Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuromuscular response of young boys versus men during sustained maximal contraction.

PURPOSE This study was designed to compare neuromuscular response between boys and men during sustained maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). METHODS Fifteen boys (YB, 10.5 +/- 0.9 yr) and 12 men (AM, 21.5 +/- 4.5 yr) participated in the experiment. Arm's cross sectional area (CSA) and maximal force (F(max)) of elbow flexor were measured before subjects performed a 30-s sustained MVC. Mean power frequency (MPF) and muscle fiber conduction velocity (MFCV) were calculated from myoelectric signals of the biceps brachii. F(max)/CSA, MPF, and MFCV changes were expressed by slopes of linear regressions. Maximal MPF (I-MPF) and MFCV (I-MFCV) were derived from the intercept of each regression. RESULTS AM had significantly greater F(max)/CSA (P < 0.05), I-MPF (P < 0.05), and I-MFCV (P < 0.01) than YB. F(max)/CSA (P < 0.001), MPF (P < 0.001), and MFCV (P < 0.01) declined significantly more for AM than YB. MPF/MFCV ratio increased, i.e., MPF decreased more than MFCV, for both groups but this was significantly (P < 0.001) more pronounced for AM. CONCLUSION Taken together, those results suggest that more fatigable Type II motor units are involved in men, resulting in greater lactic acid and ions accumulations during fatigue. This difference in muscle's metabolic and ionic state could be responsible for a greater reflex-induced decrease of motor units firing rates in men compared with boys. This firing rate decrease could be explained using the "muscular wisdom" hypothesis and would express a nervous command adaptation to sustain a maximal contraction.
Event-related potentials in psychiatry: differentiating depression and dementia in the elderly.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 25 elderly patients and 26 normal controls to determine whether ERPs can aid in the differential diagnosis of depression and dementia. Two ERP measures were used: (1) P300 latency, and (2) N1 amplitude increase for a 14db tone intensity increase (i.e. intensity augmenting-reducing). While augmenting-reducing proved of little benefit, P300 latency was highly correlated with Mini-Mental State (MMS) scores and correctly identified 10 of 18 demented patients. None of the seven patients with psychiatric disorders (primarily depression) or 26 normals were misclassified. Better differentiation of depression and dementia resulted from combined use of P300 latency and MMS scores.
Gentamicin and indomethacin in the treatment of septic shock: effects on prostacyclin and thromboxane A2 production.

We investigated the effects of the thromboxane synthetase inhibitor 7-(1-imidazolyl)heptanoic acid (7-IHA) and the fatty acid cyclooxygenase inhibitors indomethacin or ibuprofen in the treatment of fecal peritonitis in the rat. The effects of gentamicin alone and in combination with reduction of arachidonic acid metabolism by either treatment with indomethacin or essential fatty acid deficiency was also investigated. 7-IHA (60 mg/kg), administered i.p. 30 min before i.p. instillation of a fecal suspension, significantly reduced the plasma levels of immunoreactive (i) TxB2 from 1066 +/- 194 pg/ml (N = 14) to nondetectable (less than 200 pg/ml; N = 9) (P less than .01) at 1 hr and from 1695 +/- 218 (N = 16) to 508 +/- 56 pg/ml (N = 6) (P less than .01) at 4 hr after instillation of feces. In contrast, the levels of i6-keto-prostaglandin (PG)F1 alpha, the stable metabolite of prostacyclin, were significantly elevated by 7-IHA pretreatment from vehicle-treated septic control levels of 3777 +/- 414 (N = 16) to 5185 +/- 467 pg/ml (N = 9) (P less than .05) at 1 hr. Plasma i6-keto-PGF1 alpha at 4 hr in 7-IHA-treated rats (5503 +/- 665 pg/ml) (N = 6) was not different from vehicle-treated controls. Survival associated with fecal peritonitis was not altered by 7-IHA pretreatment. Indomethacin (10 mg/kg) or ibuprofen (5 mg/kg) administered i.p. 30 min before the fecal suspension significantly decreased both iTxB2 and i6-keto-PGF1 alpha, plasma levels when measured at 4 hr and prolonged survival time (P less than .05). Fibrinogen/fibrin degradation products were elevated (P less than .01) during fecal peritonitis and were reduced by indomethacin (P less than .01) or 7-IHA (P less than .05). Gentamicin significantly increased mean survival time from 8.6 +/- 0.2 (N = 50) to 23.8 +/- 2.6 hr (N = 16) (P less than .01). Gentamicin in combination with indomethacin or essential fatty acid deficiency further improved mean survival time and resulted in long-term survivals (greater than 48 hr) of 35 (N = 17) and 30% (N = 7), respectively (P less than .01 compared with gentamicin). Gentamicin pretreatment did not significantly alter plasma iTxB2 levels, but decreased i6-keto-PGF1 alpha from 9465 +/- 792 (N = 7) to 3096 +/- 1,174 pg/ml (N = 5; P less than .01) at 6 hr after induction of fecal peritonitis. These studies raise the possibility that inhibition of fatty acid cyclooxygenase may be a useful adjunct to antibiotic therapy in the treatment of septic shock.
A Comparison of the Effects of Voice Massage™ and Voice Hygiene Lecture on Self-Reported Vocal Well-Being and Acoustic and Perceptual Speech Parameters in Female Teachers

