Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel stroke rehabilitation interventions.

Stephen T. Mernoff, MD, FAAN, and Albert C. Lo, MD, PhD  stroke Is A mAjor cAuse of neurologIcAl impairment; over half of stroke survivors have persistent upper limb impairment, and 25-50% of stroke survivors have persistent moderate to severe disability, especially in the realms of motor and language functions after completion of standard rehabilitation. The prevalence of stroke survivors was over six million in 2006, and is expected to increase as the population ages despite advances in stroke prophylaxis and acute treatment such as tPA. There is a pressing need to improve the neurologic function of stroke survivors. The neurorehabilitation interventions employed by physical, occupational, and speech therapists on a practical level have changed little over the last 40 years. This is not for lack of trying. Determining efficacy of traditional and novel interventions has been hampered by methodological challenges including heterogeneous functional neuroanatomy and neuropathology, inadequate outcome measures (subjective, questionable ecological relevance), and logistical difficulties in studying a population with disabilities (impaired mobility and increased risk of medical problems to name only two which cause study subjects being easily lost to follow-up). Fortunately, recent progress in neuroscience, particularly the discovery that the adult brain has surprising potential for plasticity especially after injury; and in the development of new technologies (computer science, biomechanics, cell and tissue manipulation, neuropharmacology) have driven the development of multiple promising interventions which could improve the function of those with neurological impairments. Efforts are underway worldwide to determine how these techniques can be applied clinically. Critical questions include: which patients are most likely to benefit from interventions? Are there certain windows of opportunity during which an intervention would be most effective? Should different interventions be utilized in certain sequences? Until recently the prospect of being able to answer these questions scientifically in a reasonable period of time was fantasy. However, new tools and novel techniques such as functional imaging and relevant surrogate outcome measures are helping to rapidly answer many of these questions and improve our understanding of neurological recovery. We describe some of the most promising new restorative interventions for stroke rehabilitation currently being investigated. (Compensatory approaches, such as brain-computer interfaces, are beyond the scope of this paper.) Some, or all of them may, in some form, become standard components of neurorehabilitation programs in the coming years. Many of these techniques are being investigated for the rehabilitation of other neurologic conditions (TBI, MS, Parkinsons, etc.) but this report focuses on stroke.
Pharmacokinetics of Trans‐resveratrol Following Repeated Administration in Healthy Elderly and Young Subjects

From the Department of Research and Development, S Mamede do Coronado, Portugal (Dr Nunes, Dr Almeida, Mr Rocha, Mr Fernandes-Lopes, Ms Loureiro, Dr Wright, Dr Vaz-da-Silva, Dr Soares-da-Silva); Institute of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal (Dr Almeida, Dr Vaz-da-Silva, Dr Soares-da-Silva); Department of Health Sciences, University of Aveiro, Portugal (Dr Almeida); and 4Health Consulting, BIOCANT, Cantanhede, Portugal (Dr Falcao). Submitted for publication February 27, 2009; revised version accepted May 10, 2009. Address for correspondence: Patricio Soares-da-Silva, MD, PhD, Department of Research & Development, BIAL, A Av da Siderurgia Nacional, 4745-457 S Mamede do Coronado, Portugal; e-mail: psoares.silva@bial.com. DOI: 10.1177/0091270009339191
Extent and variability of interstitial telomeric sequences and their effects on estimates of telomere length

Telomeres often shorten with time, although this varies between tissues, individuals and species, and their length and/or rate of change may reflect fitness and rate of senescence. Measurement of telomeres is increasingly important to ecologists, yet the relative merits of different methods for estimating telomere length are not clear. In particular the extent to which interstitial telomere sequences (ITSs), telomere repeats located away from chromosomes ends, confound estimates of telomere length is unknown. Here we present a method to estimate the extent of ITS within a species and variation among individuals. We estimated the extent of ITS by comparing the amount of label hybridized to in‐gel telomere restriction fragments (TRF) before and after the TRFs were denatured. This protocol produced robust and repeatable estimates of the extent of ITS in birds. In five species, the amount of ITS was substantial, ranging from 15% to 40% of total telomeric sequence DNA. In addition, the amount of ITS can vary significantly among individuals within a species. Including ITSs in telomere length calculations always underestimated telomere length because most ITSs are shorter than most telomeres. The magnitude of that error varies with telomere length and is larger for longer telomeres. Estimating telomere length using methods that incorporate ITSs, such as Southern blot TRF and quantitative PCR analyses reduces an investigator's power to detect difference in telomere dynamics between individuals or over time within an individual.
Genomics and the Irreducible Nature of Eukaryote Cells

