Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Normative data of a brief neuropsychological battery for Spanish individuals older than 49

There is an increasing need for standardized assessment of cognition in older patients that is relatively brief, easy to administer, and has normative data adjusted for age and educational attainment. We tested 332 literate, cognitively normal, Spanish persons older than 49 years from the Memory Clinic of Fundació ACE, Institut Català de Neurociències Aplicades (Barcelona, Spain) with measures of cognitive information processing speed, orientation, attention, verbal learning and memory, language, visuoperception, praxis, and executive functions. Several of the tests were affected by age, education, and/or gender, but the language of administration (i.e., Spanish or Catalan) did not affect the test scores. Standardized scores and percentile ranks were calculated for each age and/or education group for use by clinical neuropsychologists.
Beneficial effects of exclusive enteral nutrition in Crohn's disease are not mediated by Faecalibacterium prausnitzii.

bacterium Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is protective in DNBS-induced chronic moderate and severe colitis models. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2014;20:417–430. 3. Carlsson AH, Yakymenko O, Olivier I, et al. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii supernatant improves intestinal barrier function in mice DSS colitis. Scand J Gastroenterol. 2013;48:1136–1144. 4. Kyriakis JM, Avruch J. Mammalian MAPK signal transduction pathways activated by stress and inflammation: a 10-year update. Physiol Rev. 2012;92: 689–737. 5. Faccidomo S, Besheer J, Stanford PC, Hodge CW. Increased operant responding for ethanol in male C57BL/6J mice: specific regulation by the ERK1/2, but not JNK, MAP kinase pathway. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2009;204:135–147. 6. Thomas CM, Versalovic J. Probiotics-host communication: modulation of signaling pathways in the intestine. Gut Microbes. 2010;1:148–163. 7. Fujiya M, Musch MW, Nakagawa Y, et al. The Bacillus subtilis quorum-sensing molecule CSF contributes to intestinal homeostasis via OCTN2, a host cell membrane transporter. Cell Host Microbe. 2007;1:299–308. 8. Matsuguchi T, Takagi A, Matsuzaki T, et al. Lipoteichoic acids from Lactobacillus strains elicit strong tumor necrosis factor alpha-inducing activities in macrophages through Toll-like receptor 2. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. 2003;10:259–266. 9. Resta-Lenert S, Barrett KE. Probiotics and commensals reverse TNF-alphaand IFN-gamma-induced dysfunction in human intestinal epithelial cells. Gastroenterology. 2006;130:731–746.
Recent developments in antitumour taxoids

Since the FDA approval of paclitaxel (Taxol®, Bristol-Myers Squibb) and docetaxel (Taxotere®, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer SA, now Aventis) as anticancer drugs, a number of new analogues have been prepared with the view of obtaining taxoids with better potency and bioavailability to targeted cells, as well as taxoids efficient in targeting multi-drug resistant cancer or taxoids acting as modulators of multi-drug resistance (MDR). Studies have also been performed in the search for improved methods in the natural or synthetic preparation of these important anticancer drugs. This review summarises the key aspects of recent patent applications relating to antitumour taxoids that have been published between January 2000 and December 2002. In particular, the review focuses on new processes for the isolation and preparation of antitumour taxoids, new potent taxoids and analogues with improved solubility, as well as taxoid formulation, delivery and association.
Affective modulation of the startle reflex following traumatic brain injury

Diminished emotional recognition, expression, and responsivity are frequent legacies of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that can have an adverse impact on relationships and psychosocial recovery. However, assessment of emotion responsivity is often difficult because many patients lack insight into their altered personality. To overcome this obstacle, we used a physiological measure of emotion responsivity, the startle reflex, to examine how this can vary according to the affective valence of stimuli by comparing a TBI group with a matched control group. The study also examined whether weaknesses of attention and speed of information processing could account for differences in startle modulation across groups. Sixty-four TBI patients and controls completed the startle reflex procedure. Participants were presented with pictures that differed in affective valence, and measures were taken of eyeblink startle responses to an acoustic probe. Subjective ratings of affect and arousal for each picture were obtained, and TBI patients completed measures of attention and information processing. Results revealed that the TBI group did not show the pattern of startle modulation observed in the control group. Whilst pleasant pictures produced the usual attenuation of the startle response, startle responses to unpleasant pictures were significantly lower in the TBI group than in controls. No significant correlations emerged between startle responses and performance on neuropsychological measures in the TBI group. The TBI group also rated unpleasant pictures as significantly less arousing than did controls. The results provide partial support for a growing body of evidence that has proposed impaired emotion responsivity following TBI.
Prospective memory in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND): The neuropsychological dynamics of time monitoring

