Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Axonal damage markers in cerebrospinal fluid are increased in ALS

Objective: To test whether biomarkers for axonal degeneration correlated with clinical subtypes and were of use in predicting progression of ALS. Methods: Patients with ALS (n = 69), patients with Alzheimer disease (AD; n = 73), and age-matched controls (n = 33) were included in this prospective study. CSF levels of tau protein and neurofilaments (NfHSMI35) were measured using ELISA. In 49 patients with ALS, follow-up data were available (median follow-up 7 months). Results: CSF levels of NfHSMI35 were five times higher in patients with ALS (1.7 ng/mL) than in controls (0.3 ng/mL, p < 0.001) and 10 times higher than in patients with AD (0.14 ng/mL, p < 0.001). NfHSMI35 values were also higher in patients with upper motor neuron–dominant ALS than in patients with typical ALS (upper motor neuron + lower motor neuron) at p = 0.02. Values of NfHSMI35 were higher in ALS of more rapid progression. The values of NfH and tau did not correlate with CSF protein content. Conclusions: The authors propose that axonal damage markers in CSF may discriminate between subtypes of ALS and that they could be used as markers for therapeutic trials. CSF NfH was superior to tau in these discriminations.
Post-thoracotomy pain and long-term survival associated with video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy methods for clinical T1N0 lung cancer: a patient-oriented, prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVES To provide a less-invasive procedure for video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), we prospectively evaluated the feasibility of two existing VATS approaches. METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort study to determine the feasibility of two strictly defined types of VATS lobectomy. Based on free decisions made by patients after hearing similar preoperative explanations using the same table, either one modality was adopted. The perioperative variables, including operation time, blood loss, morbidity, mortality and particularly post-thoracotomy pain and long-term survival, were evaluated for the assisted VATS and the complete VATS groups. RESULTS We reviewed 104 consecutive patients who had clinical T1N0M0 non-small-cell lung cancer. Twenty-six patients (ASSIST group) chose lobectomy performed via an anterolateral small thoracotomy by using a rib spreader with a combination of thoracoscopic and direct views. Seventy-eight patients (PURE group) chose complete VATS in which only a monitor was used during smaller-access thoracotomy without a rib spreader. All clinical parameters that were scheduled to be measured during the perioperative period were found to be acceptable using both approaches. The ASSIST group had a significantly high odds ratio of using additional painkillers except epidural anaesthesia when compared with the PURE group, as shown by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Patients in the PURE group exhibited early recovery from surgery, but their operation time was longer. Disease-free and overall 5-year survival rates were equivalent between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Both procedures are feasible with regard to perioperative factors and long-term survival rates. Patients undergoing complete VATS required less medication than those undergoing assisted VATS.
An Efficient Public Auditing Protocol With Novel Dynamic Structure for Cloud Data

With the rapid development of cloud computing, cloud storage has been accepted by an increasing number of organizations and individuals, therein serving as a convenient and on-demand outsourcing application. However, upon losing local control of data, it becomes an urgent need for users to verify whether cloud service providers have stored their data securely. Hence, many researchers have devoted themselves to the design of auditing protocols directed at outsourced data. In this paper, we propose an efficient public auditing protocol with global and sampling blockless verification as well as batch auditing, where data dynamics are substantially more efficiently supported than is the case with the state of the art. Note that, the novel dynamic structure in our protocol consists of a doubly linked info table and a location array. Moreover, with such a structure, computational and communication overheads can be reduced substantially. Security analysis indicates that our protocol can achieve the desired properties. Moreover, numerical analysis and real-world experimental results demonstrate that the proposed protocol achieves a given efficiency in practice.
Atorvastatin improves systolic function, but does not prevent the development of dilated cardiomyopathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Background: Therapy with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) has been associated with a significant reduction in the number of major cardiovascular (CV) events in diabetic patients. The mechanisms by which these drugs improve cardiac status remain unclear. We assessed the effects of atorvastatin (10 mg/kg/day) on CV function in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Methods: Age-matched, nondiabetic rats were used as controls. Echocardiographic parameters, systolic blood pressure (SBP), endothelial-dependent relaxation, cardiac and vascular oxidative stress, perivascular fibrosis, and cholesterol levels were evaluated after a 4-week atorvastatin treatment period. Results: In diabetic rats, SBP was higher than in controls. Atorvastatin decreased SBP in diabetic rats by 14% (n = 10, p < 0.05), and significantly increased stroke volume, ejection fraction, and cardiac output index. Whereas atorvastatin reduced left ventricular end systolic volume (LVESV) by 50% (p < 0.05), it failed to reduce left ventricular end diastolic volume (LVEDV). Total cholesterol was higher in diabetic rats than in controls and atorvastatin was ineffective in reducing cholesterol levels. The statin, however, decreased perivascular fibrosis and media thickness, and the markers of oxidative stress malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hidroxyalkenals (4-HAE) in aortic homogenates from diabetic rats. In addition, atorvastatin improved endothelial function by increasing the EMAX value of the acetylcholine-induced relaxation from 53.7 ± 4.1% in untreated diabetic to 82.1 ± 7.0% in treated diabetic rats (n = 10, p < 0.05). L-NAME fully abolished this improvement, suggesting that the increased vascular relaxation with atorvastatin is NO-dependent. Conclusions: Whereas atorvastatin does not reverse ventricular dilatation, it does have a positive hemodynamic effect on the CV system of diabetic rats. This hemodynamic benefit is independent of cholesterol levels, and is observed concomitantly with reduced oxidative stress, vascular remodeling, and improved endothelial function. Together, these results suggest that atorvastatin decreases the workload on the heart and improves systolic performance in type 1 diabetic rats by reducing oxidative stress, vascular tone, and systemic vascular resistance.
The acquisition of auxiliary syntax: a longitudinal elicitation study. Part 2: the modals and auxiliary DO.

