Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex differences in the association of HIV infection with hepatic steatosis

Background: Hepatic steatosis is increasing worldwide. Whether HIV and its associated metabolic perturbations exacerbate steatosis is unclear. Sex differences in adipose tissue distribution may also affect steatosis risk. We examined the contribution of HIV and sex to steatosis. Methods: Using MRI and spectroscopy, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and liver fat fraction (LFF) were measured in 121 HIV-infected and 107 uninfected men and women without viral hepatitis. Differences in LFF by HIV status and sex were evaluated using multivariable linear regression, adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, VAT, homeostasis model assessment-estimated insulin resistance, and HIV-related factors. Results: HIV-infected women had lower LFF than uninfected women (demographic-adjusted mean: 1.9 vs. 3.1%; P = 0.028); LFF was similar in HIV-infected and uninfected men (4.6 vs. 4.1%; P = 0.78). HIV-infected and uninfected women had less VAT than men (median: 139 and 161 vs. 201 cm3 and 188 cm3, respectively). After adjustment, HIV-infected women had 34% [95% confidence interval (CI): −54%, −5.5%] lower LFF than uninfected women, whereas there was little difference in men (−5.5%; 95% CI: −26%, 21%). Among HIV-infected persons, greater VAT and homeostasis model assessment-estimated insulin resistance were associated with greater LFF. HIV-related factors (CD4+ cell count, HIV RNA level, or antiretroviral therapy use) had little association with LFF. Although HIV-infected men had 81% (95% CI: 32%, 148%) greater LFF than HIV-infected women, the association was attenuated after multivariable adjustment (25%; 95% CI: −9.1%, 73%). Conclusion: Contrary to expectation, HIV infection is not associated with greater steatosis compared with uninfected adults. It is possible that less fat is stored in the liver to maintain subcutaneous fat (which is reduced in HIV) and the effect is magnified in HIV-infected women, who also have less VAT.
Predictors of support provision: a study with couples adapting to incontinence following radical prostatectomy.

OBJECTIVES Four domains of predictors of support provision were tested in couples facing an illness-related stress context. Predictor domains of partners' support provision to patients adapting to incontinence following prostatectomy included stress factors, recipient factors, provider factors, and relationship factors. METHODS Data from 109 patients and their female partners were analysed. Couples provided data on five measurement occasions from 2 weeks to 1 year postsurgery. Predictors included patient's incontinence (stress factor), patient's support mobilization, affect and general self-efficacy (recipient factors), partner's affect and general self-efficacy (provider factors), partners' average waking time spent together, both partners' relationship satisfaction and partner's received support from patient (as an indicator of reciprocal support; relationship factors). RESULTS Provider factors were not reliably associated with support provision, neither was patient negative affect. Stress and relationship factors accounted for outcome variance in the expected directions. Among recipient factors, mobilization of support and patient self-efficacy were positively related with the outcome, whereas patient positive affect was negatively associated with support provision by partners. CONCLUSIONS Findings on predictor domains are in line with other couple studies that used non-illness-related stress contexts. Resemblance of findings points to generalizability of predictions across stress contexts varying in content, controllability, and duration.
Deep neural network based hidden Markov model for offline handwritten Chinese text recognition

This paper proposes a novel segmentation-free approach using deep neural network based hidden Markov model (DNN-HMM) for offline handwritten Chinese text recognition. In the general Bayesian framework, three key issues are comprehensively investigated, namely feature extraction, character modeling, and language modeling. First, as for the feature extraction on the basis of each frame or sliding window, the gradient-based features are extracted for the DNN-based classifier. Second, the text line is sequentially modeled by HMMs with each representing one character class. Meanwhile the DNN-based classifier is adopted to calculate the posterior probability of all HMM states. Finally, the character n-gram language model is integrated with the DNN-HMM character model for the Bayesian decision. The experiments on the ICDAR 2013 competition task of CASIA-HWDB database show that the proposed approach can achieve the best published recognition results to our knowledge, yielding a character error rate (CER) of 6.50%, which significantly outperforms the previously best reported oversegmentation approach (with a CER of 9.25%) and the segmentation-free approach using multidimensional long-short term memory recurrent neural network (MDLSTM-RNN) approach (with a CER of 10.6%).
Wheels within wheels within wheels: the importance of capital inflows in the origin of the Spanish financial crisis