Strategic monitoring during a delay interval is theorized to be an essential feature of time-based prospective memory (TB PM), the cognitive architecture of which is thought to rely heavily on frontostriatal systems and executive functions. This hypothesis was examined in 55 individuals with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and 108 seronegative comparison participants who were administered the Memory for Intentions Screening Test (MIST), during which time-monitoring (clock-checking) behavior was measured. Results revealed a significant interaction between HAND group and the frequency of clock checking, in which individuals with HAND checked the clock significantly less often than the comparison group across the TB PM retention intervals of the MIST. Subsequent analyses in the HAND sample revealed that the frequency of clocking checking was positively related to overall TB performance, as well as to standard clinical measures of retrospective memory and verbal fluency. These findings add support to a growing body of research elucidating TB PM's reliance on strategic monitoring processes dependent upon intact frontostriatal systems. HIV-associated TB strategic time-monitoring deficits may manifest in poorer functioning outcomes, including medication nonadherence and dependence in activities of daily living. Future research is needed to further delineate the cognitive mechanisms underlying strategic time monitoring in order to advise rehabilitation strategies for reducing HAND-related TB PM deficits.
Requirement for NF‐κB in interleukin‐4‐induced androgen receptor activation in prostate cancer cells

Accumulating evidence suggest a critical role of activation of androgen receptor (AR) by nonandrogen in the development of androgen independent prostate cancer. Previous study identified that interleukin‐4 (IL‐4) enhances AR activation in the absence of androgen or in the very low levels of androgen in prostate cancer cells. In this study, the mechanism of IL‐4‐induced AR activation was investigated.
Transcranial near infrared laser therapy (NILT) to treat acute ischemic stroke: a review of efficacy, safety and possible mechanism of action derived from rabbit embolic stroke studies

Studies using the rabbit small clot or rabbit large clot embolic stroke models (RSCEM and RLCEM respectively) allowed us to alter a single NILT variable while keeping all other variables constant to investigate the variable's effect on the rabbit's behavioral performance following embolization. In this paper we review results from multiple studies. Using the RSCEM, we found that Continuous Wave (CW) NILT significantly improves behavioral function when NILT is administered up to 6 hour post-embolization at 808nm; a durable effect that can last up to 21 days following a single treatment. Using the RLCEM we found that NILT did not significantly alter intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) incidence following embolization, and since intravenous (IV) tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is currently the primary treatment of acute ischemic stroke (AIS), we used the RLCEM to determine the safety profile of NILT in combination with tPA. IV tPA increased ICH incidence by 160%. NILT did not affect the tPA-induced increase in ICH. Lastly, since the cellular mechanism(s) involved in NILT-mediated neuroprotection have not been elucidated, we measured the effect of CW and Pulse Wave (PW) NILT on cortical adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content as an indicator of improved cellular energetics using the RSCEM. Embolization decreased cortical ATP content by 45% compared to naive rabbits, a decrease that was attenuated by CW NILT (p>0.05). Following PW NILT, delivering 5-35 times higher peak cortical irradiances than CW NILT, we measured larger increases in cortical ATP content. This is the first demonstration that NILT significantly increased cortical ATP content in embolized animals.
Trends in prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia in a Japanese community: the Hisayama Study

Sekita A, Ninomiya T, Tanizaki Y, Doi Y, Hata J, Yonemoto K, Arima H, Sasaki K, Iida M, Iwaki T, Kanba S, Kiyohara Y. Trends in prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia in a Japanese community: the Hisayama Study.
Validation of the Affective Word List as a measure of verbal learning and memory

