Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-acting bronchodilation with once-daily dosing of tiotropium (Spiriva) in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Tiotropium (Spiriva; Ba679BR) is a new-generation, long-acting anticholinergic bronchodilator that has muscarinic M(1) and M(3) receptor subtype selectivity. A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, parallel group, placebo-controlled study was conducted to evaluate the dose-response characteristics of tiotropium inhalation powder given once daily to stable patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Patients (mean FEV(1) = 1.08 L [42% predicted]) were randomized to receive 0, 4.5, 9, 18, or 36 microg tiotropium once daily at noon for 4 wk, with spirometry done before and hourly for 6 h after dosing. Patients measured and recorded their peak expiratory flow rates (PEFRs) three times each day. Significant dose-related improvement in FEV(1) and significant improvement in FVC occurred within 1 h after the first dose of tiotropium as compared with placebo. Over the 29 d of the study, all doses of tiotropium produced significant increases over placebo in trough (i.e., as measured spirometrically at 20 to 24 h after the previous dose and just before the next dose of tiotropium), peak, and 6-h postdose average FEV(1) and FVC, and in PEFR, without a significant difference among the different doses investigated. PEFR gradually returned to pretreatment baseline levels over a 3-wk evaluation period following the discontinuation of tiotropium. The overall safety profile for the tiotropium doses was similar to that for placebo. In summary, tiotropium was shown to be safe and effective in doses ranging from 4.5 to 36 microg delivered once daily. The improvements in spirometry with once-daily dosing confirm the long duration of action of tiotropium reported in single-dose studies, and its sustained improvement of spirometric measures over the 1 mo of testing in the study points to utility of tiotropium as a maintenance bronchodilator for patients with COPD. On the basis of the comparable bronchodilator response at doses from 9 to 36 microg, and advantages suggested by the safety profile at doses below 36 microg in this study, a dose of 18 microg once daily was selected for use in long-term studies of the safety and efficacy of tiotropium.
Cooperation in Latin America: the scientific psychology network

espanolEste estudio investigo algunos aspectos de una red cooperativa dirigida a la Psicologia Latinoamericana. El estudio se baso en datos documentales disponibles para el publico. La red incluyo 262 investigadores latinoamericanos y 38 de otros paises, puesto que la red apoya investigadores de otros continentes interesados en cooperar. Los datos investigados fueron el pais de origen, el nivel educativo, la ocupacion profesional, los intereses generales en cooperar y las modalidades de cooperacion buscadas. En total, los miembros procedian de 23 paises, incluyendo 12 de Latinoamerica y 11 de otros continentes. Los paises con el mayor numero de participantes fueron Colombia, Brasil, Argentina, Chile y Peru. En terminos del nivel educativo se identificaron miembros desde pregrado hasta PhD. La mayoria (n = 199) reporto tener nivel de doctorado o maestria y la mayoria (n = 203) son profesores o investigadores en el nivel universitarios. Los intereses generales de cooperacion se dividieron en cuatro grupos, de los cuales los temas mas citados fueron salud, salud mental y psicologia social. La forma de cooperacion mas frecuentemente senalada fue la participacion en grupos de investigacion latinoamericanos. Los datos se compararon con la literatura y se discutieron las posibilidades para avanzar en la cooperacion. EnglishThis study investigated some aspects of a cooperative network aimed at Latin American Psychology. The study was based on documental data available to the public. The network included 262 researchers from Latin America and 38 from other countries, since the network supports researchers from other continents interested in cooperation. The data investigated were the country of origin, educational level and the professional occupation, general interests in cooperation and modalities of cooperation sought. Altogether, members came from 23 countries, including 12 Latin American and 11 countries from other continents. The countries with the largest number of participants were Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru. Regarding educational level, were identified from undergraduates to PhDs. The majority (n = 199) had a doctorate or master degree and the majority (n = 203) served as professor/researcher at the college level. The general interests of cooperation were divided into four groups and health and mental health and Social Psychology were the most cited topics. The form of cooperation cited more frequently was participation in Latin American research group. The data are compared with the literature and possibilities for advancing cooperation are discussed.
Combined Effects of Rate, Membrane Potential, and Drugs on Maximum Rate of Rise ( Vmax) of Action Potential Upstroke of Guinea Pig Papillary Muscle

