-/- mice. Our findings point to an impaired adaptive homeotrophic liver response to prolonged hydrophobic bile salt exposure in CF conditions.
A major increase in winter snowfall during the middle Holocene on western Greenland caused by reduced sea ice in Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea

Precipitation is predicted to increase in the Arctic as temperature increases and sea ice retreats. Yet the mechanisms controlling precipitation in the Arctic are poorly understood and quantified only by the short, sparse instrumental record. We use hydrogen isotope ratios (δ2H) of lipid biomarkers in lake sediments from western Greenland to reconstruct precipitation seasonality and summer temperature during the past 8 kyr. Aquatic biomarker δ2H was 100‰ more negative from 6 to 4 ka than during the early and late Holocene, which we interpret to reflect increased winter snowfall. The middle Holocene also had high summer air temperature, decreased early winter sea ice in Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea, and a strong, warm West Greenland Current. These results corroborate model predictions of winter snowfall increases caused by sea ice retreat and furthermore suggest that warm currents advecting more heat into the polar seas may enhance Arctic evaporation and snowfall.
Amyloid deposits: Protection against toxic protein species?

Neurodegenerative diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s disease and polyglutamine diseases to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are associated with the aggregation and accumulation of misfolded proteins. In several cases the intracellular and extracellular protein deposits contain a fibrillar protein species called amyloid. However while amyloid deposits are hallmarks of numerous neurodegenerative diseases, their actual role in disease progression remains unclear. Especially perplexing is the often poor correlation between protein deposits and other markers of neurodegeneration. As a result the question remains whether amyloid deposits are the disease causing species, the consequence of cellular disease pathology or even the result of a protective cellular response to misfolded protein species. Here we highlight studies that suggest that accumulation and sequestration of misfolded protein in amyloid inclusion bodies and plaques can serve a protective function. Furthermore, we discuss how exceeding the cellular capacity for protective deposition of misfolded proteins may contribute to the formation of toxic protein species.
Theory and Design in Counseling and Psychotherapy

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Leveraging Video Descriptions to Learn Video Question Answering

We propose a scalable approach to learn video-based question answering (QA): to answer a free-form natural language question about the contents of a video. Our approach automatically harvests a large number of videos and descriptions freely available online. Then, a large number of candidate QA pairs are automatically generated from descriptions rather than manually annotated. Next, we use these candidate QA pairs to train a number of video-based QA methods extended from MN (Sukhbaatar et al. 2015), VQA (Antol et al. 2015), SA (Yao et al. 2015), and SS (Venugopalan et al. 2015). In order to handle non-perfect candidate QA pairs, we propose a self-paced learning procedure to iteratively identify them and mitigate their effects in training. Finally, we evaluate performance on manually generated video-based QA pairs. The results show that our self-paced learning procedure is effective, and the extended SS model outperforms various baselines.
Impact of Center-of-Mass Acceleration on the Performance of Ultramarathon Runners

Abstract Ultramarathon races are rapidly gaining popularity in several countries, raising interest for the improvement of training programs. The aim of this study was to use a triaxial accelerometer to compare the three-dimensional centerof- mass accelerations of two groups of ultramarathon runners with distinct performances during different running speeds and distances. Ten runners who participated in the 12-h Taipei International Ultramarathon Race underwent laboratory treadmill testing one month later. They were divided into an elite group (EG; n = 5) and a sub-elite group (SG; n = 5). The triaxial center-of-mass acceleration recorded during a level-surface progressive intensity running protocol (3, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 12 km/h; 5 min each) was used for correlation analyses with running distance during the ultramarathon. The EG showed negative correlations between mediolateral (ML) acceleration (r = −0.83 to −0.93, p < 0.05), and between anterior-posterior (AP) acceleration and running distance (r = −0.8953 to −0.9653, p < 0.05), but not for vertical control of the center of mass. This study suggests that runners reduce stride length to minimize mediolateral sway and the effects of braking on the trunk; moreover, cadence must be increased to reduce braking effects and enhance impetus. Consequently, the competition level of ultramarathons can be elevated.
Rapid Selection and Proliferation of CD133(+) Cells from Cancer Cell Lines: Chemotherapeutic Implications