Introduction: This study evaluated the Affective Word List (AWL), a measure designed to assess affective bias, as a measure of verbal learning and memory in the context of baseline concussion evaluations. The AWL was developed to assess affective bias in order to circumvent the tendency of some examinees to minimize self-report of depression symptoms. However, because it is designed as a traditional list-learning task, the cognitive indices of the AWL have the added potential to be used as measures of verbal learning and memory. It would be useful to have a performance-based measure that is sensitive to both the affective and cognitive consequences of concussion. Method: Participants from a university-based sports concussion program were used to evaluate the descriptive statistics and distribution of the AWL and its convergent and discriminant validity. A separate sample of undergraduate students, active in intramural or club athletics, served as participants for a delayed alternate-form reliability study. All reliability and validity results were compared with those of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test–Revised (HVLT–R) and the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing Verbal Memory Composite (ImPACT-VM). Results: Results of this study showed that the cognitive indices of the AWL have normal distributions, and its four forms are equivalent. The AWL demonstrated moderate delayed alternate-form reliability, moderate convergent validity with other measures of verbal learning and memory, and strong discriminant validity with measures of processing speed and reaction time. Conclusions: Results of this study suggest that the AWL may have clinical utility as a measure of verbal learning and memory in concussion management and research.
The efficacy and safety of donepezil in patients with Alzheimer's disease: Results of a US multicentre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of donepezil in patients with mild to moderately severe Alzheimer''s disease, and examined the relationships between plasma donepezil concentration, red blood cell acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity and clinical response. The trial was of a multicenter, double-blind, parallel-group design and patients were randomised to once-daily treatment with either donepezil (1, 3 or 5 mg) or placebo. The 12-week double-blind phase was followed by a 2-week single-blind placebo washout. 161 patients (55-85 years of age) entered the study and 141 completed treatment. Patients treated with donepezil showed dose-related improvements in the Alzheimer''s Disease Assessment Scale - cognitive subscale score (ADAS-cog) and in MMSE scores. The improvements in ADAS-cog were statistically significantly greater with donepezil 5 mg/day than with placebo. There was a 50% reduction in the percentage of patients showing clinical decline with donepezil at 5 mg/day (11%) relative to placebo (20%). In addition, a statistically significant correlation between plasma concentrations of donepezil and AChE inhibition was demonstrated. A plateau of inhibition (76-84%) was reached at plasma donepezil concentrations >50 ng/ml. The correlation between plasma drug concentrations and ADAS-cog (p = 0.014), MMSE (p = 0.023) and patient quality of life scores, assessed by the patient (p = 0.037) were also statistically significant, as was the correlation between AChE inhibition and change in ADAS-cog (p = 0.008). The incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events with all three dosages of donepezil (64-68%) was comparable to that observed with placebo (65%). Donepezil had no clinically significant effect on vital signs, haematology or clinical biochemistry tests. Importantly, donepezil was not associated with any hepatotoxicity, as observed with acridine-based cholinesterase inhibitors.
African Americans May Access the Emergency Department for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Care More Often than Whites.

To the Editor: We read with interest the article by Dotson et al entitled “Racial disparities in readmission, complications, and procedures in children with Crohn’s disease. ” The findings support previous studies, which demonstrated potential racial differences in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) manifestations, intestinal resections, and hospitalizations. However, it remains uncertain if racial disparities are the result of differences in genetics, health care access, or treatment. Notably, emergency department utilization may be a reflection of disease severity. We were specifically interested in learning if there were racial differences in emergency department utilization by patients with IBD at the University Medical Center who had established gastroenterology care. A retrospective chart review was conducted of 208 consecutive African American and white patients with IBD using the Emergency Department at the University Medical Center during an 18-month period. Emergency department visits were considered IBD-related if they included any gastrointestinal complaint or potential extraintestinal manifestations (i.e., rash, joint pain, ocular complaints). There were 79 African American (64 women, 15 men) and 139 white (64 women, 75 men) patients. One hundred eighteen had Crohn’s disease (43 African American, 75 white). There were a total of 117 IBD-related emergency department visits. African Americans had an average of 1.0 IBD-related emergency department visits, whereas whites averaged 0.28 IBD-related emergency department visits during the 18-month period. African Americans were found to have significantly more IBD-related emergency department visits than their white counterparts (P 1⁄4 0.005). There was no statistical difference in the rate of emergency department visits between African American women and men (P 1⁄4 0.460) or white women and men (P 1⁄4 0.175). In this population of patients with IBD, African Americans averaged 3.69 and whites averaged 3.01 gastroenterology office visits. African American patients had significantly more gastroenterology office visits than whites (P 1⁄4 0.040). Dotson et al revealed significant differences in hospital readmissions between African Americans and whites. Although our study is limited based on size and singleinstitution design, we found significant differences in emergency department utilization and gastroenterology office visits between African American and white patients with IBD. Because all patients had established gastroenterology care, it is possible that greater emergency department use and gastroenterology office visits by African Americans with IBD may reflect more severe disease. However, accessing the emergency department for care may simply be a reflection of immediate clinician availability. Further study is necessary to evaluate the influence of race on IBD manifestations, treatment, and health care utilization.
Capillary electrophoresis separation of human milk neutral and acidic oligosaccharides derivatized with 2‐aminoacridone

Human milk is a unique fluid in glycobiology due to the presence of many free structurally complex oligosaccharides emerging as important dietary factors during early life and having many biological and protective functions. Methods that allow accurate profiling of oligosaccharide mixtures in this complex biological fluid with quantification of the four known genetically determined groups are welcomed. A high‐voltage CE separation and detection at 254 nm of 17 neutral and acidic human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) standard along with lactose derivatized with 2‐aminoacridone, using a BGE containing 20% methanol as an organic modifier and borate, able to form on‐capillary anionic borate‐polyol complexes, is reported. This CE approach was able to separate both neutral HMOs and acidic HMOs, with the sialic acid residue, also in the presence of lactose in high content. This method was applied to the four secretory groups individually extracted by a rapid and simple preparative step. LODs were found ranging from ∼50 to 700 fmol. We were able to measure HMO content also in the presence of excess fluorophore, or interference from proteins, peptides, salts, and other impurities normally present in this complex biological fluid. Overall, CE equipped with a UV detector is a common analytical approach and this simple CE separation offers high resolution and sensitivity for the differentiation of human milk samples related to genetic groups and days of lactation by considering that important changes in HMO content are a reflection of the lactation day.
Longitudinal MRI study of cortical thickness, perfusion, and metabolite levels in major depressive disorder