With the creation of the Euro, the Spanish economy established an exchange rate regime similar to that adopted by many emerging economies during the 1990s. At the same time, the Eurozone as a whole adopted a currency system with features similar to the US currency regime. In emerging economies, as in the US economy, the adoption of these models was accompanied by strong growth in capital inflows, as well as severe financial (mostly banking) and/or macroeconomic (mostly trade) imbalances. Several authors have linked capital inflows with imbalances as cause and effect. This work uses some of those arguments, along with statistical data on the characteristics and evolution of capital inflows registered by the Spanish economy, and by the Eurozone as a whole, in order to propose a causal link between post-Euro exchange rate regimes adopted in Spain, capital inflows, and the imbalances that preceded the financial crisis of 2008.
Carmustine-Resistant Cancer Cells Are Sensitized to Temozolomide As A Result of Enhanced Mismatch Repair during the Development of Carmustine Resistance

The cytotoxicity of the monofunctional alkylator temozolomide (TMZ) is mediated by mismatch repair (MMR) triggered by O6-alkylguanine, whereas MMR protects cells against bifunctional alkylators, including carmustine (BCNU). Therefore, TMZ may be cytotoxic to BCNU-resistant cancer cells because MMR affects sensitivity to TMZ and BCNU in a converse way. We evaluated TMZ cytotoxicity on BCNU-resistant variant (CEM-R) compared with the parental CCRF-CEM cell line (CEM-S). The mechanisms of its BCNU-resistance involved DNA repairs including nucleotide excision repair, base excision repair, alkylguanine alkyltransferase, MMR, and apoptotic and survival pathways. In particular, transcript levels of MMR-related hMLH1 and hMSH2 were enhanced in CEM-R cells. CEM-R cells were 8-fold more BCNU-resistant but surprisingly 9-fold more TMZ-sensitive than were CEM-S cells. Although TMZ-induced adducts include N-alkylated purines and O6-alkylguaine, DNA excision repair was enhanced in CEM-R cells, suggesting the efficient repair of N-alkylation adducts. Cotreatment with methoxyamine, a base excision repair inhibitor, did not sensitize CEM-R cells to TMZ, suggesting little or no contribution of N-alkylation to TMZ-induced cytotoxicity. Cotreatment with O6-benzylguanine, an alkylguanine alkyltransferase inhibitor, further sensitized CEM-R cells to TMZ, confirming the cytotoxic impact of O6-alkylguanine. Cotreatment with cadmium chloride, an MMR inhibitor, disrupted the sensitivity of CEM-R cells to TMZ. The sensitivity to TMZ was reversed in the CEM-R variant clone that had been established by transfecting CEM-R cells with short hairpin hRNA against hMLH1, suggesting the critical role of MMR on sensitization to TMZ. In conclusion, BCNU-resistant CEM-R cells were sensitized to TMZ as a result of enhanced MMR during the development of BCNU resistance.
Activation of recombinant human TRPV1 receptors expressed in SH‐SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells increases [Ca2+]i, initiates neurotransmitter release and promotes delayed cell death

