Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long‐term subregion‐specific encoding of enhanced ethanol intake by D1DR medium spiny neurons of the nucleus accumbens

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a critical component of the mesocorticolimbic system and is involved in mediating the motivational and reinforcing aspects of ethanol consumption. Chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure is a reliable model to induce ethanol dependence and increase volitional ethanol consumption in mice. Following a CIE‐induced escalation of ethanol consumption, NMDAR (N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor)‐dependent long‐term depression in D1 dopamine receptor expressing medium spiny neurons of the NAc shell was markedly altered with no changes in plasticity in D1 dopamine receptor medium spiny neurons from the NAc core. This disruption of plasticity persisted for up to 2 weeks after cessation of ethanol access. To determine if changes in AMPA receptor (AMPAR) composition contribute to this ethanol‐induced neuroadaptation, we monitored the rectification of AMPAR excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs). We observed a marked decrease in the rectification index in the NAc shell, suggesting the presence of GluA2‐lacking AMPARs. There was no change in the amplitude of spontaneous EPSCs (sEPSCs), but there was a transient increase in sEPSC frequency in the NAc shell. Using the paired pulse ratio, we detected a similar transient increase in the probability of neurotransmitter release. With no change in sEPSC amplitude, the change in the rectification index suggests that GluA2‐containing AMPARs are removed and replaced with GluA2‐lacking AMPARs in the NAc shell. This CIE‐induced alteration in AMPAR subunit composition may contribute to the loss of NMDAR‐dependent long‐term depression in the NAc shell and therefore may constitute a critical neuroadaptive response underlying the escalation of ethanol intake in the CIE model.
Baseline apnoea/hypopnoea index and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein for the risk of recurrence of atrial fibrillation after successful electrical cardioversion: a predictive model based upon the multiple effects of significant variables.

AIMS We tested apnoea/hypopnoea index (AHI), high-sensitivity (hs) C-reactive protein and clinical/instrumental variables as predictors of atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence over 1-year follow-up after successful electrical cardioversion. METHODS AND RESULTS We enrolled 158 consecutive patients. Apnoea/hypopnoea index was assessed with standard overnight polysomnography and hs-C-reactive protein with immunonephelometry assay the day before electrical cardioversion. Atrial fibrillation recurrences occurred in 81 patients (51%). Predictors at univariate analysis were: AHI > or = 15 events/h (P = 0.001), hs-C-reactive protein >0.30 mg/dL (P = 0.009), AF duration >3 days (P = 0.008), diabetes (P = 0.03), and ongoing anti-arrhythmic therapy at the time of electrical cardioversion (P = 0.03). Survival analysis confirmed that patients with AHI > or = 15 events/h and hs-C-reactive protein > 0.30 mg/dL had a higher recurrence rate of AF (log rank P = 0.0006 and P = 0.01, respectively). Predictors at multivariate analysis were: AHI > or = 15 events/h (P = 0.003), hs-C-reactive protein > 0.30 mg/dL (P = 0.01) and ongoing anti-arrhythmic therapy (P = 0.04). A predictive model based upon the multiple effects of significant variables plus age as a continuous variable stratified the risk of AF recurrence, more than tripled with all dichotomized variables altered with respect to normal variables (85 vs. 27%). CONCLUSION AHI > or = 15 events/h and hs-C-reactive protein > 0.30 mg/dL are the strongest predictors of the predictors chosen of AF recurrence after successful electrical cardioversion over 1-year follow-up.
Conditional release: a less restrictive alternative to hospitalization?

OBJECTIVE This study examined conditional release--that is, involuntary outpatient commitment orders upon release from hospitalization--as a least restrictive alternative to psychiatric hospitalization in Victoria, Australia. METHODS Records were obtained from the Victorian Psychiatric Case Register for patients who experienced psychiatric hospitalization: between 1990 and 2000 a total of 8,879 patients were given conditional release and 16,094 were not. RESULTS Compared with the group that was hospitalized but did not receive a conditional release, the group that received a conditional release was more likely to have more prior hospitalizations of greater than average duration. Patients with schizophrenia were more likely to be given conditional release. Patients given conditional release experienced a care pattern involving briefer inpatient episodes (8.3 fewer days per episode), more inpatient days, and longer duration of restrictive care--that is, combined inpatient and conditional release periods (5.1 more days per month in care). CONCLUSIONS For patients at risk of long-term hospitalization, conditional release may help to shorten inpatient episodes by providing a least restrictive alternative to continued hospitalization. However, patients who were given conditional release doubled the amount of days they spent under restrictive care, compared with the amount of time they previously spent in the hospital before entering a period of combined inpatient and conditional release commitment. Additional oversight may have led to more frequent hospitalization. This consequence raises new questions regarding the possible benefits of such extended oversight and new challenges for release planning using conditional release as a least restrictive method of care.
ONCOLYSIS BY CLOSTRIDIA. I. ACTIVITY OF CLOSTRIDIUM BUTYRICUM (M-55) AND OTHER NONPATHOGENIC CLOSTRIDIA AGAINST THE EHRLICH CARCINOMA.

