Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anticoagulation with dabigatran does not increase secondary intracerebral haemorrhage after thrombolysis in experimental cerebral ischaemia

Summary Dabigatran etexilate (DE) has recently been introduced for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, but management of acute ischaemic stroke during therapy with DE is a challenge. Thrombolysis is contrain-dicated because of a presumed increased risk of intracerebral haemorrhagic complications. We studied in different ischaemia models whether DE increases secondary haemorrhage after thrombolysis. C57BL/6 mice were anticoagulated with high-dose DE or warfarin. After 2 hour (h) or 3 h transient filament MCAO, rt-PA was injected. At 24 h after MCAO, secondary haemorrhage was quantified using a macroscopic haemorrhage score and haemoglobin spectrophotometry. Post-ischaemic blood-brain-barrier (BBB) damage was assessed using Evans blue. To increase the validity of findings, the duration of anticoagulation was prolonged in mice (5 x DE over 2 days), and the effect of DE after thrombolysis was also examined in thromboembolic MCAO in rats. Pretreatment with warfarin resulted in significantly more secondary haemorrhage (mean haemorrhage score 2.6 ± 0.2) compared to non-anticoagulated animals (1.7 ± 0.3) and DE (9 mg/kg, 1.6 ± 0.3) in 2 h ischaemia. Also after a 3 h period of ischaemia, haemorrhage was more severe in animals anticoagulated with warfarin compared to 9 mg/kg DE and non-anticoagulated control. Prolonged or enteral dabigatran pretreatment led to identical results. Also, thrombolysis after thromboembolic MCAO in rats did not induce more severe bleeding in DE-treated animals. Mice pretreated with warfarin had higher BBB permeability and increased activation of matrix-metalloproteinase 9. In conclusion, DE does not increase the risk of secondary haemorrhage after thrombolysis in various rodent models of ischaemia and reperfusion. The implications of this finding for stroke patients have to be determined in the clinical setting.
Memory reloaded: Memory load effects in the attentional blink

When two targets are presented in rapid succession, identification of the first is nearly perfect, while identification of the second is impaired when it follows the first by less than about 700 ms. According to bottleneck models, this attentional blink (AB) occurs because the second target is unable to gain access to capacity-limited working memory processes already occupied by the first target. Evidence for this hypothesis, however, has been mixed, with recent reports suggesting that increasing working memory load does not affect the AB. The present paper explores possible reasons for failures to find a link between memory load and the AB and shows that a reliable effect of load can be obtained when the item directly after T1 (Target 1) is omitted. This finding provides initial evidence that working memory load can influence the AB and additional evidence for a link between T1 processing time and the AB predicted by bottleneck models.
Wild Bird Indicators: Using Composite Population Trends of Birds as Measures of Environmental Health

Abstract World leaders have set global and regional targets to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, and their relative success, or failure, in meeting these aims will be measured against a set of indicators. For such indicators to be effective, they need to meet a range of practical and scientific criteria. Their development is often driven pragmatically by the information available, One such biodiversity indicator that has proven highly effective and influential in Europe is the wild bird indicator. This is based on the composite population trends of birds combined using a geometric mean and derived from national breeding bird surveys, Recent work has emphasized the importance of common species to ecosystem functioning and suggested that the depletion of their populations might significantly affect ecosystem services. National governments and the European Union are increasingly using these measures to assess sustainable development strategies, environmental and ecosystem health, as well as in the fulfillment of biodiversity targets, Equivalent indicators have been published in North America. There are a number of reasons to believe that birds might be useful indicators of biodiversity. They are sensitive to anthropogenic changes, they are well known, excellent time-series exist, and they have a resonance and connection with people and their lives. Yet, there are counter arguments and some risks in using birds in this way. Our work provides a blueprint for others to follow using similar data on birds or other taxa, and in other countries and regions. In the discussion, we review the strengths and weaknesses of using bird population trends as biodiversity indicators, and look forward to how this work might be developed. Wild bird indicators only measure a component of biodiversity change and need to be used carefully to assist policy makers and land managers in managing the natural resources and conserving nature.
Centromeres Off the Hook: Massive Changes in Centromere Size and Structure Following Duplication of CenH3 Gene in Fabeae Species