The transient receptor potential (TRP) vanilloid receptor subtype 1 (TRPV1) is a ligand‐gated, Ca2+‐permeable ion channel in the TRP superfamily of channels. We report the establishment of the first neuronal model expressing recombinant human TRPV1 (SH‐SY5YhTRPV1). SH‐SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells were stably transfected with hTRPV1 using the Amaxa Biosystem (hTRPV1 in pIREShyg2 with hygromycin selection). Capsaicin, olvanil, resiniferatoxin and the endocannabinoid anandamide increased [Ca2+]i with potency (EC50) values of 2.9 nmol/L, 34.7 nmol/L, 0.9 nmol/L and 4.6 μmol/L, respectively. The putative endovanilloid N‐arachidonoyl‐dopamine increased [Ca2+]i but this response did not reach a maximum. Capsaicin, anandamide, resiniferatoxin and olvanil mediated increases in [Ca2+]i were inhibited by the TRPV1 antagonists capsazepine and iodo‐resiniferatoxin with potencies (KB) of ∼70 nmol/L and 2 nmol/L, respectively. Capsaicin stimulated the release of pre‐labelled [3H]noradrenaline from monolayers of SH‐SY5YhTRPV1 cells with an EC50 of 0.6 nmol/L indicating amplification between [Ca2+]i and release. In a perfusion system, we simultaneously measured [3H]noradrenaline release and [Ca2+]i and observed that increased [Ca2+]i preceded transmitter release. Capsaicin treatment also produced a cytotoxic response (EC50 155 nmol/L) that was antagonist‐sensitive and mirrored the [Ca2+]I response. This model displays pharmacology consistent with TRPV1 heterologously expressed in standard non‐neuronal cells and native neuronal cultures. The advantage of SH‐SY5YhTRPV1 is the ability of hTRPV1 to couple to neuronal biochemical machinery and produce large quantities of cells.
Group therapy for patients with bipolar disorder and substance dependence: results of a pilot study.

BACKGROUND The authors' goal was to pilot test a newly developed manual-based group psychotherapy, called Integrated Group Therapy (IGT), for patients with bipolar disorder and substance dependence. METHOD In this open trial, patients with DSM-IV bipolar disorder and substance dependence (N = 45) were recruited in sequential blocks to receive either group therapy (N = 21) or 6 monthly assessments, but no experimental treatment (N = 24). RESULTS When compared with patients who did not receive group therapy, patients who received IGT had significantly better outcomes on the Addiction Severity Index drug composite score (p < .03), percentage of months abstinent (p < .01), and likelihood of achieving 2 (p < .002) or 3 (p < .004) consecutive abstinent months. CONCLUSION IGT is a promising treatment for patients with bipolar disorder and substance dependence, who have traditionally had poor outcomes. It is unclear, however, how much of the improvement among the group therapy patients is attributable to the specific content of the treatment. A study comparing this treatment with another active psychotherapy treatment is warranted.
Focal Epileptiform Spikes in Conjuction With K-Complexes

Summary: Dyshormia or epileptiform spikes occurring within K-complexes have been described in patients with generalized epilepsy, with one study reporting that generalized spikes occurred frequently in association with K-complexes. We report the rate of focal epileptiform spikes occurring within K-complexes in localization-related epilepsy. Presurgical or diagnostic long-term video-EEG results of 40 consecutive patients with epilepsy (13 patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy, 20 patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy, and 7 patients with frontal lobe epilepsy) were reviewed. Sleep samples were reviewed and the numbers of K-complexes, spikes, and spikes within K-complexes were recorded. The comparison group consisted of 40 consecutive patients with nonepileptic events who were monitored with long-term video EEG. Focal epileptiform spikes occurring within K-complexes occurred in 2 of 13 (15%) patients with right temporal lobe patients, 6 of 20 (30%) patients with left temporal lobe, and 3 of 7 (42%) patients with extratemporal lobe epilepsy. In most patients, spikes occurring during K-complexes were rare. We identified spikes occurring during K-complexes in patients with localization-related epilepsy. The sharply contoured components of K-complexes or associated sleep spindles may obscure focal spikes within K-complexes. Nevertheless, K-complexes may be associated with focal epileptiform discharges.
Monetary Policy and Debt Holder Heterogeneity

I evaluate the long-run effects of monetary policy in an incomplete market economy on welfare and endogenous distributions. Agents face continuous earnings heterogeneity that is calibrated to match the empirically observed earnings inequality in the US of the year 2007. Agents partially self-insure against idiosyncratic risks via precautionary savings in money and nominal bonds, where money is kept from a transaction motive. The continuous structure can explain for the concentration of private debt in higher parts of the earnings distribution and, thus, a mismatch between the bottom of the bond distribution and the bottoms of the earnings and welfare distribution. In the absence of lump-sum transfers, I compute equilibria in which seigniorage revenues are either redistributed via tax reduction or used to sustain a higher steady state level of public debt. My results imply that the mismatch between these two lower tails can be important in assessing the welfare implications of monetary policy.
Mechanisms of triglyceride accumulation in activated macrophages