Large-scale comparative genomics in harness with proteomics has substantiated fundamental features of eukaryote cellular evolution. The evolutionary trajectory of modern eukaryotes is distinct from that of prokaryotes. Data from many sources give no direct evidence that eukaryotes evolved by genome fusion between archaea and bacteria. Comparative genomics shows that, under certain ecological settings, sequence loss and cellular simplification are common modes of evolution. Subcellular architecture of eukaryote cells is in part a physical-chemical consequence of molecular crowding; subcellular compartmentation with specialized proteomes is required for the efficient functioning of proteins.
Complex network shape descriptor for 3D objects classification

The 3D object recognition is an important research field in robotics. The real world object classification, retrieval, localization and tracking from images (2D or 3D data) are very useful application of computer vision in many areas, for instance, robotics, industry, education, augmented reality and medicine. Locate and recognize 3D objects in the environment can serve to create robust landmarks for robot pose estimation and localization, and can also be very important in telepresence, teleoperation, and grasping tasks. On the other hand, complex networks applications are a growing research field, and their application on computer vision is still a very recent research topic. This work uses complex networks to create shape descriptors for 3D point clouds of objects, and then uses a machine learning algorithm (k-NN) for object classification. Experiments of object classification, considering only the 3D shape, were done using the well known UW-University of Washington RGB-D objects dataset. The results are comparable to the best results of recent methods on the same dataset.
Impact des traitements antifongiques systémiques sur le diagnostic des candidémies

Les objectifs de l'etude etaient d'evaluer, en situation clinique, l'impact d'un traitement antifongique systemique sur la detection des levures dans les flacons hemocultures et d'analyser les performances des differents flacons selon la presence d'un traitement antifongique. Cent vingt-cinq patients ayant eu une candidemie au CHU de Grenoble pendant 4 ans (2010-2013) ont ete inclus de facon retrospective. Nous avons compare les flacons avec resines adsorbantes (Bactec PlusTM Aerobie et Bactec Anaerobie) avec les flacons selectifs des levures ne contenant pas de resines (Mycosis) pour : le taux de positivite, le temps de positivite (TTP) et la concordance des flacons positifs, en utilisant pour chaque caracteristique une analyse multivariee avec un modele hierarchique a effets mixtes. Le taux de positivite des flacons est diminue par la presence d'un traitement antifongique (p<0.01 ), une chirurgie abdominale (p=0.01) et une hemodialyse (p=0.02). Le traitement augmente significativement le TTP des deux types de flacons. Meme si l'effet du traitement antifongique est significativement plus important pour les flacons sans resines, le TTP reste comparable entre les deux types de flacons. Enfin, le traitement antifongique diminue le taux d'agrement observe entre les deux types de flacons. Les resultats montrent que le traitement antifongique modifie le resultat et le temps de detection des deux types de flacons. L'existence d'un traitement antifongique doit etre pris en compte lors de l'analyse des resultats biologiques. Cette etude a demontre l'interet d'associer deux types de flacons pour optimiser la detection des levures, notamment en presence de traitement antifongique.
Hypnotic susceptibility scales: Are the mean scores increasing?

Abstract The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C), developed and named 37 years ago, is arguably the “gold standard” of hypnotic susceptibility scales. However, it has been the impression of several researchers that means obtained on the SHSS:C are higher now than in previous years. The authors comprehensively review studies using the SHSS:C over a 4-decade period. The findings demonstrate a significant linear trend between year and SHSS:C scores, with higher obtained means in more recent work. The authors also report a similar analysis of research with the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. Although the mechanisms underlying this trend can only be speculated upon at present, these findings underscore the importance of using local control groups in research on hypnotizability.
Truncated APC is required for cell proliferation and DNA replication

The tumour suppressor APC is truncated in most colon cancers, which leads to the stabilization of β‐catenin and to the constitutive activation of Wnt signalling. However, it is not clear why colon cancer cells retain the truncated APC fragment. Here, we show that a decrease of APC levels achieved by RNA interference impairs cell proliferation and DNA replication, not only in 293 cells that express a wild‐type protein, but also in SW480 colon cancer cells that express exclusively a truncated APC fragment. This correlates with a reduction of the levels of cyclin A, cyclin A‐dependent kinase activity, p27kip1 and the catalytic subunit of DNA polymerase δ. Thus, our data suggest that colon cancer cells retain a truncated APC fragment because it is essential for cell proliferation. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Rescued Chondrogenesis of Mesenchymal Stem Cells under Interleukin 1 Challenge by Foamyviral Interleukin 1 Receptor Antagonist Gene Transfer