PURPOSE The study of auxiliary acquisition is central to work on language development and has attracted theoretical work from both nativist and constructivist approaches. This study is part of a 2-part companion set that represents a unique attempt to trace the development of auxiliary syntax by using a longitudinal elicitation methodology. The aim of the research described in this part is to track the development of modal auxiliaries and auxiliary DO in questions and declaratives to provide a more complete picture of the development of the auxiliary system in English-speaking children. METHOD Twelve English-speaking children participated in 2 tasks designed to elicit auxiliaries CAN, WILL, and DOES in declaratives and yes/no questions. They completed each task 6 times in total between the ages of 2;10 (years;months) and 3;6. RESULTS The children's levels of correct use of the target auxiliaries differed in complex ways according to auxiliary, polarity, and sentence structure, and these relations changed over development. An analysis of the children's errors also revealed complex interactions between these factors. CONCLUSIONS These data cannot be explained in full by existing theories of auxiliary acquisition. Researchers working within both generativist and constructivist frameworks need to develop more detailed theories of acquisition that predict the pattern of acquisition observed.
Ready to Make Nice: Parental Socialization of Young Sons' and Daughters' Prosocial Behaviors With Peers

In this study, the authors examined the extent to which maternal and paternal parenting styles, cognitions, and behaviors were associated with young girls' and boys' more compassionate (prototypically feminine) and more agentic (prototypically masculine) prosocial behaviors with peers. Parents of 133 preschool-aged children reported on their authoritative parenting style, attributions for children's prosocial behavior, and responses to children's prosocial behavior. Approximately 6 months later, children's more feminine and more masculine prosocial behaviors were observed during interactions with unfamiliar peers and reported on by their preschool teachers. Boys and girls did not differ in the observed and teacher-reported measures of prosocial behavior. Compared to other parents, fathers of boys were less likely to express affection or respond directly to children's prosocial behavior. Mothers' authoritative style, internal attributions for prosocial behavior, and positive responses to prosocial behavior predicted girls' displays of more feminine prosocial actions and boys' displays of more masculine prosocial actions toward peers. Relations were similar but weaker for fathers' parenting, and after accounting for mother' scores, fathers' scores accounted for unique variance in only one analysis: Teachers reported more masculine prosocial behavior in boys of fathers who discussed prosocial behavior. Overall, the results support a model of parental socialization of sex-typed prosocial behavior and indicate that mothers contribute more strongly than do fathers to both daughters' and sons' prosocial development.
Acetylcholine and choline effects on erythrocyte nitrite and nitrate levels

Acetylcholine has been detected in human blood. Acetylcholine receptors and acetylcholinesterase are present in erythrocyte membranes. We tested the acetylcholine and choline effects on nitric oxide metabolites (NOx), namely nitrites and nitrates, and observed if they are dependent on interactions with muscarinic receptors and acetylcholinesterase. Human erythrocyte suspensions were incubated with acetylcholine and choline in the absence or presence of 10 µM atropine or 10 µM velnacrine maleate. The nitrite and nitrate concentrations were determined by the Griess method. Acetylcholine or choline increased NOx control concentrations (P < 0.001). The nitrite concentrations decreased in the presence of atropine or velnacrine maleate (P < 0.03). The nitrate concentrations only decreased when velnacrine maleate was incubated with acetylcholine or choline (10 µM, P < 0.03). These results demonstrated that acetylcholine and choline modulate nitric oxide metabolites on erythrocytes and this effect is mediated by interactions with erythrocyte membrane muscarinic receptors and membrane enzyme acetylcholinesterase. A hypothesis for the signal transduction mechanism has been discussed for acetylcholinesterase and muscarinic receptor (M1) participation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
TraVis - A visualization framework for mobile transect data sets in an urban microclimate context