LPS treatment of macrophages induces TG accumulation, which is accentuated by TG‐rich lipoproteins or FFA. We defined pathways altered during macrophage activation that contribute to TG accumulation. Glucose uptake increased with activation, accompanied by increased GLUT1. Oxidation of glucose markedly decreased, whereas incorporation of glucose‐derived carbon into FA and sterols increased. Macrophage activation also increased uptake of FFA, associated with an increase in CD36. Oxidation of FA was markedly reduced, whereas the incorporation of FA into TGs increased, associated with increased GPAT3 and DGAT2. Additionally, macrophage activation decreased TG lipolysis; however, expression of ATGL or HSL was not altered. Macrophage activation altered gene expression similarly when incubated with exogenous FA or AcLDL. Whereas activation with ligands of TLR2 (zymosan), TLR3 (poly I:C), or TLR4 (LPS) induced alterations in macrophage gene expression, leading to TG accumulation, treatment of macrophages with cytokines had minimal effects. Thus, activation of TLRs leads to accumulation of TG in macrophages by multiple pathways that may have beneficial effects in host defense but could contribute to the accelerated atherosclerosis in chronic infections and inflammatory diseases.
ELT as a multidisciplinary endeavour : growing through collaboration. Selected Papers from 41st FAAPI Conference

s in English from the field of the Social Sciences. Thus, the tasks proposed in this paper, under the genre-based approach, were systematically designed in order to sensitize learners to the importance of: a) the understanding of the rhetorical information characteristic of RA abstracts in English from the field of the Social Sciences; b) the identification of the lexico-grammatical features or meta-language; c) the recognition of the communicative functions conveyed by the lexico-grammatical elements; and d) the detection of the rhetorical organization of informative RA abstracts . As stated in the preceding section of this paper, the teacher needs to be acquainted with the sub-genre abstract in terms of the lexico-grammatical features or exponents, their communicative functions and the rhetorical organization or structure since all these components are key elements when dealing with academic or discourse genres. This familiarity can be achieved by analysing different informative abstracts from the field he/she wants to teach. By doing this, the teacher can have a thorough understanding of: a) how RA abstracts in English from the field of the social sciences are typically organized or structured; b) the most common or recurrent lexico-grammatical features or meta-language; and c) the communicative functions underlying these lexico-grammatical elements. With this information in mind, the teacher can also design a table specifying each rhetorical section/move, the subsections or steps, the communicative functions or purposes and different examples taken from the abstracts in order to illustrate the lexico-grammatical features characteristic of each move and steps. Finally, since the teacher needs to be a facilitator of his/her students‘ learning process the systematization of the tasks and the design of this table are of vital importance because they can undoubtedly aid learners while carrying out each of the tasks proposed in this paper.
Hashimoto's thyroiditis is a frequent occurrence in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY Rheumatic mitral stenosis (RMS), an autoimmune sequel of streptococcal infection, causes significant morbidity and mortality. As Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is recognized as the major form of chronic autoimmune thyroiditis, it was hypothesized that the coexistence of HT and RMS might have an autoimmune origin. The study aim was to examine this possible relationship. METHODS A total of 55 consecutive patients with RMS was examined and compared to 54 healthy controls with normal echocardiographic findings. All subjects underwent transthoracic echocardiography and thyroid ultrasonography after a complete medical history and laboratory examination. RESULTS The demographic data of the RMS group (38 females, 17 males; mean age 39.9 +/- 9.3 years) and control group (39 females, 15 males; mean age 39.6 +/- 10.5 years) were similar. HT was found to occur significantly more frequently in RMS patients (n = 16; 29%) than in controls (n = 6; 11%) (p = 0.019) CONCLUSION The higher frequency of HT in patients with RMS than controls may have genetic associations. Hence, further genetic-based studies should be conducted to provide a better understanding of this suggested relationship.
EEG and MEG: sensitivity to epileptic spike activity as function of source orientation and depth

Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings of neuronal activity from epileptic patients reveal situations in which either EEG or MEG or both modalities show visible interictal spikes. While different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the spikes in EEG and MEG have been reported, a quantitative relation of spike source orientation and depth as well as the background brain activity to the SNR has not been established. We investigated this quantitative relationship for both dipole and patch sources in an anatomically realistic cortex model. Altogether, 5600 dipole and 3300 patch sources were distributed on the segmented cortical surfaces of two volunteers. The sources were classified according to their quantified depths and orientations, ranging from 20 mm to 60 mm below the skin surface and radial and tangential, respectively. The source time-courses mimicked an interictal spike, and the simulated background activity emulated resting activity. Simulations were conducted with individual three-compartment boundary element models. The SNR was evaluated for 128 EEG, 102 MEG magnetometer, and 204 MEG gradiometer channels. For superficial dipole and superficial patch sources, EEG showed higher SNRs for dominantly radial orientations, and MEG showed higher values for dominantly tangential orientations. Gradiometers provided higher SNR than magnetometers for superficial sources, particularly for those with dominantly tangential orientations. The orientation dependent difference in SNR in EEG and MEG gradually changed as the sources were located deeper, where the interictal spikes generated higher SNRs in EEG compared to those in MEG for all source orientations. With deep sources, the SNRs in gradiometers and magnetometers were of the same order. To better detect spikes, both EEG and MEG should be used.
Influence of broad auditory tuning on across-frequency integration of speech patterns.

PURPOSE The purpose of the present study was to assess whether diminished tolerance for disruptions to across-frequency timing in listeners with hearing impairment can be attributed to broad auditory tuning. METHOD In 2 experiments in which random assignment was used, sentences were represented as 3 noise bands centered at 530, 1500, and 4243 Hz, which were amplitude modulated by 3 corresponding narrow speech bands. To isolate broad tuning from other influences of hearing impairment, listeners with normal hearing (45 in Experiment 1 and 30 in Experiment 2) were presented with these vocoder stimuli, having carrier band filter slopes of 12, 24, and 192 dB/octave. These speech patterns were presented in synchrony and with between-band asynchronies up to 40 ms. RESULTS Mean intelligibility scores were reduced in conditions of severe, but not moderate, simulated broadening. Although scores fell as asynchrony increased, the steeper drop in performance characteristic of listeners with hearing impairment tested previously was not observed in conditions of simulated broadening. CONCLUSIONS The intolerance for small across-frequency asynchronies observed previously does not appear attributable to broad tuning. Instead, the present data suggest that the across-frequency processing mechanism in at least some listeners with hearing impairment might be less robust to this type of degradation.
Streptococcus pneumoniae Serogroups 15 and 33: An Increasing Cause of Pneumococcal Infections in Children in the United States After the Introduction of the Pneumococcal 7-Valent Conjugate Vaccine

Background: After the widespread use of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, replacement serotypes have emerged. Serogroups 15 and 33 have emerged as nonvaccine serotypes causing invasive disease. We describe the clinical characteristics of children with infections caused by these serogroups and determined the genetic relationship of the strains. Materials and Methods: The United States Pediatric Multicenter Pneumococcal Surveillance Group has prospectively identified children with pneumococcal infections since 1993. Charts were reviewed retrospectively, isolates were serogrouped and serotyped and randomly selected strains were fingerprinted with the use of pulsed field gel electrophoresis. Selected strains were further characterized by multilocus sequence typing. Results: Between January 1994 and December 2004, 103 children had pneumococcal disease caused by serogroup 15, and 40 children had infections caused by serogroup 33. There was an increase from a mean of 7 cases per year for serogroup 15 in the prevaccine period to 14 cases per year in the postvaccine period and from 2 cases per year for serogroup 33 to 7 cases per year in the same periods. Isolates were susceptible to penicillin and ceftriaxone in both periods. A predominant clone was found in each serogroup representing 60% (30 of 50) of serogroup 15 strains and 83% (24 of 29) of the serotype 33F strains. The serogroup 15 clone comprised strains of serotypes 15B and 15C, whereas the 33 clone contained only serotype 33F strains. One isolate from each of the 15 and 33 clones was characterized by multilocus sequence typing and were found to be ST199 and 100, respectively. Conclusions: Pneumococcal disease in children caused by penicillin-susceptible clones of serogroups 15 and 33 is increasing in the United States. Clinicians should consider replacement serotypes when encountered with invasive pneumococcal disease in vaccinated children.