This study compared the effects of Voice Massage™ (VM) and a voice hygiene lecture (VHL) on 60 female teachers. VM is a Finnish massage method which treats muscles related to voice production. All subjects attended the VHL (3 h). Half of them were randomly assigned to the VM group, the other half received only VHL. VM was given 5 times in 1-hour sessions at intervals of 1–2 weeks. At the beginning and end of the autumn school term, before and after a working day, (1) a 1-min reading sample was recorded at both the subject’s habitual loudness and loudly, (2) a prolonged phonation on [a:] was recorded at habitual speaking pitch and (3) a questionnaire on voice quality, ease or difficulty of phonation, and tiredness of the throat was completed. The reading samples were analysed for the fundamental frequency (F₀), equivalent sound level (Leq) and α-ratio [Leq (1–5 kHz) – Leq (50–1,000 Hz)]. The vowel samples were analysed for the F₀ and Leq, as well as for jitter and shimmer. The reading samples were also evaluated perceptually by 3 speech trainers. The mean F₀ and difficulty of phonation increased from the beginning to the end of the term in the VHL group (p = 0.026, p = 0.007, respectively). In the VM group, the perceived firmness of loud reading decreased (p = 0.026). The results suggest that VM may help in sustaining vocal well-being during a school term.
Metabolic and hormonal effects of tacrolimus (FK506) or cyclosporin immunosuppression following renal transplantation

Twelve renal transplant recipients randomised to receive immunosuppression with either tacrolimus (FK506) or cyclosporin underwent oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) a median of 8 months (range 7–9) after transplantation. Six healthy subjects acted as controls. Compared with the controls, both transplant groups had significantly elevated fasting (p < 0.05 for both groups) and postprandial (p < 0.001 for tacrolimus and p < 0.05 for cyclosporin) blood glucose concentrations. Fasting hyperinsulinaemia was observed in both transplant groups (p < 0.05) relative to the control subjects. Glucose‐stimulated plasma immunoreactive insulin concentrations in the tacrolimus‐treatment group were significantly higher than in the cyclosporin group (p < 0.05) and the controls (p < 0.001). Postprandial blood alanine concentrations were also significantly elevated in the tacrolimus group compared with both the controls (p < 0.001) and cyclosporin‐treated patients (p < 0.001). The raised insulin concentrations with normal or increased blood glucose concentrations after renal transplantation suggests that insulin resistance was more marked in patients receiving tacrolimus‐based immunosuppression.
Influence of Punishment, Emotional Rejection, Child Abuse, and Broken Home on Aggression in Adolescence: An Examination of Aggressive Adolescents in Germany

The results of this study provide evidence for the importance of psychosocial risks in childhood for aggressive behavior in adolescence. This study demonstrated that aggressive adolescents differed from a nonaggressive control group in an increased exposure to prior psychotraumatic events, such as sexual abuse (tendency), physical abuse, and broken homes. However, in predicting later aggressive behavior, long-term and chronically effective negative living conditions seem of greater importance. Parenting behavior which includes harsh punishment and emotional rejection as well as separation of the parents early in life are particularly important factors. Whereas aggressive girls do not differ from the nonaggressive control group in terms of self-reported mental health, the aggressive boys reported more attention deficits, depression, anxiety, delinquency, and social problems.
Long-run Effective Demand in the US Economy: An Empirical Test of the Sraffian Supermultiplier Model

ABSTRACT The Sraffian supermultiplier is a model of demand-led growth that stresses the importance of the autonomous components of aggregate demand (exports, public spending and autonomous consumption). This article tests empirically some major implications of the model employing macroeconomic data for the United States. In particular, we study the long-run relation between autonomous demand and output through cointegration analysis. The results suggest that autonomous demand and output are cointegrated and that autonomous demand exerts a long-run effect on output. There is also some evidence of simultaneous causality, especially in the short-run. Movements in autonomous demand and in the investment share are also found to be positively related, with Granger-causality going from Z to I/Y.
Regional brain atrophy rate predicts future cognitive decline: 6-year longitudinal MR imaging study of normal aging.