In most eukaryotes, centromere is determined by the presence of the centromere-specific histone variant CenH3. Two types of chromosome morphology are generally recognized with respect to centromere organization. Monocentric chromosomes possess a single CenH3-containing domain in primary constriction, whereas holocentric chromosomes lack the primary constriction and display dispersed distribution of CenH3. Recently, metapolycentric chromosomes have been reported in Pisum sativum, representing an intermediate type of centromere organization characterized by multiple CenH3-containing domains distributed across large parts of chromosomes that still form a single constriction. In this work, we show that this type of centromere is also found in other Pisum and closely related Lathyrus species, whereas Vicia and Lens genera, which belong to the same legume tribe Fabeae, possess only monocentric chromosomes. We observed extensive variability in the size of primary constriction and the arrangement of CenH3 domains both between and within individual Pisum and Lathyrus species, with no obvious correlation to genome or chromosome size. Search for CenH3 gene sequences revealed two paralogous variants, CenH3-1 and CenH3-2, which originated from a duplication event in the common ancestor of Fabeae species. The CenH3-1 gene was subsequently lost or silenced in the lineage leading to Vicia and Lens, whereas both genes are retained in Pisum and Lathyrus. Both of these genes appear to have evolved under purifying selection and produce functional CenH3 proteins which are fully colocalized. The findings described here provide the first evidence for a highly dynamic centromere structure within a group of closely related species, challenging previous concepts of centromere evolution.
Activation of 5‐lipoxygenase after oxygen‐glucose deprivation is partly mediated via NMDA receptor in rat cortical neurons

5‐Lipoxygenase (5‐LOX) is the enzyme metabolizing arachidonic acid to produce pro‐inflammatory leukotrienes. We have reported that 5‐LOX is translocated to the nuclear envelope after ischemic‐like injury in PC12 cells. In the present study, we determined whether 5‐LOX is activated (translocation and production of leukotrienes) after oxygen‐glucose deprivation (OGD) in primary rat cortical neurons; if so, whether this activation is mediated by NMDA receptor. After OGD, 5‐LOX was translocated to the nuclear envelope as detected by immunoblotting, immunostaining and green fluorescent protein‐5‐LOX transfection. 5‐LOX metabolites, cysteinyl‐leukotrienes (CysLTs) but not leukotriene B4, in the culture media were increased 0.5–1.5 h after recovery. Similarly, NMDA (100 µm) also induced 5‐LOX translocation, and increased the production of CysLTs during 0.5–1 h NMDA exposure. Both OGD and NMDA reduced neuron viability. NMDA receptor antagonist MK‐801 inhibited almost all the responses to OGD and NMDA; whereas 5‐LOX activating protein inhibitor MK‐886 and 5‐LOX inhibitor caffeic acid inhibited the reduction of neuron viability and the production of CysLTs, but did not affect 5‐LOX translocation. From these results, we conclude that OGD can activate 5‐LOX in primary rat cortical neurons, and that this activation may be partly mediated via activating NMDA receptor.
Effects of age, parity, and adherence on pelvic muscle response to exercise.

