Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Subdiaphragmatic vagal deafferentation affects body weight gain and glucose metabolism in obese male Zucker (fa/fa) rats.

We investigated the effect of subdiaphragmatic vagal deafferentation (SDA) on food intake, body weight gain, and metabolism in obese (fa/fa) and lean (Fa/? ) Zucker rats. Before and after recovery from surgery, food intake and body weight gain were recorded, and plasma glucose and insulin were measured in tail-prick blood samples. After implantation of a jugular vein catheter, an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) was performed, followed by minimal modeling to estimate the insulin sensitivity index. Food intake relative to metabolic body weight (g/kg(0.75)) and daily body weight gain after surgery were lower (P < 0.05) in SDA than in sham obese but not lean rats. Before surgery, plasma glucose and insulin concentrations were lower (P < 0.05) in lean than in obese rats but did not differ between surgical groups within both genotypes. Four weeks after surgery, plasma glucose and insulin were still similar in SDA and sham lean rats but lower (P < 0.05) in SDA than in sham obese rats. IVGTT revealed a downward shift of the plasma insulin profile by SDA in obese but not lean rats, whereas the plasma glucose profile was unaffected. SDA decreased (P < 0.05) area under the curve for insulin but not glucose in obese rats. The insulin sensitivity index was higher in lean than in obese rats but was not affected by SDA in both genotypes. These results suggest that elimination of vagal afferent signals from the upper gut reduces food intake and body weight gain without affecting the insulin sensitivity index measured by minimal modeling in obese Zucker rats.
Diatom dynamics in a coastal ecosystem affected by upwelling: coupling between species succession, circulation and biogeochemical processes

The typical phytoplankton succession scenario in coastal upwelling zones is high diatom growth during upwelling and flagellate dominance during water column stratification. Within the diatom/flagellate succession there exist short-term changes in diatom communities that are caused by physical, chemical and biological processes. In this study, we used an improved 2-D kinematic box model to assess the influence of these processes on diatom dynamics in an estuarine ecosystem affected by coastal upwelling. This model enabled us to separate hydrographic from biogeochemical processes occurring in the estuary. Hydrographic variables, nutrient concentrations and phytoplank- ton composition were determined over a 2 wk period in the Ria de Vigo, NW Spain. Two major hydro- graphic phases were identified which coincided with a clear temporal and spatial separation between 2 diatom assemblages: Thalassiosira spp. /Skeletonema costatum and Chaetoceros spp. /Cerataulina pelagica. During upwelling, horizontal (6.6 km d -1 ) and vertical (11.7 m d -1 ) convective fluxes were high, causing a net input of NO3 - , HPO4 2- and SiO4H4. During this phase the Thalassiosira spp. / S. costatum standing stock was high (>20 µmol C l -1 ). Hydrographic processes, however, affected the Thalassiosira spp. /S. costatum assemblage more than biogeochemical processes and this resulted in the net loss of this assemblage from the Ria and its export towards the shelf. There was a significant correlation between the biogeochemical variations in this diatom assemblage and silicate, suggesting a strong dependency of Thalassiosira spp. /S. costatum on this nutrient. By comparison, due to the higher carbon-specific net growth rate of the Chaetoceros spp. /C. pelagica assemblage (0.35 d -1 ) dur- ing upwelling, this assemblage maintained a high biomass in the Ria. Upwelling was followed by upwelling relaxation when horizontal (1.9 km d -1 ) and vertical fluxes (1.8 m d -1 ) were reduced and nutrient levels diminished. During upwelling relaxation there was an accumulation of Chaetoceros spp. /C. pelagica biomass (>18 µmol C l -1 ). Biogeochemical processes provoked a loss of Thalassiosira spp. /S. costatum due to rapid sedimentation and a net increase in Chaetoceros spp. /C. pelagica. It is suggested that the accumulation of Chaetoceros spp. is aided by a lower sinking rate whereas the selection of C. pelagica is more dependent on NO3 - and HPO4 2- consumption. It is concluded that upwelling events in the Ria cause the exportation of Thalassiosira spp. /S. costatum standing stock from the Ria towards the shelf, which will ultimately benefit shelf pelagic and benthic fish communi- ties. Upwelling relaxation events favour the retention of a high standing stock of Chaetoceros spp. / C. pelagica, which is then directly available to the shellfish aquaculture of the Ria.
Analysis of vibrations induced during wheelchair propulsion.