Summary Intravenous injections of suspensions of spores of Cl. butyricum (Strain M-55) produced a more or less extensive lysis of tumor tissue. A number of other strains of nonpathogenic clostridia did not show substantially improved results. In genreal, strains which were able to ferment carbohydrate performed equally well, whereas primarily proteolytic strains gave inferior results. Combination of Strain M-55 with Cl. felsineum , as well as a combination of Strain M-55 with culture filtrates of Cl. paraputrificum , did not yield improved results. All growth phases of Cl. butyricum could at least in principle produce the phenomenon of oncolysis, but the results were most unfavorable if vegetative forms were used. To some extent an enhancement of oncolysis could be obtained by a combination of spores with certain tumor extracts.
Recommendations for promoting the engagement of older people in activities to prevent falls

Objective: To develop recommendations for promoting uptake of and adherence to falls-prevention interventions among older people. Design: The recommendations were initially developed from literature review, clinical experience of the core group members, and substantial qualitative and quantitative studies of older people’s views. They were refined through a consultation process with members of the falls-prevention community, drawing on Delphi survey and nominal group techniques. Transparency was enhanced by recording and reporting aspects of the iterative consultation process such as the degree of consensus and critical comments on drafts of the recommendations. Setting: The recommendations were developed and refined at three meetings of the core group, and through internet-based consultation and two meetings involving members of the wider falls-prevention community. Participants: The authors developed the recommendations incorporating the feedback from the researchers and practitioners responding to a broad-based internet consultation and consulted in the meetings. Results: A high degree of consensus was achieved. Recommendations addressed the need for public education, ensuring that interventions were compatible with a positive identity, tailoring interventions to the specific situation and values of the individual, and using validated methods to maintain longer-term adherence. Conclusion: These recommendations represent a consensus based on current knowledge and evidence, but the evidence base from which these recommendations were developed was limited, and not always specific to prevention of falls. To increase the effectiveness of falls-prevention interventions, further research is needed to identify the features of falls-prevention programmes that will encourage older people’s engagement in them.
Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the "overjustification" hypothesis.

A field experiment was conducted with children to test the "overjustification" hypothesis suggested by self-percepti on theory—the proposition that a person's intrinsic interest in an activity may be decreased by inducing him to engage in that activity as an explicit means to some extrinsic goal. Children showing intrinsic interest in a target activity during base-line observations were exposed to one of three conditions: In the expected-award condition, subjects agreed to engage in the target activity in order to obtain an extrinsic reward; in the unexpected-award condition, subjects had no knowledge of the reward until after they had finished with the activity; and in the no-award condition, subjects neither expected nor received the reward. The results supported the prediction that subjects in the expected-award condition would show less subsequent intrinsic interest in the target activity than subjects in either of the other two conditions. The process by which man seeks to understand his environment—to discern the causes of events which surround him and explain the behavior of others toward him—has been of central concern to social psychology for many years (e.g., Brunswik, 1934; Heider, 1958;
Current voltage characteristics of a metallic structure for a hot-carrier photovoltaic cell

