Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for a Central Inhibitory Role of Growth Hormone Secretagogues and Ghrelin on Gastric Acid Secretion in Conscious Rats

We examined the possible central and peripheral effects of synthetic growth hormone secretagogues (GHS), hexarelin (Hexa) and EP 40737 (D-Thr-D-Trp (2-Me)-Ala- Trp-D-Phe-Lys-NH2), and of their endogenous counterpart, ghrelin, on gastric acid secretion. The compounds were administered intracerebroventricularly (i.c.v.) or subcutaneously (s.c.) in conscious male rats and the volume of gastric secretion and gastric acid output were examined 3 h after pylorus ligation (Shay-test). Central Hexa, EP 40737 and ghrelin administration (from 0.1 pmol to 1 nmol/rat, i.c.v.) significantly inhibited gastric acid secretion. The maximum inhibitory effect on gastric acid output was detected at the dose of 10 pmol/rat, i.c. v. for Hexa (–51.3%), of 100 pmol/rat, i.c. v. for EP 40737 (–70%) and of 1 pmol/rat, i.c. v. for ghrelin (–60%). All peptides were less effective at the highest dose used (1 nmol/rat, i.c.v.). Hexa, EP 40737 and ghrelin injected s.c. did not modify gastric acid secretion. The inhibitory action of Hexa on gastric acid secretion seems to involve brain somatostatinergic system since Hexa (10 pmol/rat, i.c.v.) did not inhibit gastric acid secretion in rats pretreated (4 h before) with cysteamine (300 mg/kg, s.c.), a depletor of endogenous somatostatin. These results show that synthetic GHS and ghrelin exert a central long-lasting inhibitory effect on gastric acid secretion in conscious pylorus-ligated rats. The fact that very low doses of ghrelin and GHS inhibit gastric secretion, provide evidence for a tonic inhibitory role of the peptides in the central control of gastric secretory function.
ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Potyviridae

The Potyviridae is the largest family of RNA plant viruses, members of which have single-stranded, positive-sense RNA genomes and flexuous filamentous particles 680–900 nm long and 11–20 nm wide. There are eight genera, distinguished by the host range, genomic features and phylogeny of the member viruses. Genomes range from 8.2 to 11.3 kb, with an average size of 9.7 kb. Most genomes are monopartite but those of members of the genus Bymovirus are bipartite. Some members cause serious disease epidemics in cultivated plants. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the taxonomy of the Potyviridae, which is available at www.ictv. global/report/potyviridae.
Basal Subnuclear Vacuolization, Armanni-Ebstein Lesions, Wischnewsky Lesions, and Elevated Vitreous Glucose and &bgr;-Hydroxybuyrate: Is It Hypothermia, Diabetic Ketoacidosis, or Both?

Abstract Hypothermia and diabetic ketoacidosis are both potentially fatal conditions, which have historically been considered to have associated pathognomonic pathologies. Hypothermia and diabetic ketoacidosis share similar pathological mechanisms, which result in metabolic derangement, with increased post mortem vitreous glucose and &bgr;-hydroxybuyrate, and are able to exacerbate and precipitate one another. Although Wischnewsky lesions are associated with hypothermia, and Armanni-Ebstein lesions and basal subnuclear vacuolization are associated with diabetic ketoacidosis, recent studies have demonstrated that there is a significant overlap between the pathological findings of these 2 conditions. We report a case of a 50-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes who was found deceased in the middle of winter. Autopsy showed Wischnewsky lesions, Armanni-Ebstein lesions, and basal subnuclear vacuolization, together with elevated vitreous glucose and &bgr;-hydroxybuyrate. The cause of death was the combined effects of hypothermia and diabetic ketoacidosis. This case highlights the overlapping clinical presentation, pathophysiology, and pathology of these 2 conditions.
Perception-Production Relations in the Voicing Contrast for Initial Stops in 3-Year-Olds

Abstract 34 children (average age 3; 3) furnished perception and production data on five initial voiced-voiceless stop cognates. In addition to the usual systematic effects of place of articulation, significant individual differences were found in both mean produced values of voice onset time (VOT) and mean perceptual boundary in terms of VOT. There was a suggestion of within-sample cross-sectional age trends in both production and perception data. Some restricted correlations between the two types of data were observed and were interpreted as indicating an earlier development of perceptual cue usage than of articulatory control, possibly causative. The restriction appeared to be related to the very low variance in the perception measures. Consideration of average discrepancies between mean perception and mean production data suggested that interpretation of trends in production data may be assisted by taking a measure of the point of overlap between voiced and voiceless productions, rather than the simple average of their means.
Altered mineralization of human osteoarthritic osteoblasts is attributable to abnormal type I collagen production.