PURPOSE To determine if medial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy rate, assessed by using an automated procedure over the initial time interval of a 6-year, three-time-point longitudinal study, is predictive of future memory decline. MATERIALS AND METHODS Healthy elderly subjects (age, >60 years) were administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychometric tests and underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at baseline and two or more follow-up examinations. The rate of brain atrophy between the baseline and first follow-up examinations was assessed by using an automated procedure that included spatial coregistration of the two images and regional brain boundary shift analysis. At final observation, the 45 subjects were separated into a group of those who did and a group of those who did not show objective evidence of cognitive decline. A forward stepwise logistic regression model was used to identify variables that predicted decline. RESULTS Thirty-two subjects remained healthy, and 13 showed cognitive decline. Among subjects who showed cognitive decline, six declined after the second observation. MTL atrophy rate, through its interactions with sex and age, was the most significant predictor of decline. The overall accuracy of prediction was 89% (in 40 of 45 subjects), with 91% specificity (in 29 of 32 subjects) and 85% sensitivity (in 11 of 13 subjects). CONCLUSION Among healthy elderly individuals, increased MTL atrophy rate appears to be predictive of future memory decline.
A Major Determinant for Gliding Motility in Mycoplasma genitalium

Background: The terminal organelle is responsible for a new type of cell motility in mycoplasmas. Results: In this work, the specific interaction between the terminal organelle proteins MG200 and MG491 was identified and characterized by SPR and NMR. Conclusion: The MG200-MG491 interaction affects motility and cell morphology. Significance: The MG200-MG491 interaction, critical for the stability of the terminal organelle, might be determinant for the infectiveness of M. genitalium. Several mycoplasmas, such as the emergent human pathogen Mycoplasma genitalium, developed a complex polar structure, known as the terminal organelle (TO), responsible for a new type of cellular motility, which is involved in a variety of cell functions: cell division, adherence to host cells, and virulence. The TO cytoskeleton is organized as a multisubunit dynamic motor, including three main ultrastructures: the terminal button, the electrodense core, and the wheel complex. Here, we describe the interaction between MG200 and MG491, two of the main components of the TO wheel complex that connects the TO with the cell body and the cell membrane. The interaction between MG200 and MG491 has a KD in the 80 nm range, as determined by surface plasmon resonance. The interface between the two partners was confined to the “enriched in aromatic and glycine residues” (EAGR) box of MG200, previously described as a protein-protein interaction domain, and to a 25-residue-long peptide from the C-terminal region of MG491 by surface plasmon resonance and NMR spectroscopy studies. An atomic description of the MG200 EAGR box binding surface was also provided by solution NMR. An M. genitalium mutant lacking the MG491 segment corresponding to the peptide reveals specific alterations in cell motility and cell morphology indicating that the MG200-MG491 interaction plays a key role in the stability and functioning of the TO.
Magnetotransport Properties of ${\hbox {Y}}_{2}{\hbox {Fe}}_{17-{{x}}}{\hbox {Co}}_{{x}}$ Single Crystals