We demonstrate a solar cell based on a thin layer of metal directly deposited on an n-doped semiconductor structure, forming a Schottky barrier acting as a semi-selective contact for an electron temperature driven cell. Absorption of light is shown to be by free carrier absorption in the metal layer for illumination with wavelengths of light below the semiconductor band gap, giving rise to an IV characteristic with a reverse bias slope dependent on electron temperature. Illumination with light in excess of the band gap reveals a standard Schottky cell IV characteristic.
Predictive performance of urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin for dialysis requirement and death following cardiac surgery in neonates and infants.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) has been shown to accurately predict and allow early detection of AKI, as assessed by an increase in serum creatinine in children and adults. The present study explores the accuracy of uNGAL for the prediction of severe AKI-related outcomes in neonates and infants undergoing cardiac surgery: dialysis requirement and/or death within 30 days. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Prospective, observational cohort study conducted in a tertiary referral pediatric cardiac intensive care unit, including 75 neonates and 125 infants undergoing surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass between August 1, 2010, and May 31, 2011. Urine samples were collected before surgery and at median of five time points within 48 hours of bypass. Urine NGAL was quantified as absolute concentration, creatinine-normalized concentration, and absolute excretion rate, and a clusterization algorithm was applied to the individual uNGAL kinetics. The accuracy for the prediction of the outcome was assessed using receiver-operating characteristic areas, likelihood ratios, diagnostic odds ratios, net reclassification index, integrated reclassification improvement, and number needed to screen. RESULTS A total of 1176 urine samples were collected. Of all patients, 8% required dialysis and 4% died. Three clusters of uNGAL kinetics were identified, including patients with significantly different outcomes. The uNGAL level peaked between 1 and 3 hours of bypass and remained high in half of all patients who required dialysis or died. The uNGAL levels measured within 24 hours of bypass accurately predicted the outcome and performed best after normalization to creatinine, with varying cutoffs according to the time elapsed since bypass. The number needed to screen to correctly identify the risk of dialysis or death in one patient varied between 1.5 and 2.6 within 12 hours of bypass. CONCLUSIONS uNGAL is a valuable predictive tool of dialysis requirement and death in neonates and infants with AKI after cardiac surgery.
Dependent Speaker Verification Using Unsupervised HMM-UBM and Temporal GMM-UBM

In this paper, we investigate the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and the temporal Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) systems based on the Universal Background Model (UBM) concept to capture temporal information of speech for Text Dependent (TD) Speaker Verification (SV). In TD-SV, target speakers are constrained to use only predefined fixed sentence/s during both the enrollment and the test process. The temporal information is therefore important in the sense of utterance verification, i.e. whether the test utterance has the same sequence of textual content as the utterance used during the target enrollment. However, the temporal information is not considered in the classical GMM-UBM based TD-SV system. Moreover, no transcription knowledge of the speech is required in the HMM-UBM and temporal GMM-UBM based systems. We also study the fusion of the HMM-UBM, the temporal GMM-UBM and the classical GMM-UBM systems in SV. We show that the HMMUBM system yields better performance than the other systems in most cases. Further, fusion of the systems improve the overall speaker verification performance. The results are shown in the different tasks of the RedDots challenge 2016 database.
Electrotherapy Reverses Inframalleolar Ischemia: A Retrospective, Observational Study

OBJECTIVETo determine if high-voltage pulsed current (HVPC) augments ischemic wound healing and increases periwound perfusion. DESIGNA 5-year, retrospective, observational study was conducted on successive patients with ischemic wounds who were poor candidates for revascularization. INTERVENTIONHVPC was applied directly to wounds at greater than 100 volts, 100 pulses per second, 1 hour per day. In addition to HVPC, patients received standard care for ischemic wounds at the study facility. Ischemic wounds for which HVPC was not clinically indicated or not available received standard care alone. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESWound area measured by planimetry, wound appearance observed by digital imaging techniques, and microcirculation monitored by transcutaneous oxygen (TcPo2) levels. RESULTSThe group that received HVPC plus standard care showed smaller wound areas from weeks 20 though 52 after the start of treatment compared with the group that received standard care alone (P <.05; Mann-Whitney test). One year after the start of treatment, 90% of HVPC-treated wounds were healed, compared with 29% of the wounds that received only standard care (P <.05; Fisher exact test). For the HVPC group, maximum periwound TcPo2 improved during electrotherapy (6 ± 8 mm Hg [standard deviation; SD] at baseline improved to 26 ± 20 SD, during HVPC, P <.05; Wilcoxon signed rank test). CONCLUSIONThe results of this retrospective trial demonstrate that HVPC plus standard care improved the healing rate of high-risk ischemic wounds. A direct relationship was shown between improved healing rates and increased periwound perfusion. A prospective randomized controlled trial is needed to further support these observational, preliminary findings.
Lipid Profile in Tuberculous Patients : A Preliminary Report