In urban microclimate research, mobile transects are utilized to observe the relationship between atmospheric variables and the urban environment. However, the data sets resulting from mobile measurements are complex: They are spatially dependent, multivariate, and often-times multitemporal. At the same time, the spatial context of each observation - its field of view and area represented - is physically complex and dynamic. These properties make analysis and visualization challenging. We present a prototype visualization framework that assists researchers in the analysis of mobile transect measurements. The system enables users to visualize and explore observations as walls that delineate the transect route on a map. The observed attributes are stacked upon each other within these walls as ribbons to facilitate the qualitative analysis of spatial variability and multivariate correlations. The relationship between observations and spatial context can interactively be explored by moving a slider along the transect route. For each observation on the track, the spatially contextual source area is displayed and linked to a view of the fraction of land cover classes contained within the source area. These qualitative analysis capabilities are complemented by an interactive clustering interface, which allows for the classification of transect segments according to a coherent pattern of multivariate relationships between a user-defined set of observations. The framework was developed by a team comprising both visualization and urban microclimate researchers, and a case study shows its utility for this specialized application.
The central organization of the vagus nerve innervating the stomach of the rat

We employed the neural tracers cholera toxin‐norseradish peroxidase and wheat germ agglutinin‐horseradisn peroxidase to examine the organization of the afferent and efferent connections of the stomach within the medulla oblongata of the rat. The major finding of this study is that gastric motoneurons of the dorsal motor nucleus (DMN) possess numerous dendrites penetrating discrete regions of the overlying nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). In particular, dendritic labelling was present in areas of NTS which also received terminals of gastric vagal afferent fibers such as the subnucleus gelatinosus, nucleus commissuralis, and medial nucleus of NTS. This codistribution of afferent and efferent elements of the gastric vagus may provide loci for monosynaptic vagovagal interactions. A small number of dendrites of DMN neurons penetrated the ependyma of the fourth ventricle and a few others entered the ventral aspect of the area postrema, thus making possible the direct contact of preganglionic neurons with humoral input from the cerebrospinal fluid and/or the peripheral plasma. Nucleus ambiguus neurons projecting to the stomach predominantly innervate the forestomach. The dendrites of these cells, when labelled, were generally short, and extended beyond the compact cluster of ambiguus neurons in a ventrolateral direction, parallel to the fascicles of vagal efferent fibers traversing the medulla.
CFD‐aided design of a dynamic filter for mammalian cell separation

In the present work, a rotating disk filter was designed for mammalian cell separation with the aim of avoiding both cell damage and membrane fouling. Different geometric and operational variables of the rotating disk filter were studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) by varying rotor radius, rotor angle, membrane–rotor distance, and angular velocity. The combinations of these variables followed a statistical design, so that an analysis of the CFD results provided correlations describing the average shear stress on the membrane surface and the maximum shear stress in the whole module as a function of the variables studied. Based on these correlations, and on the shear resistance levels of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and baby hamster kidney (BHK) cell lines, which were investigated using a cone‐and‐plate viscosimeter, it was possible to determine the geometry and angular velocity that would minimize both cell damage and membrane fouling. After construction, the filter was tested in filtration experiments at increasing permeate fluxes. Cell viability remained >90% for the duration of the experiments (2.5 h), and no indication of fouling was observed. It was shown that the designed dynamic filter is able to effectively avoid both cell damage and membrane fouling, and thus can be used for mammalian cell harvesting and perfusion. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 83: 514–524, 2003.
Impact of Anesthesia and Surgery for Congenital Heart Disease on the Vitamin D Status of Infants and Children: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Background:Vitamin D is recognized as a pleiotropic hormone important for the functioning of organ systems, including those central to critical illness pathophysiology. Recent studies have reported associations between vitamin D status and outcome among critically ill adults and children. Preoperative vitamin D status, impact of operative techniques, and relationship between immediate postoperative vitamin D levels and clinical course have not been described in the pediatric congenital heart disease (CHD) population. The objective of this study was to describe the impact of CHD surgery on vitamin D status and relationship between postoperative levels and clinical course. Methods:A prospective cohort study was conducted from 2009 to 2011 at a single tertiary care pediatric hospital. A total of 58 children with CHD were enrolled and blood collected preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) was measured using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Results:The mean preoperative 25OHD was 58.0 nM (SD, 22.4), with 42% being deficient (<50 nM). Postoperatively, we identified a 40% decline in 25OHD to 34.2 nM (SD, 14.5) with 86% being deficient. Intraoperative measurements determined that initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass coincided with abrupt decline. CHD patients requiring catecholamines had lower postoperative 25OHD (38.2 vs. 26.5 nM, P = 0.007), findings confirmed through multivariate logistic regression. Lower postoperative 25OHD was associated with increased fluid requirements and intubation duration. Conclusions:Most CHD patients are vitamin-D deficient postoperatively due to low preoperative levels and a significant intraoperative decline. Interventional studies will be required to determine whether prevention of postoperative vitamin D deficiency improves outcome.
State Regulation in Adult ADHD: An Event-related Potential Study