We studied the effect of increasing the rate of stimulation on the maximum rate of rise of the action potential upstroke (Vmax) in guinea pig papillary muscles at various resting membrane potentials and after the addition of quinidine and lidocaine to the perfusate. Increasing rate caused a decrease in Vma, due to interaction of three factors: (1) a metabolic factor, presumably resetting of the Na-K pump, which caused a decrease in Vmai at all levels of resting potential between -90 and -60 mV, (2) a transient decrease in resting potential which influenced Vma, when the resting potential was less negative than approximately -80 mV, and (3) the recovery characteristics of Vma, which contributed to the decrease in this variable when rate was faster than 5/sec. As a result of these factors the steady state curve relating membrane potential to Vmai was itself rate-dependent. Lidocaine and quinidine exaggerated the rate-dependent decrease in Vmox; however, their effects differed. The effect of quinidine was consistent with its known depressant effect on the Na-K pump. The lidocaine effect was consistent with a slowing of recovery of Vma,. Our results help to explain the effects of an increase in rate on Vma, and conduction velocity in normal, partially depolarized, and drug-treated fibers.
Towards Contactless, Low-Cost and Accurate 3D Fingerprint Identification

Human identification using fingerprint impressions has been widely studied and employed for more than 2000 years. Despite new advancements in the 3D imaging technologies, widely accepted representation of 3D fingerprint features and matching methodology is yet to emerge. This paper investigates 3D representation of widely employed 2D minutiae features by recovering and incorporating (i) minutiae height z and (ii) its 3D orientation φ information and illustrates an effective matching strategy for matching popular minutiae features extended in 3D space. One of the obstacles of the emerging 3D fingerprint identification systems to replace the conventional 2D fingerprint system lies in their bulk and high cost, which is mainly contributed from the usage of structured lighting system or multiple cameras. This paper attempts to addresses such key limitations of the current 3D fingerprint technologies bydeveloping the single camera-based 3D fingerprint identification system. We develop a generalized 3D minutiae matching model and recover extended 3D fingerprint features from the reconstructed 3D fingerprints. 2D fingerprint images acquired for the 3D fingerprint reconstruction can themselves be employed for the performance improvement and have been illustrated in the work detailed in this paper. This paper also attempts to answer one of the most fundamental questions on the availability of inherent discriminableinformation from 3D fingerprints. The experimental results are presented on a database of 240 clients 3D fingerprints, which is made publicly available to further research efforts in this area, and illustrate the discriminant power of 3D minutiae representation andmatching to achieve performance improvement.
Treatment of depression by drugs and psychotherapy.

Prevention of relapse following depression is a pressing research problem. The authors tested the efficacy of the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline and psychotherapy, alone and in combination, in preventing the relapse of 150 neurotic depressed female patients. They found that patients receiving amitriptyline and little psychotherapy had a 12-percent relapse rate, compared to a 16-percent rate for those receiving more psychotherapy and no medication. There was no significant difference between drug therapy alone or drug therapy in combination with psychotherapy. However, psychotherapy was beneficial to patients with problems of social adjustment and interpersonal relations. The need for further research and implications for treatment are discussed.
RNA folding pathways in stop motion

We introduce a method for predicting RNA folding pathways, with an application to the most important RNA tetraloops. The method is based on the idea that ensembles of three-dimensional fragments extracted from high-resolution crystal structures are heterogeneous enough to describe metastable as well as intermediate states. These ensembles are first validated by performing a quantitative comparison against available solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data of a set of RNA tetranucleotides. Notably, the agreement is better with respect to the one obtained by comparing NMR with extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. We then propose a procedure based on diffusion maps and Markov models that makes it possible to obtain reaction pathways and their relative probabilities from fragment ensembles. This approach is applied to study the helix-to-loop folding pathway of all the tetraloops from the GNRA and UNCG families. The results give detailed insights into the folding mechanism that are compatible with available experimental data and clarify the role of intermediate states observed in previous simulation studies. The method is computationally inexpensive and can be used to study arbitrary conformational transitions.
The influence of phytoncides on the immune system of broiler chickens and turkeys