Little is known about how dynamic acceleration affects wheelchair-rider comfort. The current study was to test both the operation of an instrumented wheelchair by a wheelchair user over a Simulated Road Course (SRC) and the operation of the same instrumented wheelchair during normal daily activities (a field test) by test subjects. Sixteen subjects participated in the protocol. A SRC allowed collection of data from wheelchair users traversing obstacles similar to those experienced by a typical wheelchair user. The SRC consisted of eight obstacles fixed rigidly to a flat concrete surface. The field test began after the conclusion of the SRC test. Transfer functions were derived for all 16 subjects. It is clear from the results that for the SRC, the acceleration at the wheelchair frame exceeded the 8-h "fatigue-decreased performance boundary. " A vertical acceleration resonant peak was evident for eight of the subjects. The average for these peaks, when present, was 8.1 Hz. This frequency is higher than the 4-6 Hz resonant peak presented in the literature for a seated human subject. This discrepancy could be due to different levels of trunk control between wheelchair users in this study and ambulatory subjects used in the literature. Subjects and their wheelchairs were exposed to a few, high-acceleration events rather than consistent, small-magnitude accelerations during the field test. This study indicates that vibration may be a contributing factor to fatigue among manual wheelchair users, which could lead to injury.
Towards an instrument targeting mobility-related participation: Nordic cross-national reliability.

OBJECTIVE To investigate test-retest reliability and internal consistency of a new instrument for evaluation of mobility device interventions. MATERIAL AND METHODS The instrument comprised 4 scales and one summed index. Two test-retest interviews involved 147 mobility device users (mean age 60 years) with a broad range of functional limitations, living at home. RESULTS For 2 scales and the summed index the reliability was substantial or almost perfect (kappa 0.71/ kappaW 0.76/intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.93; confidence interval = 0.90-0.95). The reliability of one scale was moderate (kappaW 0.41), but after reduction of grades and combination with another scale, it was substantial (kappaW 0.66). The reliability of the fourth scale was moderate (kappaW 0.55). The internal consistency of 3 scales varied from alpha 0.63 to 0.76. CONCLUSION Even though the test-retest reliability of all but one of the scales of the new instrument was substantial to almost perfect, this study demonstrated that revision is required. The challenges identified were probably due to the highly complex relationship between outdoor participation while using mobility devices and accessibility to the outdoor physical environment. Thus, based on the results of this study the instrument will be revised and subsequently launched as the "Nordic mobility-related participation outcome evaluation of assistive device intervention" (NOMO instrument). More research on the concept of mobility-related participation and the psychometric qualities of the instrument is required.
Nuclear Retention of Multiply Spliced HIV-1 RNA in Resting CD4+ T Cells

HIV-1 latency in resting CD4+ T cells represents a major barrier to virus eradication in patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). We describe here a novel post-transcriptional block in HIV-1 gene expression in resting CD4+ T cells from patients on HAART. This block involves the aberrant localization of multiply spliced (MS) HIV-1 RNAs encoding the critical positive regulators Tat and Rev. Although these RNAs had no previously described export defect, we show that they exhibit strict nuclear localization in resting CD4+ T cells from patients on HAART. Overexpression of the transcriptional activator Tat from non-HIV vectors allowed virus production in these cells. Thus, the nuclear retention of MS HIV-1 RNA interrupts a positive feedback loop and contributes to the non-productive nature of infection of resting CD4+ T cells. To define the mechanism of nuclear retention, proteomic analysis was used to identify proteins that bind MS HIV-1 RNA. Polypyrimidine tract binding protein (PTB) was identified as an HIV-1 RNA-binding protein differentially expressed in resting and activated CD4+ T cells. Overexpression of PTB in resting CD4+ T cells from patients on HAART allowed cytoplasmic accumulation of HIV-1 RNAs. PTB overexpression also induced virus production by resting CD4+ T cells. Virus culture experiments showed that overexpression of PTB in resting CD4+ T cells from patients on HAART allowed release of replication-competent virus, while preserving a resting cellular phenotype. Whether through effects on RNA export or another mechanism, the ability of PTB to reverse latency without inducing cellular activation is a result with therapeutic implications.
Effect of recall on estimation of non-fatal injury rates: a community based study in Tanzania