OBJECTIVE To examine factors that affect pelvic muscle response to 12 weeks of pelvic muscle exercise. DESIGN Repeated measures design in which intravaginal pressures during pelvic muscle contractions were recorded at baseline and after four exercise levels. SETTING College of Nursing research site in Gainesville, Florida. PARTICIPANTS Eighty-five parous, community-dwelling women, aged 35-78 years and without incontinence as a primary concern. INTERVENTIONS A 12-week graded program of regular (three times per week, every other day) pelvic muscle exercise at home. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The hypotheses were that younger age, lower parity, higher baseline intravaginal pressures, and adherence to the pelvic muscle exercise program each would result in significant improvement in maximum intravaginal pressures. RESULTS The only factor showing significance in predicting a successful outcome was age (t = -2.29, df = 41, one-tail probability = .0136). CONCLUSIONS Regular, graded exercise over several weeks is needed to build pelvic muscles, and some women who exercise do not improve. Although the reasons for not improving are unclear, age is a significant factor.
Respiratory health of two cohorts of terminal grain elevator workers studied 30 years apart.

INTRODUCTION We evaluated the respiratory health of two cohorts of grain terminal elevator workers who participated in one of either respiratory health surveys undertaken in 1978 and 2008. METHODS Questionnaire and spirometry data from 584 workers from the 1978 survey and 215 workers from the 2008 survey were compared using logistic regression and general linear modeling. RESULTS The geometric means of area samples of grain dust averaged 8.28 mg/m(3) in 1978 and 2.06 mg/m(3) in 2008. Workers in the 1978 survey had a significantly higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms (with the largest adjusted odds ratio of 3.78, 95% CI 2.07-7.25, for shortness of breath), a lower prevalence of atopic conditions and lower mean lung function. CONCLUSION Current grain workers had a lower risk of respiratory health consequences and a greater prevalence of atopic conditions than workers surveyed 30 years prior, most likely associated with reduced exposure to grain dust in the terminal elevator environment.
Explore the relationship of student engagement and personal characteristics in use of the instant response system in higher education

This pilot study investigated the levels of student engagement in the use of the instant response system and its relationship with their individual characteristics including learning styles, personality traits, and locus of control. Twenty-five undergraduate students in Taiwan participated in the study. Data were collected through a few survey instruments. The results indicated that the students had above-average levels of engagement when the instructor used the instant response system in class. A few constructs of learning styles and personality traits were significantly related to the levels of student engagement. The locus of control had no relationship with any type of the engagement. It is hoped the findings can help educators understand who would be more engaged when the instructors adopt interactive technology in classrooms.
Temporal Orientation of Tweets for Predicting Income of Users

Automatically estimating a user’s socio-economic profile from their language use in social media can significantly help social science research and various downstream applications ranging from business to politics. The current paper presents the first study where user cognitive structure is used to build a predictive model of income. In particular, we first develop a classifier using a weakly supervised learning framework to automatically time-tag tweets as past, present, or future. We quantify a user’s overall temporal orientation based on their distribution of tweets, and use it to build a predictive model of income. Our analysis uncovers a correlation between future temporal orientation and income. Finally, we measure the predictive power of future temporal orientation on income by performing regression.
Adenoviral vectors for gene transfer and therapy

Due to the very efficient nuclear entry mechanism of adenovirus and its low pathogenicity for humans, adenovirus‐based vectors have become gene delivery vehicles that are widely used for transduction of different cell types, especially for quiescent, differentiated cells, in basic research, in gene therapy applications, and in vaccine development. As an important basis for their use as gene medicine, adenoviral vectors can be produced in high titers, they can transduce cells in vivo with transgenes of more than 30 kb, and they do not integrate into the host cell genome. Recent advances in the development of adenoviral vectors have brought considerable progress on issues like target cell specificity and tropism modification, long‐term expression of the transgene, as well as immunogenicity and toxicity in vivo, and have suggested that the different generations of non‐replicative and replicative vectors available today will each suit best for certain applications. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Temporary Jobs and the Severity of Workplace Accidents