The aim of our study was to investigate the influence of adiSalmoSOL PF dietary supplement, given for 3 days in drinking water, on selected parameters of cell-mediated (Experiment I) and humoral (Experiment II) immunity in chicken and turkey broilers. In Experiment I, birds were randomly divided into two groups of 10 birds each. Group 1 comprised control turkeys or chickens, whereas group 2 birds were administered adiSalmoSOLPF. In Experiment II, a total of 69 chickens were divided into three groups (1-3) of 23 birds each. At the age of 25 days, group 1 was given adiSalmoSOLPF. Birds from groups 1-3 were vaccinated at 28 days of age. Group 2 was given adiSalmoSOLPF after vaccination. In Experiment I, a significant increase in percentages of CD4 + T lymphocytes in the bursa of Fabricius, cecal tonsils and spleen, CD8 + T lymphocytes in the thymus and spleen, CD4 + CD8 + T lymphocytes in the bursa of Fabricius and ileal mucosa and IgM + B lymphocyte in the ileal mucosa were observed in group 2 chickens. In Experiment I, a significant increase in percentages of CD4 + T lymphocytes in the thymus and spleen, CD8+ T lymphocytes in the cecal tonsils and blood, and CD4 + CD8 + T lymphocytes in the thymus and ileal mucosa was recorded in group 2 turkeys. No differences in percentages of IgM + B lymphocytes were observed between turkey groups. In Experiment II, the highest post-vaccination titers of anti-IB antibodies were observed in group 2, but it was not statistically significant. The results of our study indicate that adiSalmoSOLPF showed immunomodulatory activity in chickens and turkeys.
Comparative Genomic Analysis of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Isolated from Super-Shedder and Low-Shedder Cattle

Cattle are the primary reservoir of the foodborne pathogen Escherichia coli O157:H7, with the concentration and frequency of E. coli O157:H7 shedding varying substantially among individual hosts. The term ‘‘super-shedder” has been applied to cattle that shed ≥104 cfu E. coli O157:H7/g of feces. Super-shedders have been reported to be responsible for the majority of E. coli O157:H7 shed into the environment. The objective of this study was to determine if there are phenotypic and/or genotypic differences between E. coli O157:H7 isolates obtained from super-shedder compared to low-shedder cattle. From a total of 784 isolates, four were selected from low-shedder steers and six isolates from super-shedder steers (4.01–8.45 log cfu/g feces) for whole genome sequencing. Isolates were phage and clade typed, screened for substrate utilization, pH sensitivity, virulence gene profiles and Stx bacteriophage insertion (SBI) sites. A range of 89–2473 total single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified when sequenced strains were compared to E. coli O157:H7 strain Sakai. More non-synonymous SNP mutations were observed in low-shedder isolates. Pan-genomic and SNPs comparisons did not identify genetic segregation between super-shedder or low-shedder isolates. All super-shedder isolates and 3 of 4 of low-shedder isolates were typed as phage type 14a, SBI cluster 3 and SNP clade 2. Super-shedder isolates displayed increased utilization of galactitol, thymidine and 3-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-D-arabinose when compared to low-shedder isolates, but no differences in SNPs were observed in genes encoding for proteins involved in the metabolism of these substrates. While genetic traits specific to super-shedder isolates were not identified in this study, differences in the level of gene expression or genes of unknown function may still contribute to some strains of E. coli O157:H7 reaching high densities within bovine feces.
Systematic comparison of five machine-learning methods in
classification and interpolation of soil particle size fractions using
different transformed data

Abstract. Soil texture and soil particle size fractions (psf) play an increasing role in physical, chemical and hydrological processes. Digital soil mapping using machine-learning methods was widely applied to generate more detailed prediction of qualitative or quantitative outputs than traditional soil-mapping methods in soil science. As compositional data, interpolation of soil psf combined with log ratio approaches was developed to improve the prediction accuracy, which also can be used to indirectly derive soil texture. However, few reports systematically analyzed and compared the classification and regression, the accuracies of original (untransformed) and log ratio approaches, and the performance of direct and indirect soil texture classification using machine-learning methods. In this total, a total of 45 evaluation models generated from five different machine-learning models combined with original and three log ratio approaches–additive log ratio, centered log ratio and isometric log ratio (ALR, CLR and ILR, respectively), to evaluate and compare the performance of soil texture classification and soil psf interpolation. The results demonstrated that log ratio approaches modified the soil sampling data more symmetrically, and with respect to soil texture classification, random forest (RF) and extreme gradient boosting (XGB) showed notable consequences. For soil psf interpolation, RF delivered the best performance among five machine-learning models with lowest root mean squared error (RMSE, sand: 15.09 %, silt: 13.86 %, clay: 6.31 %), mean absolute error (MAE, sand: 10.65 %, silt: 9.99 %, clay: 5.00 %), Aitchison distance (AD, 0.84) and standardized residual sum of squares (STRESS, 0.61), and highest coefficient of determination (R2, sand: 53.28 %, silt: 45.77 %, clay: 53.75 %). STRESS was improved using log ratio approaches, especially CLR and ILR. There is a pronounced improvement (21.3 %) in the kappa coefficient using indirect soil texture classification compared to the direct approach. Our systematic comparison helps to elucidate the processing and selection of compositional data in spatial simulation.
The role of pre-emptive culling in the control of foot-and-mouth disease