OBJECTIVE Bone tissue in osteoarthritis (OA) is composed of abundant undermineralized osteoid matrix. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms responsible for this abnormal matrix, using in vitro OA subchondral osteoblasts. METHODS Primary normal and OA osteoblasts were prepared from tibial plateaus. Phenotype was determined by alkaline phosphatase activity, and osteocalcin, osteopontin, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1) were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Expression of COL1A1 and COL1A2 was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The production of type I collagen was determined by the release of its C-terminal propeptide and Western blot analysis. In vitro mineralization was evaluated by alizarin red staining. Inhibition of TGFbeta1 expression was performed using a small interfering RNA technique. RESULTS Mineralization of OA osteoblasts was reduced compared with mineralization of normal osteoblasts, even in the presence of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2). Alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin levels were elevated in OA osteoblasts compared with normal osteoblasts, whereas osteopontin levels were similar. The COL1A1-to-COL1A2 messenger RNA ratio was 3-fold higher in OA osteoblasts compared with normal osteoblasts, and the production of collagen by OA osteoblasts was increased. Because TGFbeta1 inhibits BMP-2-dependent mineralization, and because TGFbeta1 levels are approximately 4-fold higher in OA osteoblasts than in normal osteoblasts, inhibiting TGFbeta1 levels in OA osteoblasts corrected the abnormal COL1A1-to-COL1A2 ratio and increased alizarin red staining. CONCLUSION Elevated TGFbeta1 levels in OA osteoblasts are responsible, in part, for the abnormal ratio of COL1A1 to COL1A2 and for the abnormal production of mature type I collagen. This abnormal COL1A1-to-COL1A2 ratio generates a matrix that blunts mineralization in OA osteoblasts.
The Influence of Exercise and Caffeine on Cognitive Function in College Students

Exercise has widely been shown to improve cognition, potentially by making individuals more receptive to sensory stimulation or inhibiting irrelevant information. Caffeine, one of the world’s most widely used stimulants, seems to have similar effects. It seems that both exercise and caffeine improve cognitive function separately, but little research has been done examining their combined effects. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of caffeine and exercise, independently and combined, on cognitive function. 20 healthy college students completed the study. These participants were low caffeine consumers. Each participant came to the lab 5 times. During the first session, they completed a graded exercise test on a cycle ergometer to determine ventilatory threshold (VT). The following four sessions were test sessions involving supplementation and exercise. During these, each participant engaged in 30 minutes of cycling (at 90% VT) or 30 minutes of quiet reading after consuming either caffeine (at 4 mg/kg body weight) or a placebo. The Contingent Continuous Performance Task (CPT) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Task were used to measure cognitive function and were completed 5 minutes and 20 minutes after exercise or quiet reading. There were no significant differences found for any variables tested, for condition effect, time effect or condition*time interaction, except for a significant time effect on false alarms on the Contingent CPT (p = 0.017). This study may have been limited by multiple variables including the population, executive function measures, caffeine dosage, or exercise prescription. These findings point to the need for future research to understand the changes in cognition from exercise and caffeine in combination. Future research may include looking at exercise at different intensities, different dosages of caffeine, or looking at the long-term cognitive effects.
Facilitating factors of self-care among HIV-positive young women in Iran: a qualitative study

Abstract Background Providing care for chronic disease such as HIV is a growing challenge in the world. In order to address the challenges of linkage and care in chronic disease management, we need to identify factors that can influence people to get more involved in self-care. This study was part of an extensive qualitative study conducted in Tehran, Iran in 2016. Methods The data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted on 25 women with HIV, and were analyzed using grounded theory. Four main themes were identified as facilitating self-care among participants: health system support, clinicians’ support, family support and improved life expectancy. Sub-themes that emerged were free HIV tests; free medication; free membership in positive clubs; free psychological consultation; positive attitudes and friendly behavior from clinic staff; telephone follow up; support from husbands, mothers and peers; hope for recovery; hope for the future; and love for own children. Results Our results showed that, providing appropriate support and services, as well as a positive attitude of society towards HIV positive women, can contribute to adherence to self-care in young women with HIV. Conclusion Understanding the facilitating factors based on the patients’ experiences can contribute to the development of new policies and procedures to improve the care of these patients.
Effects of home‐based lower limb resistance training on muscle strength and functional status in stable Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES This study aimed to determine the effect of home-based lower limb resistance training (LLRT) in patients with stable COPD. BACKGROUND Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in COPD patients has been substantially investigated, but the rehabilitation components differ among studies. Few works have focused on home-based LLRT. Furthermore, few studies have assessed muscle strength and functional status by isokinetic/isometric extensor muscle peak torque (PT) and five-repetition sit-to-stand test (FTSST), respectively. DESIGN A randomised controlled design was adopted. METHODS (i) The home-based LLRT consisted of six sets of lower limb training cycles by self-gravity resistance and Thera-band resistance at 8-12RM, 20-30 min/session and 3 sessions/week for 12 weeks. (ii) The intervention group (n = 25) received routine PR guidance and home-based LLRT, whereas the control group (n = 22) received routine PR guidance only. The muscle strengths, FTSST durations, 6-min walking distances (6MWDs) and COPD assessment test results at enrolment and week 12 were compared. RESULTS Relative to the baseline findings, all the indexes of muscle strength (isometric extensor muscle PT, isometric extensor muscle PT to body weight ratio [PT/BW], isokinetic extensor muscle PT and isokinetic extensor muscle PT/BW) did not significantly change in the intervention group. Meanwhile, no significant intragroup difference was noted among the indexes of muscle strength (except for isometric extensor muscle PT) in the control group. The FTSST decrease was significant between and within groups. By contrast, the 6MWD significantly increased within both groups, but not between the groups. The COPD assessment tool score decreased significantly within the intervention group. CONCLUSIONS Compared with routine PR guidance, home-based LLRT can improve not only the muscle strength and exercise endurance but also the lower limb functional status. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Our developed home-based LLRT intervention is simple, safe and feasible in stable COPD patients and could hence be promoted in clinical practice.
Coronary artery endothelial dysfunction is present in HIV-positive individuals without significant coronary artery disease