INTRODUCTION From the point of view of workplace safety, it is important to know whether having a temporary job has an effect on the severity of workplace accidents. We present an empirical analysis on the severity of workplace accidents by type of contract. METHOD We used microdata collected by the Italian national institute managing the mandatory insurance against work related accidents. We estimated linear models for a measure of the severity of the workplace accident. We controlled for time-invariant fixed effects at worker and firm levels to disentangle the impact of the type of contract from the spurious one induced by unobservables at worker and firm levels. RESULTS Workers with a temporary contract, if subject to a workplace accident, were more likely to be confronted with severe injuries than permanent workers. When correcting the statistical analysis for injury under-reporting of temporary workers, we found that most of, but not all, the effect is driven by the under-reporting bias. CONCLUSIONS The effect of temporary contracts on the injury severity survived the inclusion of worker and firm fixed effects and the correction for temporary workers' injury under-reporting. This, however, does not exclude the possibility that, within firms, the nature of the work may vary between different categories of workers. For example, temporary workers might be more likely to be assigned dangerous tasks because they might have less bargaining power. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS The findings will help in designing public policy effective in increasing temporary workers' safety at work and limiting their injury under-reporting.
Clustering of body composition, blood pressure and physical activity in Portuguese families

Abstract Aim: The purposes of this study were: (i) to identify familial resemblances in body fat, blood pressure (BP) and total physical activity (TPA); (ii) to estimate the magnitude of their genetic and environmental influences; and (iii) to investigate shared familial aggregation among these phenotypes. Subjects and methods: The sample comprised 260 nuclear families from Portugal. Body fat was assessed by bioelectrical impedance. BP was measured by an oscillometric device. TPA was estimated by the Baecke questionnaire. Familial correlation analyses were performed using Generalized Estimating Equations. Quantitative genetic modelling was used to estimate maximal heritability, genetic and environmental correlations. Results: Familial intra-trait correlations ranged from 0.15–0.38. Genetic and common environmental factors explained from 30%--44% of fat mass depots and BP and 24% of TPA. Genetic correlations were significant between BP and the fat mass traits (p < 0.05). Environmental correlations were statistically significant between diastolic BP and total body fat, trunk fat and arm fat (p < 0.05) and TPA and other phenotypes. Conclusions: The results suggest familial resemblance in the variation of body fat, BP and TPA, showing partial pleiotropic effects in the variation in body fat phenotypes and BP. TPA only shares common environmental influences with BP and body fat traits.
The Relation between Obesity and Congenital Heart Disease in School Age Children

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect; occurring in approximately 8 out of every 1,000 births The American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that 1 in 150 adults are living with CHD Obesity may pose additional cardiovascular risk to children with acquired and congenital heart disease. Aims:to explore the relation between the obesity and congenital heart diseases in school age children. Design: Comparative descriptive research design was used to fit the nature of this study. Setting: Outpatient University Hospital of Assuit and Sohage of school age children Subjects: This study included 200 of age during the School age children period from March to December 2014. They were selected randomly and divided into two equal groups; Group I (Assuit) and Group II (Sohag group) included 100school age children for every group. Results:The results showed that both sex were approximately 65 maleand 35 female presented among Assuit and 42 male and 58 female from Sohag groups.Also It observed that Statistical significant differences were found in both groups as regard age, birth order, gender, residence P= 0.001,p= 0.002, , = P= 0.008, it was noted that urban residence in Assuit more than in Sohag group.Statistical significant difference was found between the two groups as regard body mass index and the majority of children were represented obesity in both Assuit and Sohag group (45.0%, 58.0%) respectively. As these children already present the risks associated to heart disease, it was noted that urban residence in Assuit more than in Sohag group. Finally there was strongly relation between obesity and congenital heart defect in both studied group Conclusions: it was concluded that therelation between growthmeasurements weight and height. highly statistical in the studied group in Assuit andSohag universityhospitals and between the two groups as regard body mass index and the majority of children were represented obesity in both Assuit and Sohag group (45.0%, 58.0%) respectively. Obesity was strongly associated with congenital heart defects in the both studied group. : RecommendationNutritional and obesity educational programs must be monitored and evaluated regularly to determine progress towards nutritional goals. It is particularly important to promote a healthy lifestyle in this group.Finally educational programs should be provided to increase knowledge and skills of health care professionals in applying obesity and congenital heart diseases as a management of obesity to decrease the complication,. Key Ward: Congenital Heart Disease, Obesity, School age children.
When the World’s Population Took Off: The Springboard of the Neolithic Demographic Transition