The 2001 foot-and-mouth disease epidemic was controlled by culling of infectious premises and pre-emptive culling intended to limit the spread of disease. Of the control strategies adopted, routine culling of farms that were contiguous to infected premises caused the most controversy. Here we perform a retrospective analysis of the culling of contiguous premises as performed in 2001 and a simulation study of the effects of this policy on reducing the number of farms affected by disease. Our simulation results support previous studies and show that a national policy of contiguous premises (CPs) culling leads to fewer farms losing livestock. The optimal national policy for controlling the 2001 epidemic is found to be the targeting of all contiguous premises, whereas for localized outbreaks in high animal density regions, more extensive fixed radius ring culling is optimal. Analysis of the 2001 data suggests that the lowest-risk CPs were generally prioritized for culling, however, even in this case, the policy is predicted to be effective. A sensitivity analysis and the development of a spatially heterogeneous policy show that the optimal culling level depends upon the basic reproductive ratio of the infection and the width of the dispersal kernel. These analyses highlight an important and probably quite general result: optimal control is highly dependent upon the distance over which the pathogen can be transmitted, the transmission rate of infection and local demography where the disease is introduced.
Exploring public support for farmed animal welfare policy and advocacy across 23 countries

Farmed animal policy and advocacy efforts both attempt to generate and depend upon public support. However, relatively little is known about the factors that predict support for animal protection legislation and advocacy across the globe. We analyse data from a large international survey (23 countries, n = 20,966) alongside other data sources on animal advocacy to investigate knowledge of factory farming, the connection between attitudes towards animals and the strength of animal protection legislation, attitudes towards animals based on their food status in different countries, and the connection between personal support for policy, animal advocacy, civic activism, and animal advocacy organisations. We found that higher support for animal welfare is associated with stronger farm animal protection legislation across countries and that concerns about specific animals can vary depending on cultural and religious factors. Contrary to study hypotheses, we did not find greater support for advocacy in countries with more advocacy organisations, suggesting important opportunities to pursue advocacy in relatively neglected regions. Results are interpreted in terms of how farmed animal advocates can take advantage of and potentially generate support for animal welfare throughout the world.
Viral Infections During Pregnancy

Viral infections during pregnancy have long been considered benign conditions with a few notable exceptions, such as herpes virus. The recent Ebola outbreak and other viral epidemics and pandemics show how pregnant women suffer worse outcomes (such as preterm labor and adverse fetal outcomes) than the general population and non‐pregnant women. New knowledge about the ways the maternal–fetal interface and placenta interact with the maternal immune system may explain these findings. Once thought to be ‘immunosuppressed’, the pregnant woman actually undergoes an immunological transformation, where the immune system is necessary to promote and support the pregnancy and growing fetus. When this protection is breached, as in a viral infection, this security is weakened and infection with other microorganisms can then propagate and lead to outcomes, such as preterm labor. In this manuscript, we review the major viral infections relevant to pregnancy and offer potential mechanisms for the associated adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Escholarship@umms Neurobiology Publications and Presentations Neurobiology Antibodies for Assessing Circadian Clock Proteins in the Rodent Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Repository Citation Antibodies for Assessing Circadian Clock Proteins in the Rodent Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Antibodies for Assessing Circ

Antibodies for assessing circadian clock proteins in the rodent suprachiasmatic nucleus" (2012). Neurobiology Publications and Presentations. Paper 113. Abstract Research on the mechanisms underlying circadian rhythmicity and the response of brain and body clocks to environmental and physiological challenges requires assessing levels of circadian clock proteins. Too often, however, it is difficult to acquire antibodies that specifically and reliably label these proteins. Many of these antibodies also lack appropriate validation. The goal of this project was to generate and characterize antibodies against several circadian clock proteins. We examined mice and hamsters at peak and trough times of clock protein expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). In addition, we confirmed specificity by testing the antibodies on mice with targeted disruption of the relevant genes. Our results identify antibodies against PER1, PER2, BMAL1 and CLOCK that are useful for assessing circadian clock proteins in the SCN by immunocytochemistry. Copyright: ß 2012 LeSauter et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The funding agencies had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The content of this publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Competing Interests: The immunochemical characterization of the antibodies was performed in Rae Silver's lab, whose members (JL, MRR, ZM, RS) have no conflict of interest. C.M. Lambert has no conflict of interest. DRW declares the following conflict of interest: Antibodies R1177 (to PER1), R38 (to PER2), R41 (to CLOCK), and GP85 (to BMAL1) are commercially available from Millipore as product numbers AB2201-2204, respectively. D.R. Weaver and the University of Massachusetts Medical School receive royalty income from sale of these products. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.