Study objective: To investigate the effect of recall on estimation of non-fatal injury rates in Tanzania. Design: Retrospective population based survey. Setting: Eight branches in an urban area and six villages in a relatively prosperous rural area in Tanzania. Subjects: Individuals of all ages living in households selected by cluster sampling. Main outcome measures: Estimated non-fatal injury rates calculated at each of the 12 recall periods (one to 12 months before the interview). Results: Out of a population of 15 223 persons, 509 individuals reported 516 injuries during the preceding year. Of these 313 (61.5%) were males and 196 (38.5%) females. The data showed notable declining incidence rates from 72 per 1000 person-years when based on a one month recall period to 32.7 per 1000 person-years for a 12 month recall period (55% decline). The decline was found for injuries resulting in fewer than 30 days of disability whereas rates for severe injuries (disability of 30 days or more) did not show a consistent variation with recall period. Decline in injury rates by recall period was higher in rural than in urban areas. Age, sex, and education did not notably affect recall. Conclusions: Longer recall periods underestimate injury rates compared with shorter recall periods. For severe injuries, a recall period of up to 12 months does not affect the rate estimates. It is essential that a recall period of less than three months be used to calculate injury rates for less severe injuries.
Effects of cyclophosphamide on murine bone marrow and splenic megakaryocyte‐CFC, granulocyte‐macrophage‐CFC, and peripheral blood cell levels

The effect of cyclophosphamide (CY) on megakaryocytopoiesis in mice was examined with assays of megakaryocyte colony‐forming cells (Meg‐CFC) in bone marrow and spleen and simultaneous determinations of peripheral blood counts, after a single intraperitoneal dose (200 mg/kg) of CY. Significant rebound thrombocytosis (170% of normal) occurred at day 11 after injection with CY, although only modest preceding thrombocytopenia (70% of normal) was observed. After an initial 3–5‐day period of suppression, total megakaryocyte colony‐forming cells (Meg‐CFC) in both bone marrow and spleen of CY‐treated mice demonstrated rebound increases at 5 and 7 days, respectively, after administration of the drug. Granulocyte‐macrophage colony‐forming cells (GM‐CFC) exhibited alterations which were similar to those of Meg‐CFC, suggesting similar sensitivities of Meg‐CFC and GM‐CFC to CY. The increase in Meg‐CFC in both bone marrow and spleen preceded development of thrombocytosis by 4–6 days. This suggests that increased platelet counts in CY‐treated mice are attributable, at least in part, to alterations in feedback mechanisms which control megakaryocytopoiesis, with resultant stimulation of the megakaryocyte progenitor compartment.
Hyper-Reactive Human Ventral Tegmental Area and Aberrant Mesocorticolimbic Connectivity in Overgeneralization of Fear in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) has been primarily implicated in reward-motivated behavior. Recently, aberrant dopaminergic VTA signaling has also been implicated in anxiety-like behaviors in animal models. These findings, however, have yet to be extended to anxiety in humans. Here we hypothesized that clinical anxiety is linked to dysfunction of the mesocorticolimbic circuit during threat processing in humans; specifically, excessive or dysregulated activity of the mesocorticolimbic aversion circuit may be etiologically related to errors in distinguishing cues of threat versus safety, also known as “overgeneralization of fear. ” To test this, we recruited 32 females with generalized anxiety disorder and 25 age-matched healthy control females. We measured brain activity using fMRI while participants underwent a fear generalization task consisting of pseudo-randomly presented rectangles with systematically varying widths. A mid-sized rectangle served as a conditioned stimulus (CS; 50% electric shock probability) and rectangles with widths of CS ±20%, ±40%, and ±60% served as generalization stimuli (GS; never paired with electric shock). Healthy controls showed VTA reactivity proportional to the cue's perceptual similarity to CS (threat). In contrast, patients with generalized anxiety disorder showed heightened and less discriminating VTA reactivity to GS, a feature that was positively correlated with trait anxiety, as well as increased mesocortical and decreased mesohippocampal coupling. Our results suggest that the human VTA and the mesocorticolimbic system play a crucial role in threat processing, and that abnormalities in this system are implicated in maladaptive threat processing in clinical anxiety.
An effective, low-cost measure of semantic relatedness obtained from Wikipedia links