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their chondrogenic differentiation have been extensively investigated in vitro as MSCs provide an attractive source besides chondrocytes for cartilage repair therapies. Here we established prototype foamyviral vectors (FVV) that are derived from apathogenic parent viruses and are characterized by a broad host range and a favorable integration pattern into the cellular genome. As the inflammatory cytokine interleukin 1 beta (IL1β) is frequently present in diseased joints, the protective effects of FVV expressing the human interleukin 1 receptor antagonist protein (IL1RA) were studied in an established in vitro model (aggregate culture system) of chondrogenesis in the presence of IL1β. Materials and Methods: We generated different recombinant FVVs encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) or IL1RA and examined their transduction efficiencies and transgene expression profiles using different cell lines and human primary MSCs derived from bone marrow-aspirates. Transgene expression was evaluated by fluorescence microscopy (EGFP), flow cytometry (EGFP), and ELISA (IL1RA). For evaluation of the functionality of the IL1RA transgene to block the inhibitory effects of IL1β on chondrogenesis of primary MSCs and an immortalized MSC cell line (TERT4 cells), the cells were maintained following transduction as aggregate cultures in standard chondrogenic media in the presence or absence of IL1β. After 3 weeks of culture, pellets were harvested and analyzed by histology and immunohistochemistry for chondrogenic phenotypes. Results: The different FVV efficiently transduced cell lines as well as primary MSCs, thereby reaching high transgene expression levels in 6-well plates with levels of around 100 ng/ml IL1RA. MSC aggregate cultures which were maintained in chondrogenic media without IL1β supplementation revealed a chondrogenic phenotype by means of strong positive staining for collagen type II and matrix proteoglycan (Alcian blue). Addition of IL1β was inhibitory to chondrogenesis in untreated control pellets. In contrast, foamyviral mediated IL1RA expression rescued the chondrogenesis in pellets cultured in the presence of IL1β. Transduced MSC pellets reached thereby very high IL1RA transgene expression levels with a peak of 1087 ng/ml after day 7, followed by a decrease to 194 ng/ml after day 21, while IL1RA concentrations of controls were permanently below 200 pg/ml. Conclusion: Our results indicate that FVV are capable of efficient gene transfer to MSCs, while reaching IL1RA transgene expression levels, that were able to efficiently block the impacts of IL1β in vitro. FVV merit further investigation as a means to study the potential as a gene transfer tool for MSC based therapies for cartilage repair.
Density-Dependent Effects in Experimental Larval Populations of Anopheles arabiensis (Diptera: Culicidae) Can be Negative, Neutral, or Overcompensatory Depending on Density and Diet Levels

ABSTRACT Anopheles arabiensis Patton (Diptera: Culicidae) larvae were reared from hatching to the adult stage in the laboratory under a range of diet and larval concentrations using a factorial design. The range circumscribed most of the larval densities and diet concentrations that would allow larval growth and survival using the particular diet formulation and water volume we tested. We determined how these variables affected three outcomes, as follows: larval development rate, survival, and wing length. As has been reported previously, negative density dependence of survival as a function of increased larval density was the prevalent effect on all outcomes when diet was limiting. When diet was not limiting, density dependence was not observed, and three cases of overcompensatory survival were seen. We discuss these results in the context of diet and larval densities for mass rearing and the effect of larval competition on control strategies.
Repeatability of chemical-shift-encoded water-fat MRI and diffusion-tensor imaging in lower extremity muscles in children.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the repeatability of water-fat MRI and diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) as quantitative biomarkers of pediatric lower extremity skeletal muscle. SUBJECTS AND METHODS MRI at 3 T of a randomly selected thigh and lower leg of seven healthy children was studied using water-fat separation and DTI techniques. Muscle-fat fraction, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and fractional anisotropy (FA) values were calculated. Test-retest and interrater repeatability were assessed by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient, intraclass correlation coefficient, and Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS Bland-Altman plots show that the mean difference between test-retest and interrater measurements of muscle-fat fraction, ADC, and FA was near 0. The correlation coefficients and intraclass correlation coefficients were all between 0.88 and 0.99 (p < 0.05), suggesting excellent reliability of the measurements. Muscle-fat fraction measurements from water-fat MRI exhibited the highest intraclass correlation coefficient. Interrater agreement was consistently better than test-retest comparisons. CONCLUSION Water-fat MRI and DTI measurements in lower extremity skeletal muscles are objective repeatable biomarkers in children. This knowledge should aid in the understanding of the number of participants needed in clinical trials when using these determinations as an outcome measure to noninvasively monitor neuromuscular disease.
Intraspinal Injection of Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Cells Is Neuroprotective in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brain stem and motor cortex and has only marginal therapeutic options. Adult stem cells have recently come into the focus of neurological research. While replacement of motor neurons by stem cells currently appears not feasible, there is evidence that non-neuronal cells can be neuroprotective. Objective: Therefore, we evaluated the effects of direct intraspinal administration of human umbilical cord blood cells in a G93A transgenic mouse model of ALS before (day 40) and after symptom onset (day 90). Methods: Treatment effects were assessed by survival analysis, behavioral tests, histological and biochemical analyses. Results: Treatment at early stages increased survival, led to significant improvements in motor performance and significantly reduced motor neuron loss and astrogliosis in the spinal cord. Interestingly females tended to respond better to treatment than males. Conclusion: This study confirms the neuroprotective potential of human umbilical cord blood cells and encourages further investigations.
From defining the educational challenge to sustainable changes in teacher behaviour: : Professionalising teachers of English in the Netherlands in the field of teaching English pronunciation