Objective: HIV-positive (HIV+) individuals experience an increased burden of coronary artery disease (CAD) not adequately accounted for by traditional CAD risk factors. Coronary endothelial function (CEF), a barometer of vascular health, is depressed early in atherosclerosis and predict future events but has not been studied in HIV+ individuals. We tested whether CEF is impaired in HIV+ patients without CAD as compared with an HIV-negative (HIV−) population matched for cardiac risk factors. Design/methods: In this observational study, CEF was measured noninvasively by quantifying isometric handgrip exercise-induced changes in coronary vasoreactivity with MRI in 18 participants with HIV but no CAD (HIV+CAD−, based on prior imaging), 36 age-matched and cardiac risk factor-matched healthy participants with neither HIV nor CAD (HIV−CAD−), 41 patients with no HIV but with known CAD (HIV−CAD+), and 17 patients with both HIV and CAD (HIV+CAD+). Results: CEF was significantly depressed in HIV+CAD− patients as compared with that of risk-factor-matched HIV−CAD− patients (P < 0.0001) and was depressed to the level of that in HIV− participants with established CAD. Mean IL-6 levels were higher in HIV+ participants (P < 0.0001) and inversely related to CEF in the HIV+ patients (P = 0.007). Conclusion: Marked coronary endothelial dysfunction is present in HIV+ patients without significant CAD and is as severe as that in clinical CAD patients. Furthermore, endothelial dysfunction appears inversely related to the degree of inflammation in HIV+ patients as measured by IL-6. CEF testing in HIV+ patients may be useful for assessing cardiovascular risk and testing new CAD treatment strategies, including those targeting inflammation.
Engineered superlattices with crossover from decoupled to synthetic ferromagnetic behavior

The extent of interfacial charge transfer and the resulting impact on magnetic interactions were investigated as a function of sublayer thickness in La0.7Sr0. 3MnO3/La0.7Sr0. 3CoO3 ferromagnetic superlattices. Element-specific soft x-ray magnetic spectroscopy reveals that the electronic structure is altered within 5–6 unit cells of the chemical interface, and can lead to a synthetic ferromagnet with strong magnetic coupling between the sublayers. The saturation magnetization and coercivity depends sensitively on the sublayer thickness due to the length scale of this interfacial effect. For larger sublayer thicknesses, the La0.7Sr0. 3MnO3 and La0.7Sr0. 3CoO3 sublayers are magnetically decoupled, displaying two independent magnetic transitions with little sublayer thickness dependence. These results demonstrate how interfacial phenomena at perovskite oxide interfaces can be used to tailor their functional properties at the atomic scale.
On the p ‐adic Stark conjecture at s=1 and applications

Let E/F be a finite Galois extension of totally real number fields and let p be a prime. The ‘ p ‐adic Stark conjecture at s=1 ’ relates the leading terms at s=1 of p ‐adic Artin L ‐functions to those of the complex Artin L ‐functions attached to E/F . We prove this conjecture unconditionally when E/Q is abelian. We also show that for certain non‐abelian extensions E/F the p ‐adic Stark conjecture at s=1 is implied by Leopoldt's conjecture for E at p . Moreover, we prove that for a fixed prime p , the p ‐adic Stark conjecture at s=1 for E/F implies Stark's conjecture at s=1 for E/F . This leads to a ‘prime‐by‐prime’ descent theorem for the ‘equivariant Tamagawa number conjecture’ (ETNC) for Tate motives at s=1 . As an application of these results, we provide strong new evidence for special cases of the ETNC for Tate motives and the closely related ‘leading term conjectures’ at s=0 and s=1 .
A Longitudinal Test of the Investment Model: The Impact on Job Satisfaction, Job Commitment, and Turnover of Variations in Rewards, Costs, Alternatives, and Investments