The state regulation hypothesis postulates that poor task performance of children with ADHD is related to poor energetical state control. The current study aimed to investigate whether such a deficit persists in adult ADHD. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during administration of a Go/No-Go task that incorporated the stressor presentation rate of stimuli. It was found that males with ADHD responded slower than control males in the slow condition, which was accompanied by smaller parietal P3s, suggesting less effort allocation. No group differences were found with respect to the response inhibition measures (errors of commission and the N2 effect). In conclusion, problems in state regulation seem to persist in male adults with ADHD.
Agonist‐Evoked Ca2+ Mobilization from Stores Expressing Inositol 1,4,5‐Trisphosphate Receptors and Ryanodine Receptors in Cerebellar Granule Neurones

Abstract: The mechanisms involved in Ca2+ mobilization evoked by the muscarinic cholinoceptor (mAChR) agonist carbachol (CCh) and N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) in cerebellar granule cells have been investigated. An initial challenge with caffeine greatly reduced the subsequent intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) response to CCh (to 45 ± 19% of the control), and, similarly, a much reduced caffeine response was detectable after prior stimulation with CCh (to 27 ± 6% of the control). CCh‐evoked [Ca2+]i responses were inhibited by preincubation with thapsigargin (10 µM), 2,5‐di(tert‐butyl)‐1,4‐benzohydroquinone (BHQ; 25 µM), ryanodine (10 µM), or dantrolene (25 µM). BHQ pretreatment was found to have no effect on the sustained phase of the NMDA‐evoked [Ca2+]i response. Both CCh (1 mM) and 1‐aminocyclopentane‐1S,3R‐dicarboxylic acid (ACPD; 200 µM) evoked a much diminished increase in [Ca2+]i in granule cells pretreated with CCh for 24 h compared with vehicle‐treated control cells (CCh, 23 ± 14%; ACPD, 27 ± 1% of respective control values). In contrast, a 24‐h CCh pretreatment decreased the subsequent inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (InsP3) response to CCh to a much greater extent compared with responses evoked by metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) agonists; this suggests that the former effect on Ca2+ mobilization represents a heterologous desensitization of the mGluR‐mediated response distal to the pathway second messenger. Furthermore, [Ca2+]i responses to caffeine and NMDA were unaffected by a 24‐h pretreatment with CCh. This study indicates that ryanodine receptors, as well as InsP3 receptors, appear to be crucial to the mAChR‐mediated [Ca2+]i response in granule cells. As BHQ apparently differentiates between the CCh‐ and NMDA‐evoked responses, it is possible that the directly InsP3‐sensitive pool is physically different from the ryanodine receptor pool. Also, activation of InsP3 receptors may not contribute significantly to NMDA‐evoked elevation of [Ca2+]i in cerebellar granule cells. A model for the topographic organization of cerebellar granule cell Ca2+ stores is proposed.
Insulin and novel thioglycosides exert suppressive effect on human breast and colon carcinoma cells

The rationale for the implementation of novel therapies should be based on hallmarks of cancer. Two novel compounds labelled as thioglycoside A and B were designed and evaluated on breast and colon cancer cell lines. We assessed their cytotoxic effect after sensitizing cancer cells with insulin. In order to explore the underlying mechanisms, we performed tests to assess cell migration and motility, apoptosis, expression of glucose transporter 1 and proapoptotic proteins. Both compounds proved to have an antitumor effect which was significantly enhanced in combination with insulin. Linking glucose and anticancer agent presents an approach that exploits the Warburg effect. Targeting dysfunctional glycometabolism and increased glucose absorption is emerging as a promising anticancer strategy.
Studies on integrated weed management in onion (Allium cepa L.)

Effective weed control was attained under oxyfluorfen 0.26 kg a.i./ha with hand weeding (30 DAT), followed by oxyfluorfen 0.26 kg a.i./ha + oxyfluorfen 0.26 kg a.i./ha (30 DAT). The same treatments showed higher weed control efficiency (97.11 and 96.66% respectively) and lower weed index (3.57% and 33.48% respectively). Significantly higher weed growth was recorded in un-weeded control, with lower weed control efficiency and higher weed index.