During the economic transition from foraging to farming, the signal of a major demographic shift can be observed in cemetery data of world archaeological sequences. This signal is characterized by an abrupt increase in the proportion of juvenile skeletons and is interpreted as the signature of a major demographic shift in human history, known as the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). This expresses an increase in the input into the age pyramids of the corresponding living populations with an estimated increase in the total fertility rate of two births per woman. The unprecedented demographic masses that the NDT rapidly brought into play make this one of the fundamental structural processes of human history.
Influence of Gender and Environmental Setting on Voice Onset Time

The influence of gender and environmental setting on voice onset time (VOT) was examined. Participants produced six stop consonants paired with three vowels in a consonant + vowel (CV) context. Recordings were made when participants were seated inside a sound booth (laboratory setting) and outside a sound booth (non-laboratory setting). Results of the analysis for VOT and CV duration indicated that females produced voiceless stops with significantly longer VOT durations than males in both settings. Both gender groups produced CV tokens with significantly longer duration in the laboratory setting; however, females continued to produce CV tokens with longer duration in the non-laboratory setting. Findings suggest that differences in the vocal anatomy between genders may account for some but not all differences in temporal measures of speech production. Sociophonetic factors, such as speaking style, may also contribute to gender differences in speaking behavior.
Performance analysis of elite men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams

Abstract The purpose of the present study was to identify which game-related statistics discriminate winning and losing teams in men’s and women’s elite wheelchair basketball. The sample comprised all the games played during the Beijing Paralympics 2008 and the World Wheelchair Basketball Championship 2010. The game-related statistics from the official box scores were gathered and data were analysed in 2 groups: balanced games (final score differences ≤12 points) and unbalanced games (final score differences >13 points). Discriminant analysis allowed identifying the successful 2-point field-goals and free-throws, the unsuccessful 3-point field-goals and free-throws, the assists and fouls received as discriminant statistics between winning and losing teams in men’s balanced games. In women’s games, the teams were discriminated only by the successful 2-point field-goals. Linear regression analysis showed that the quality of opposition had great effects in final point differential. The field-goals percentage and free-throws rate were the most important factors in men’s games, and field-goals percentage and offensive rebounding percentage in women’s games. The identified trends allow improving game understanding and helping wheelchair basketball coaches to plan accurate practice sessions and, ultimately, deciding better in competition.
Effect of CT digital image compression on detection of coronary artery calcification

Purpose: To test the effect of digital compression of CT images on the detection of small linear or spotted high attenuation lesions such as coronary artery calcification (CAC). Material and Methods: Fifty cases with and 50 without CAC were randomly selected from a population that had undergone spiral CT of the thorax for screening lung cancer. CT image data were compressed using JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) or wavelet algorithms at ratios of 10:1, 20:1 or 40:1. Five radiologists reviewed the uncompressed and compressed images on a cathode-ray-tube. Observer performance was evaluated with receiver operating characteristic analysis. Results: CT images compressed at a ratio as high as 20:1 were acceptable for primary diagnosis of CAC. There was no significant difference in the detection accuracy for CAC between JPEG and wavelet algorithms at the compression ratios up to 20:1. CT images were more vulnerable to image blurring on the wavelet compression at relatively lower ratios, and "blocking" artifacts occurred on the JPEG compression at relatively higher ratios. Conclusion: JPEG and wavelet algorithms allow compression of CT images without compromising their diagnostic value at ratios up to 20:1 in detecting small linear or spotted high attenuation lesions such as CAC, and there was no difference between the two algorithms in diagnostic accuracy.