A longitudinal study of moderately professionalized technical workers was conducted to test a vanety of investment model (Farrell & Rusbult, 1981) predictions concerning the determinants of job satisfaction, job commitment, and turnover In general, greater job satisfaction resulted from high job rewards and low job costs, whereas strong job commitment was produced by high rewards, low costs, poor alternative quality, and large investment size Whereas the impact of job rewards on satisfaction and commitment remained relatively constant, job costs seemed to exert an increasingly powerful influence over time Investment size, too, was shown to exert greater impact on job commitment with the passage of time Just prior to their leaving, the job commitment of employees who left was best predicted by a combination of rewards, costs, and alternatives Employees who stayed and those who left were shown to differ from one another with regard to changes over time in each investment model factor—those who left expenenced greater decline in rewards, increase in costs, increase in alternative quality, and decrease in investment size than did those who stayed Turnover appeared to be mediated by a decline over time in degree of job commitment
Effects of 1800 MHz RF-EMF exposure on DNA damage and cellular functions in primary cultured neurogenic cells

Abstract Purpose: To systematically evaluate the effects of 1800 MHz radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) exposure on DNA damage and cellular functions in primary cultured neurogenic cells. Materials and methods: The primary cultured astrocytes, microglia and cortical neurons were exposed to RF-EMF at a SAR of 4.0 W/kg. The DNA damage was evaluated by γH2AX foci formation assay. The secretions of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β) in astrocytes and microglia, microglial phagocytic activity and neuronal development were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, phagocytosis assay and immunofluorescent staining on microtubule-associated protein tau, microtubule-associated protein 2, postsynaptic density 95 and gephyrin, respectively. Results: RF-EMF exposure did not significantly induce γH2AX foci formation in three primary cultured neurogenic cells. Furthermore, RF-EMF exposure did not significantly affect the secretion of cytokines in astrocytes and microglia, and the morphological indicators of dendrites or synapses of cortical neurons. However, the exposure significantly reduced the phagocytic activity of microglia and inhibited the axon branch length and branch number of cortical neurons. Conclusions: Our data demonstrated that exposure to RF-EMF did not elicit DNA damage but inhibited the phagocytic ability of microglia and the axon branch length and branch number of cortical neurons.
Modeling BAS Dysregulation in Bipolar Disorder

Time series analysis is a technique that can be used to analyze the data from a single subject and has great potential to investigate clinically relevant processes like affect regulation. This article uses time series models to investigate the assumed dysregulation of affect that is associated with bipolar disorder. By formulating a number of alternative models that capture different kinds of theoretically predicted dysregulation, and by comparing these in both bipolar patients and controls, we aim to illustrate the heuristic potential this method of analysis has for clinical psychology. We argue that, not only can time series analysis elucidate specific maladaptive dynamics associated with psychopathology, it may also be clinically applied in symptom monitoring and the evaluation of therapeutic interventions.
Linear energy transfer distributions in the brainstem depending on tumour location in intensity-modulated proton therapy of paediatric cancer

Abstract Background: For tumours near organs at risk, there is concern about unintended increase in biological dose from elevated linear energy transfer (LET) at the distal end of treatment fields. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate how different paediatric posterior fossa tumour locations impact LET and biological dose to the brainstem during intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT). Material and methods: Multiple IMPT plans were generated for four different simulated tumour locations relative to the brainstem for a five-year-old male patient. A prescribed dose of 59.4 Gy(RBE) was applied to the planning target volumes (PTVs). Plans with two lateral and one posterior non-coplanar fields were created, along with plans with modified field arrangements. The dose-averaged LET (LETd) and the physical dose × RBELET (D × RBELET), where RBELET=1+c × LETd, were calculated using the FLUKA Monte Carlo code. A scaling parameter c was applied to make the RBELET represent variations in the biological effect due to LET. Results: High LETd values surrounded parts of the PTV and encompassed portions of the brainstem. Mean LETd values in the brainstem were 3.2–6.6 keV/μm. The highest absolute brainstem LETd values were seen with the tumour located most distant from the brainstem, whereas lower and more homogeneous LETd values were seen when the tumour invaded the brainstem. In contrast, the highest mean D × RBELET values were found in the latter case (54.0 Gy(RBE)), while the case with largest distance between tumour and brainstem had a mean D × RBELET of 1.8 Gy(RBE). Conclusions: Using IMPT to treat posterior fossa tumours may result in high LETd values within the brainstem, particularly if the tumour volume is separated from the brainstem. However, the D × RBELET was greater for tumours that approached or invaded the brainstem. Changing field angles showed a reduction of LETd and D × RBELET in the brainstem.