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered a subset of the bulk tumor responsible for initiating and maintaining the disease. Several surface cellular markers have been recently used to identify CSCs. Among those is CD133, which is expressed by hematopoietic progenitor cells as well as embryonic stem cells and various cancers. We have recently isolated and cultured CD133 positive [CD133(+)] cells from various cancer cell lines using a NASA developed Hydrodynamic Focusing Bioreactor (HFB) (Celdyne, Houston, TX). For comparison, another bioreactor, the rotary cell culture system (RCCS) manufactured by Synthecon (Houston, TX) was used. Both the HFB and the RCCS bioreactors simulate aspects of hypogravity. In our study, the HFB increased CD133(+) cell growth from various cell lines compared to the RCCS vessel and to normal gravity control. We observed a (+)15-fold proliferation of the CD133(+) cellular fraction with cancer cells that were cultured for 7-days at optimized conditions. The RCCS vessel instead yielded a (−)4.8-fold decrease in the CD133(+)cellular fraction respect to the HFB after 7-days of culture. Interestingly, we also found that the hypogravity environment of the HFB greatly sensitized the CD133(+) cancer cells, which are normally resistant to chemo treatment, to become susceptible to various chemotherapeutic agents, paving the way to less toxic and more effective chemotherapeutic treatment in patients. To be able to test the efficacy of cytotoxic agents in vitro prior to their use in clinical setting on cancer cells as well as on cancer stem cells may pave the way to more effective chemotherapeutic strategies in patients. This could be an important advancement in the therapeutic options of oncologic patients, allowing for more targeted and personalized chemotherapy regimens as well as for higher response rates.
Decreases in the Serum VLDL-TG/Non-VLDL-TG Ratio from Early Stages of Chronic Hepatitis C: Alterations in TG-Rich Lipoprotein Levels

Background The liver secretes very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs) and plays a key role in lipid metabolism. Plasma total triglyceride (TG) level variations have been studied in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related chronic hepatitis (CH-C). However, the results of these studies are variable. A homogenous assay protocol was recently proposed to directly measure the TG content in VLDL (VLDL-TG) and VLDL remnants. Methodology/Principal Findings Using the assay protocol, we determined serum VLDL-TG levels in 69 fasting patients with biopsy-proven HCV-related chronic liver disease and 50 healthy subjects. Patients were classified into stages F0–F4 using the 5-point Desmet scale. Serum total TG levels in patients with non-cirrhotic (F1–F3) CH-C did not demonstrate significant differences compared with healthy subjects, but serum VLDL-TG levels did demonstrate significant differences. Mean serum VLDL-TG levels tended to decrease with disease progression from F1 to F4 (cirrhosis). Compared with healthy subjects, serum non-VLDL-TG levels significantly increased in patients with stages F2 and F3 CH-C; however, we observed no significant difference in patients with liver cirrhosis. Furthermore, the serum VLDL-TG/non-VLDL-TG ratio, when taken, demonstrated a significant decrease in patients with CH-C from the mildest stage F1 onward. Conclusions/Significance The decrease in serum VLDL-TG levels was attenuated by increase in non-VLDL-TG levels in patients with non-cirrhotic CH-C, resulting in comparable total TG levels. Results of previous studies though variable, were confirmed to have a logical basis. The decrease in the serum VLDL-TG/non-VLDL-TG ratio as early as stage F1 demonstrated TG metabolic alterations in early stages of CH-C for the first time. The involvement of TG metabolism in CH-C pathogenesis has been established in experimental animals, while conventional TG measurements are generally considered as poor indicators of CH-C progression in clinical practice. The serum VLDL-TG/non-VLDL-TG ratio, which focuses on TG metabolic alterations, may be an early indicator of CH-C.
The Influence of Parents in Adolescents' Misbehavior

Positive relationships within the family, parental support, a consistent and constructive parental discipline style and adult supervision tend to be related negatively to adolescents deviant behaviors and their associations with deviant peers. Poor family relationships were found to be associated with higher levels of delinquent behaviors, possibly due to the fact that parents in those families provided poor role models and engaged in ineffective discipline strategies. Problem statement: A considerable number of secondary school students were involved in delinquent behavior and they are not doing well in school. School authorities with the supervision of education departments and the Ministry of Education have done their best to guide and monitor students
A Meta-Analysis of Aerobic Exercise Interventions for Women With Breast Cancer