Background: Serum cholesterol in pulmonary TB patients is lower than healthy controls, but this is not clear if it is a risk factor or a consequence of the disease itself. Study Objectives: To detect any differences in lipid profile between Egyptian TB patients and controls and to test whether this difference changes after treatment or not aiming to prove if the difference is a risk factor for tuberculosis or a consequence of the disease itself. Patients and Methods: For new TB patients, we did a fasting serum lipid profile of serum cholesterol (SC), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoproteins (LDL) and high density lipoproteins (HDL). All patients received the same four antiTB drugs for 8 weeks then a follow up lipid profile was done. Samples for lipid profile from healthy controls were also taken. Results: We recruited 30 new TB patients, 14 women and 16 men with a mean age ( SD) of 33.4 13.25 years. There were 16 pulmonary TB and 14 other forms as pleural (5), TB lymphadenitis (5), TB peritonitis (4) plus 15 controls. Regarding the whole studied group, only serum triglyceride was significantly lower before treatment than control group (P<0.01) while both serum cholesterol and HDL showed a significant increase after treatment than before it (P<0.01 for both). Regarding pulmonary tuberculosis patients, both serum cholesterol and triglycerides were significantly lower on diagnosis than healthy controls (P<0.05 for both) and only serum cholesterol increased significantly after treatment than before it (P<0.01). Conclusions and recommendations: Hypocholesterolemia in Egyptian patients with pulmonary TB is present at the time of diagnosis. However, it proved to be a consequence of the disease rather than a risk factor as serum cholesterol significantly increased in both pulmonary TB and in the whole group after treatment. [Mohamed M. Metwally and Hesham Abdel Raheem. Lipid Profile in Tuberculous Patients: A Preliminary Report. Life Science Journal 2012; 9(1):719-722]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 103
Research challenges to the study of HIV/AIDS among migrant and immigrant hispanic populations in the united states

Migrant populations have been found to be at risk of HIV/AIDS. The growth in immigrant and migrant Hispanic populations in the United States increases the need to enhance understanding of influences on their HIV-risk behaviors. Four challenges to conducting research among these populations were identified: (1) the need to use multilevel theoretical frameworks; (2) the need to differentiate between Hispanic subgroups; (3) challenges to recruitment and data collection;, and (4) ethical issues. This article describes how two studies of Hispanic immigrants and migrants in the New York area addressed these challenges. One study focused on new immigrants from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemale, and a second study focused on Puerto Rican drug users. Both studies incorporated qualitative and quantitative methods to study these hard-to-reach populations. Continued study of the sociocultural and contextual factors affecting HIV risk for mobile populations, and addressing the research challenges, is crucial to developing effective intervention programs.
The Uptake, Storage, and Efflux of Serotonin in Platelets from Migraine Patients

A recently developed method for analysing 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) efflux from platelets preloaded with a small amount of 14C-5-HT enables the assessment of the relative size of the granular and the cytoplasmatic pools of 5-HT within the platelets and of the rate of spontaneous efflux from these two compartments. This method, together with conventional assessment of the 5-HT uptake measures Km and Vmax, was applied in this study, comparing platelets from 14 patients with common migraine and 10 patients with classic migraine with platelets from 25 healthy controls. All patients were unmedicated and in an attack-free period. Neither the total patient group nor either of the two subgroups differed significantly from the control group on any measure of 5-HT uptake or efflux. However, two differences approached the conventional significance level: the relative size of the granular compartment (Compartment III) was larger for classic than for common migraine, and the efflux rate from Compartment III was shorter for classic migraine than for the healthy controls (P approximately 0.10 in both cases). Further studies are required to show whether these differences are real and, if so, whether they have any relevance for the pathogenesis of migraine attacks.
Fitness declines towards range limits and local adaptation to climate affect dispersal evolution during climate‐induced range shifts

Dispersal ability will largely determine whether species track their climatic niches during climate change, a process especially important for populations at contracting (low‐latitude/low‐elevation) range limits that otherwise risk extinction. We investigate whether dispersal evolution at contracting range limits is facilitated by two processes that potentially enable edge populations to experience and adjust to the effects of climate deterioration before they cause extinction: (i) climate‐induced fitness declines towards range limits and (ii) local adaptation to a shifting climate gradient. We simulate a species distributed continuously along a temperature gradient using a spatially explicit, individual‐based model. We compare range‐wide dispersal evolution during climate stability vs. directional climate change, with uniform fitness vs. fitness that declines towards range limits (RLs), and for a single climate genotype vs. multiple genotypes locally adapted to temperature. During climate stability, dispersal decreased towards RLs when fitness was uniform, but increased when fitness declined towards RLs, due to highly dispersive genotypes maintaining sink populations at RLs, increased kin selection in smaller populations, and an emergent fitness asymmetry that favoured dispersal in low‐quality habitat. However, this initial dispersal advantage at low‐fitness RLs did not facilitate climate tracking, as it was outweighed by an increased probability of extinction. Locally adapted genotypes benefited from staying close to their climate optima; this selected against dispersal under stable climates but for increased dispersal throughout shifting ranges, compared to cases without local adaptation. Dispersal increased at expanding RLs in most scenarios, but only increased at the range centre and contracting RLs given local adaptation to climate.