This paper describes a new technique for obtaining measures of semantic relatedness. Like other recent approaches, it uses Wikipedia to provide structured world knowledge about the terms of interest. Our approach is unique in that it does so using the hyperlink structure of Wikipedia rather than its category hierarchy or textual content. Evaluation with manually defined measures of semantic relatedness reveals this to be an effective compromise between the ease of computation of the former approach and the accuracy of the latter.
Making sense of emergent narratives: An architecture supporting player-triggered narrative processes

Emergent games have the particularity to allow more possible situations to emerge than progression games do. Coupled with procedural content generation techniques they also tend to increase the number of possible situations that players can encounter. , However, in case the player is not creative or lucky enough these many emergent situations can have a low narrative value. This article addresses this problem through an architecture that gives players more responsibilities towards the story by allowing them to trigger Narrative Processes. A Narrative Process is a script capable of making meaningful modifications to the story in real time. Our proposed architecture relies on an Interpretation Engine whose role is to make sense of the emergent world as it is changing and inform the Narrative Processes with high level story concepts such as actors and places. , We first cover the basics of emergent games and interactive narratives and then present the architecture behind the Narrative Processes as well as the Interpretation Engine. We conclude by a discussion of the potential impact of our architecture on the fundamental characteristics of emergent games.
The Role of Trust in Financial Sector Development

In any economic environment where decisions are decentralized, agents consider the risk that others might unfairly exploit informational asymmetries to their own disadvantage. Incomplete results, especially, lies at the heart of financial transactions in which agents trade real claims for promises of future real claims. Agents thus need to invest considerable resources to assess the trustworthiness of others with whom they know they can interact only under conditions of limited and asymmetrically distributed information. Thinking of finance as the complex of institutions and instruments needed to reduce the cost of trading promises among anonymous individuals who do not fully trust each other, the author analyzes how incomplete trust shapes the transaction costs in trading assets, and how it affects resource allocation and pricing decisions from rational, forward-looking agents. His analysis leads to core propositions about the role of finance and financial efficiency in economic development. He recommends areas of financial sector reform in emerging economies aimed at improving the financial system's efficiency in dealing with incomplete trust. Among other things, the public sector can improve trust in finance by improving financial infrastructure, including legal systems, financial regulation, and security in payment and trading systems. But fundamental improvements in financial efficiency may best be gained by eliciting good conduct through market forces.
A vitamin D analog inhibits Th2 cytokine- and TGFβ -induced periostin production in fibroblasts: a potential role for vitamin D in skin sclerosis