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the effectiveness of aerobic exercise interventions on cardiopulmonary function and body composition in women with breast cancer. Of 24 relevant studies reviewed, 10 studies (N = 588) met the inclusion criteria. The findings indicated that aerobic exercise significantly improved cardiopulmonary function as assessed by absolute VO2 peak (standardized mean difference [SMD] .916, p < .001), relative VO2 peak (SMD .424, p < .05), and 12-minute walk test ( SMD .502, p < .001). Similarly, aerobic exercise significantly improved body composition as assessed by percentage body fat (SMD —.890, p < .001), but body weight and lean body mass did not change significantly. Aerobic exercise during or after cancer adjuvant therapy seems to be an effective means of improving cardiopulmonary function and decreasing percentage body fat in women with breast cancer. Further studies are needed to examine the long-term benefits of aerobic exercise.
Does Market Selection Reward Innovators

The paper contributes to an emerging literature that critically questions the degree to which R&D, at the centre of national and transnational innovation policies, results in firm growth. The differences in how innovation affects firm growth is explored for small and large publicly quoted US pharmaceutical firms between 1950 and 2008. We observe that the positive impact of R&D on firm growth is highly conditional upon a combination of firm specific characteristics such as firm size, patenting and persistence in patenting. For large pharma firms, R&D affects firm growth positively with the exception of those that do not patent. On the other hand, for small firms, R&D boosts growth for only a small subset of firms: namely those that patent persistently for a minimum of 5 years. The results also provide some important insights for our understanding of the structural characteristics underlying ‘fat tails’ in firm growth distributions: the tails are fattest when the sample in question includes the persistent innovators.
Effect of catechol-O-methyltransferase (rs4680) single-nucleotide polymorphism on opioid-induced hyperalgesia in adults with chronic pain

The catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism has been associated with alterations in pain perception, but the influence of the polymorphism on pain perception in patients with chronic pain receiving daily opioid therapy has not been previously reported. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism on heat pain perception in a cohort of adults receiving daily opioid therapy for chronic pain. Adults with chronic pain consecutively admitted to an outpatient pain rehabilitation program who met inclusion criteria and were receiving daily opioid therapy were recruited for study participation (N = 142). Individuals were genotyped for catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met (rs4680), and the polymorphism was analyzed using an additive and codominant genotype models. The distribution of the Val158Met genotypes was 25% for Val/Val, 41% for Val/Met and 34% for Met/Met (Hardy–Weinberg, P > 0.05). A main effect of genotype was observed for heat pain perception (P = 0.028). Under the codominant model of allele effects, exploratory post hoc pairwise comparisons adjusted for morphine equivalent dose and pain catastrophizing demonstrated that individuals with the Val/Met genotype were hyperalgesic compared to individuals with the Val/Val (P = 0.039) and Met/Met (P = 0.023) genotypes. No significant association was observed between heat pain perception and genotype under the additive model of allele effects. Among patients with chronic pain who were receiving daily opioids, the Val/Met genotype was associated with hyperalgesia using a measure of heat pain perception that has been previously indicative of opioid-induced hyperalgesia in other heterogeneous samples of adults with chronic pain. This study contributes to the emerging understanding of how catechol-O-methyltransferase activity affects pain perception in the context of daily opioid use, and these findings may be useful in the design of future trials aimed at investigating the potential efficacy of ß-2 adrenergic receptor antagonism for opioid-induced hyperalgesia.
Log-energy dynamic range normalization for robust speech recognition

Cepstral mean normalization (CMN) has proved to be a simple noise robust feature processing technique. In its computation, the log-energy feature or C0 is treated in the same way as other cepstral coefficients. Mean normalization is not an effective way to remove effects of additive noise for the log-energy feature. We propose a log-energy dynamic range normalization (ERN) algorithm which normalizes log-energy sequences of an utterance to a target dynamic range. The AURORA 2.0 database together with HTK speech recognition toolkits are used to evaluate the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm improves the recognition result by 30.83% over the reference front-end algorithm in clean-condition training. It is superior to the result of CMN, which is 19.30%. It is also confirmed that this technique can be combined with CMN to achieve a 46.33% performance gain. The proposed algorithm is fairly simple and it only requires a very small extra computation load.
Energy expenditure in children with cerebral palsy and moderate / severe malnutrition during nutritional recovery.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the total energy expenditure (TEE) and resting energy expenditure (REE) in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and moderate or severe malnutrition during nutritional recovery. METHODS In an intervention study, thirteen subjects with CP (10 females and 3 males with a mean age of 9y11m ± 2y3m), level V of the Gross Motor Function Classification System and moderate or severe malnutrition were included. Eight were fed by nasogastric tube and five by gastrostomy. They were compared with 57 healthy participants (31 females and 26 males with mean age of 8y7m ± 10m). Anthropometric measurements, body composition and energy expenditure by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and indirect calorimetry (IC) were performed in both groups. RESULTS TEE and REE were higher in healthy children than in children with CP in kcal/d and kcal/cm/d but were lower in kcal/kg/d (p <0.001). Intensive nutritional support for four weeks in children with CP produced a significant increase in energy expenditure. CONCLUSION TEE and REE, in children with CP, are lower than in healthy children. Estimating the REE in children with CP and malnutrition is better performed in kcal/kg/d than in kcal/cm/d. Fat-free mass (FFM) is a good predictor of the REE in healthy children and children with CP.
School absence and student background factors: A multilevel analysis