The Dutch overestimate their English speaking skills. Their pronunciation is not always convincing, and certain pronunciation mistakes are easily recognized as being typical for Dutch speakers of English. Although intelligibility cannot exist without adequate pronunciation, teaching English pronunciation at Dutch secondary schools is often absent from the EFL teaching curriculum. Focusing on the most prominent pronunciation difficulties, often caused by the mother tongue (L1), will benefit the non-native speaker’s intelligibility and credibility. In order to provide teachers with a time-efficient approach to teach English pronunciation, preliminary research is needed to identify the most prominent error types in the English pronunciation of the average Dutch speaker of English (in this study represented by secondary school pupils and bachelor students in the Netherlands). Research shows that fifty percent of the subject group makes seven types of pronunciation mistakes in more than fifty percent of the cases that such mistakes could be made. The conclusion discusses a general approach for addressing the kind of pronunciation problems we identified.
LncRNA H19 is a major mediator of doxorubicin chemoresistance in breast cancer cells through a cullin4A-MDR1 pathway

Development of chemoresistance is a persistent problem during cancer treatment. Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) are currently emerging as an integral functional component of the human genome and as critical regulators of cancer development and progression. In the present study, we investigated the role and molecular mechanism of H19 lncRNA in chemoresistance development by using doxorubicin (Dox) resistance in breast cancer cells as a model system. H19 lncRNA expression was significantly increased in anthracycline-treated and Dox-resistant MCF-7 breast cancer cells. This H19 overexpression was contributed to cancer cell resistance to anthracyclines and paclitaxel as knockdown of H19 lncRNA by a specific H19 shRNA in Dox-resistant cells significantly improved the cell sensitivity to anthracyclines and paclitaxel. Furthermore, gene expression profiling analysis revealed that a total of 192 genes were associated with H19-mediated Dox resistance. These genes were enriched in multiple KEGG pathways that are related to chemoresistance. Using genetic and pharmacological approaches, we demonstrated that MDR1 and MRP4 were major effectors of H19-regulated Dox resistance in breast cancer cells as MDR1 and MRP4 expression was markedly elevated in Dox-resistant cells while dramatically reduced when H19 was knocked down. Moreover, we found that CUL4A, an ubiquitin ligase component, was a critical factor bridging H19 lncRNA to MDR1 expression, and a high tumor CUL4A expression was associated with low survival in breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. These data suggest that H19 lncRNA plays a leading role in breast cancer chemoresistance, mediated mainly through a H19-CUL4A-ABCB1/MDR1 pathway.
Understanding User Experience with Computer-Based Applications with Different Use Purposes

The concept of user experience emphasizes the importance of understanding users for applications that have various contextual features. To address this issue, this study examines the changes in the relationships among user satisfaction and users' perceptions of usability and aesthetics according to use situations. For data, an experiment was conducted using 15 existing websites with similar levels of usability and aesthetics. Forty-five engineering students participated in the experiment. The results indicated that the relationships among perceived usability, perceived aesthetics, and user satisfaction could be dependent on how users perceived the use purposes and interaction types of the websites. Specifically, the relationship between perceived usability and user satisfaction was stronger for websites requiring users' goal-directed activities, whereas the relationship between perceived aesthetics and user satisfaction was stronger for the websites mainly providing useful information, regardless of the existence of a specific use goal. Also, the strong relationship between perceived usability and perceived aesthetics was more obvious for websites where users mainly wanted to obtain information than for those where users primarily wanted to use the leisure and relaxation content. The findings can be utilized in the design of websites with different contextual features, especially related to use purposes and interaction types.
Interaction and Specificity of Rel-related Proteins in Regulating Drosophila Immunity Gene Expression*

NF-κB/Rel family proteins regulate genes that are critical for many cellular processes including apoptosis, inflammation, immune response, and development. NF-κB/Rel proteins function as homodimers or heterodimers, which recognize specific DNA sequences within target promoters. We examined the activity of different Drosophila Rel-related proteins in modulatingDrosophila immunity genes by expressing the Rel proteins in stably transfected cell lines. We also compared how different combinations of these transcriptional regulators control the activity of various immunity genes. The results show that Rel proteins are directly involved in regulating the Drosophilaantimicrobial response. Furthermore, the drosomycin anddefensin expression is best induced by the Relish/Dif and the Relish/Dorsal heterodimers, respectively, whereas theattacin activity can be efficiently up-regulated by the Relish homodimer and heterodimers. These results illustrate how the formation of Rel protein dimers differentially regulate target gene expression.