Scleroderma is an autoimmune disease characterized by extracellular matrix deposition and inflammation. Topical vitamin D analogs have been reported as effective treatments for scleroderma. We previously reported that a matricellular protein, periostin (POSTN), contributes to pathogenesis of scleroderma as POSTN knockout mice were resistant to bleomycin (BLM)-induced scleroderma. We investigated whether a vitamin D analog affects the expression of POSTN in dermal fibroblasts and in a BLM-induced scleroderma model. The vitamin D analog, maxacalcitol (22-oxacalcitriol [OCT]), was applied to dermal fibroblasts and POSTN expression was measured. The effect of OCT on Th2 cytokine- and TGFβ-induced POTSN and Collagen 1 α 1 (Col1A1) expression was also assessed. In vivo, OCT was administered to BLM-induced scleroderma model and outcomes were determined by dermal thickness, collagen density and POSTN expression. Treatment with OCT significantly decreased POSTN expression in dermal fibroblasts. Th2 cytokine- and TGFβ-induced expression of POSTN and Col1A1 was also suppressed by OCT. In vivo, OCT administration decreased the density of collagen bundles and POSTN expression in a BLM-induced scleroderma model. In addition to the previously reported immunosuppressive effect, the vitamin D analog OCT might be effective to treat scleroderma, in part through inhibition of Th2 cytokine- and TGFβ-induced POSTN expression.
Social intuition as a form of implicit learning: Sequences of body movements are learned less explicitly than letter sequences

In the current paper, we first evaluate the suitability of traditional serial reaction time (SRT) and artificial grammar learning (AGL) experiments for measuring implicit learning of social signals. We then report the results of a novel sequence learning task which combines aspects of the SRT and AGL paradigms to meet our suggested criteria for how implicit learning experiments can be adapted to increase their relevance to situations of social intuition. The sequences followed standard finite-state grammars. Sequence learning and consciousness of acquired knowledge were compared between 2 groups of 24 participants viewing either sequences of individually presented letters or sequences of body-posture pictures, which were described as series of yoga movements. Participants in both conditions showed above-chance classification accuracy, indicating that sequence learning had occurred in both stimulus conditions. This shows that sequence learning can still be found when learning procedures reflect the characteristics of social intuition. Rule awareness was measured using trial-by-trial evaluation of decision strategy (Dienes & Scott, 2005; Scott & Dienes, 2008). For letters, sequence classification was best on trials where participants reported responding on the basis of explicit rules or memory, indicating some explicit learning in this condition. For body-posture, classification was not above chance on these types of trial, but instead showed a trend to be best on those trials where participants reported that their responses were based on intuition, familiarity, or random choice, suggesting that learning was more implicit. Results therefore indicate that the use of traditional stimuli in research on sequence learning might underestimate the extent to which learning is implicit in domains such as social learning, contributing to ongoing debate about levels of conscious awareness in implicit learning.
The ironic e ff ect of guessing : increased false memory for mediated lists in younger and older adults

Younger and older adults studied lists of words directly (e.g., creek, water) or indirectly (e.g., beaver, faucet) related to a nonpresented critical lure (CL; e.g., river). Indirect (i.e., mediated) lists presented items that were only related to CLs through nonpresented mediators (i.e., directly related items). Following study, participants completed a condition-specific task, math, a recall test with or without a warning about the CL, or tried to guess the CL. On a final recognition test, warnings (vs. math and recall without warning) decreased false recognition for direct lists, and guessing increased mediated false recognition (an ironic effect of guessing) in both age groups. The observed age-invariance of the ironic effect of guessing suggests that processes involved in mediated false memory are preserved in aging and confirms the effect is largely due to activation in semantic networks during encoding and to the strengthening of these networks during the interpolated tasks. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 20 January 2015 Accepted 26 August 2015
Melanoma detection by analysis of clinical images using convolutional neural network

Melanoma, most threatening type of skin cancer, is on the rise. In this paper an implementation of a deep-learning system on a computer server, equipped with graphic processing unit (GPU), is proposed for detection of melanoma lesions. Clinical (non-dermoscopic) images are used in the proposed system, which could assist a dermatologist in early diagnosis of this type of skin cancer. In the proposed system, input clinical images, which could contain illumination and noise effects, are preprocessed in order to reduce such artifacts. Afterward, the enhanced images are fed to a pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) which is a member of deep learning models. The CNN classifier, which is trained by large number of training samples, distinguishes between melanoma and benign cases. Experimental results show that the proposed method is superior in terms of diagnostic accuracy in comparison with the state-of-the-art methods.