As part of regular collections, South Australian government schools provide data on students, including individual student absences during one full term (usually 10 weeks). These data were analysed to understand how student absence is affected by student background and school contexts. A multilevel statistical model of student absence was developed using data collected in 1997, and repeated for 1999. This paper presents the findings for students in primary schools, showing that absence rates for indigenous students, while higher than the rates for non-indigenous students, are affected by school factors such as the concentration of indigenous students in the school and school socioeconomic status.
Screening for Spiritual Struggle

A growing body of research documents the harmful effects of religious or spiritual struggle among patients with a wide variety of diagnoses. We developed a brief screening protocol for use in identifying patients who may be experiencing religious/spiritual struggle, as well as patients who would like a visit from a chaplain. We describe the results of a pilot study in which non-chaplain healthcare colleagues administered the screening protocol to patients admitted to an acute medical rehabilitation unit. The protocol identified 7% of the patients as possibly experiencing religious/spiritual struggle. Follow up spiritual assessments by the chaplain confirmed religious/spiritual struggle in all but one of these patients and also identified additional cases of religious/spiritual struggled not identified by the protocol. In addition to areas for future research, the authors describe how using a protocol to screen patients for religious/spiritual can make important contributions to spiritual care.
An Experimental Study of the Small World Problem

Arbitrarily selected individuals (N=296) in Nebraska and Boston are asked to generate acquaintance chains to a target person in Massachusetts, employing “the small world method” (Milgram, 1967). Sixty-four chains reach the target person. Within this group the mean number of intermediaries between starters and targets is 5.2. Boston starting chains reach the target person with fewer intermediaries than those starting in Nebraska; subpopulations in the Nebraska group do not differ among themselves. The funneling of chains through sociometric “stars” is noted, with 48 per cent of the chains passing through three persons before reaching the target. Applications of the method to studies of large scale social structure are discussed.
Multiple targets of chemosensitive signaling in locus coeruleus neurons: role of K+ and Ca2+ channels.

We studied chemosensitive signaling in locus coeruleus (LC) neurons using both perforated and whole cell patch techniques. Upon inhibition of fast Na(+) spikes by tetrodotoxin (TTX), hypercapnic acidosis [HA; 15% CO(2), extracellular pH (pH(o)) 6.8] induced small, slow spikes. These spikes were inhibited by Co(2+) or nifedipine and were attributed to activation of L-type Ca(2+) channels by HA. Upon inhibition of both Na(+) and Ca(2+) spikes, HA resulted in a membrane depolarization of 3.52 +/- 0.61 mV (n = 17) that was reduced by tetraethylammonium (TEA) (1.49 +/- 0.70 mV, n = 7; P < 0.05) and absent (-0.97 +/- 0.73 mV, n = 7; P < 0.001) upon exposure to isohydric hypercapnia (IH; 15% CO(2), 77 mM HCO(3)(-), pH(o) 7.45). Either HA or IH, but not 50 mM Na-propionate, activated Ca(2+) channels. Inhibition of L-type Ca(2+) channels by nifedipine reduced HA-induced increased firing rate and eliminated IH-induced increased firing rate. We conclude that chemosensitive signals (e.g., HA or IH) have multiple targets in LC neurons, including TEA-sensitive K(+) channels and TWIK-related acid-sensitive K(+) (TASK) channels. Furthermore, HA and IH activate L-type Ca(2+) channels, and this activation is part of chemosensitive signaling in LC neurons.