Järnum H, Eskildsen SF, Steffensen EG, Lundbye‐Christensen S, Simonsen CW, Thomsen IS, Fründ E‐T, Théberge J, Larsson E‐M. Longitudinal MRI study of cortical thickness, perfusion, and metabolite levels in major depressive disorder.
Evidence that interactive effects of COMT and MTHFR moderate psychotic response to environmental stress

Peerbooms O, Rutten BPF, Collip D, Lardinois M, Lataster T, Thewissen V, Mafi Rad S, Drukker M, Kenis G, van Os J, Myin‐Germeys I, van Winkel R. Evidence that interactive effects of COMT and MTHFR moderate psychotic response to environmental stress.
Treatment Nonadherence in In fl ammatory Bowel Disease : Identi fi cation , Scope , and Management Strategies

Treatment adherence is of critical importance in the management of patients with IBD. Poor adherence can lead to increased disease activity, loss of response to therapy, and increased costs of care. It has been well established that adherence to long-term therapy for chronic illnesses is extremely poor, averaging around 50% in developed countries. Measured rates of nonadherence in IBD are similar, but vary depending on the type of therapy and the population being observed. This article reviews the scientific data on treatment nonadherence in IBD. The methods commonly used to evaluate treatment adherence investigation are reviewed. The consequences and scope of treatment nonadherence are summarized. Finally, the scientific data on management strategies to address the problem of treatment nonadherence are explored. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2015;21:2979–2984)
Cost of Care Among Patients With Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Lagos, Nigeria

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health challenge. Currently it is the 7th leading cause of death worldwide, and Nigeria ranks fourth amongst 22 high-burden countries for the disease. This study sought to appraise the direct and indirect costs borne by TB patients attending the Chest Clinics at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja and Mainland Hospital, (formerly Infectious Disease Hospital), Yaba, both in Lagos, Nigeria. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2008, recruiting all consenting TB patients that had commenced treatment at the Chest Clinics of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja and Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria. Data were collected with the aid of 205 pretested, self-administered questionnaires and analysed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 12.0; SPSS Inc. 2003). Long-run average costs were employed in accordance with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Guidelines for Cost and Cost- Effectiveness Analysis of Tuberculosis Control, converting at US$1=N120. Result Throughout the duration of treatment, the typical TB patient earned an annual income of fifteen thousand, seven hundred and ninety five thousand naira only (N15, 795), equivalent to about one hundred and thirty-two dollars (US$132) and spent 7% of this on transport fare to attend his clinic daily. Direct costs (medical and non-medical) ranged between US$113 and US$401 with an average of US$161.28. This equates to 10% of the typical patient’s annual income (123% of the mean monthly income). Mean number of days lost from work due to TB was 45. TB disrupted working relationships, threatened jobs and led to actual loss of jobs (8%). Patients also lost about 13% of their annual income (US$199) in indirect costs. Conclusion Direct and indirect costs of TB are exorbitant in Nigeria, and are especially due to poor social infrastructure and transport facilities.
Investigator® Argus X‐12 study on the population of Czech Republic: Comparison of linked and unlinked X‐STRs for kinship analysis

DNA samples of 523 unrelated anonymized individuals (307 males and 216 females) born and living in the Czech Republic were genotyped using Investigator® Argus X‐12 system in the following loci localized in four linkage groups: DXS10148, DXS10135, DXS8378, DXS7132, DXS10079, DXS10074, DXS10103, HPRTB, DXS10101, DXS10146, DXS10134, DXS742. Haplotype frequencies were calculated for each LG (Linkage Group). The frequency of most common haplotype was 0.016, 0.036, 0.042, and 0.023 for LG1, LG2, LG3, and LG4, respectively. The combined power of discrimination was more than 0.999999999 both for female and male samples. The mean exclusion chance was 0.99999999 (trios) and 0.999999 (duos). Informativity and suitability of Investigator® Argus X‐12 for kinship determination was assessed by computing in several female–female duos using LR (Likelihood Ratio) determination for autosomal STR (PowerPlex ESI‐17), linked (Investigator® Argus X‐12 system), and unlinked (X‐STR Decaplex) X‐STR kits. Investigator® Argus X‐12 proved to be very useful for sibship determination, since its LR values were relatively similar to LR for autosomal STR kit. This work presents the first population data for Investigator® Argus X‐12 system in the Czech Republic.