We find a large Hall effect anisotropy in Y<sub>2</sub>Fe<sub>17-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub> single crystals with x les 2. The anomalous Hall effect resistivity rho<sub>xy</sub> , obtained with an applied magnetic field H perpendicular to the <i>c</i>-axis, is almost one order of magnitude larger than the one for a magnetic field along <i>c</i>-axis (hard magnetization direction). rho<sub>xy</sub> peaks close to the Curie temperature for both orientations. The variation of rho<sub>xy</sub> with the longitudinal resistivity, in the zero magnetic field limit, shows that skew scattering dominates Hall resistivity for <b>H</b>perp<b>c</b> whereas intrinsic Hall effect is important for <b>H</b>||<b>c</b>. This likely arises from a large planar anisotropy shown by these alloys.
A life shaped by pain: women and endometriosis.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The research aim was to explore women's perceptions of living with endometriosis, its effects on their lives and the strategies used to manage their disease. BACKGROUND Symptomatic endometriosis significantly affects women's quality of life. Characteristically the condition causes severe pain and has a negative impact on the ability to work, on family relationships and self-esteem. There has been little discussion about women's experience of endometriosis in nursing literature. DESIGN A qualitative research design informed by feminist research principles was chosen for this project. METHODS Eighteen women agreed to take part in the research. The individual, audio taped interviews were semi-structured and interactive. The interviews were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. RESULTS The dominant feature of data from the interviews was the experience of severe and chronic pain impacting on all aspects of life. Analysis related to pain resulted in four themes: manifestations of pain, the pain trajectory, intractable pain and controlling pain. CONCLUSION The diagnostic process typically took 5-10 years indicating that primary health care practitioners need higher levels of 'suspicion' for this condition. Case studies and problem-based scenarios focusing on endometriosis in health professional education programmes would enhance diagnostic skills and knowledge development. No formal pain management follow up after diagnosis and treatment meant women actively sought information from other sources as they made major lifestyle changes in the areas of activity and nutrition. Pain management services specifically for women with endometriosis would provide much needed support with this neglected aspect of the disease. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE This is a fertile area for the development of the Nurse Practitioner role which, also drawing on the considerable collective expertise of women with endometriosis, could provide significant information and support for women as they manage this highly complex condition.
Data-Driven Stochastic Unit Commitment for Integrating Wind Generation

Considering recent development of deregulated energy markets and the intermittent nature of renewable energy generation, it is important for power system operators to ensure cost effectiveness while maintaining the system reliability. To achieve this goal, significant research progress has recently been made to develop stochastic optimization models and solution methods to improve reliability unit commitment run practice, which is used in the day-ahead market for ISOs/RTOs to ensure sufficient generation capacity available in real time to accommodate uncertainties. Most stochastic optimization approaches assume the renewable energy generation amounts follow certain distributions. However, in practice, the distributions are unknown and instead, a certain amount of historical data are available. In this research, we propose a data-driven risk-averse stochastic unit commitment model, where risk aversion stems from the worst-case probability distribution of the renewable energy generation amount, and develop the corresponding solution methods to solve the problem. Given a set of historical data, our proposed approach first constructs a confidence set for the distributions of the uncertain parameters using statistical inference and solves the corresponding risk-averse stochastic unit commitment problem. Then, we show that the conservativeness of the proposed stochastic program vanishes as the number of historical data increases to infinity. Finally, the computational results numerically show how the risk-averse stochastic unit commitment problem converges to the risk-neutral one, which indicates the value of data.
OCRoRACT: A Sequence Learning OCR System Trained on Isolated Characters

Digitizing historical documents is crucial in preserving the literary heritage. With the availability of low cost capturing devices, libraries and institutes all over the world have old literature preserved in the form of scanned documents. However, searching through these scanned images is still a tedious job as one is unable to search through them. Contemporary machine learning approaches have been applied successfully to recognize text in both printed and handwriting form, however, these approaches require a lot of transcribed training data in order to obtain satisfactory performance. Transcribing the documents manually is a laborious and costly task, requiring many man-hours and language-specific expertise. This paper presents a generic iterative training framework to address this issue. The proposed framework is not only applicable to historical documents, but for present-day documents as well, where manually transcribed training data is unavailable. Starting with the minimal information available, the proposed approach iteratively corrects the training and generalization errors. Specifically, we have used a segmentation-based OCR method to train on individual symbols and then use the semi-corrected recognized text lines as the ground-truth data for segmentation-free sequence learning, which learns to correct the errors in the ground-truth by incorporating context-aware processing. The proposed approach is applied to a collection of 15th century Latin documents. The iterative procedure using segmentation-free OCR was able to reduce the initial character error of about 23% (obtained from segmentation-based OCR) to less than 7% in few iterations.
Local and Use-Dependent Effects of β-Amyloid Oligomers on NMDA Receptor Function Revealed by Optical Quantal Analysis

Beta amyloid (Aβ) triggers the elimination of excitatory synaptic connections in the CNS, an early manifestation of Alzheimer's disease. Oligomeric assemblies of Aβ peptide associate with excitatory synapses resulting in synapse elimination through a process that requires NMDA-type glutamate receptor activation. Whether Aβ affects synaptic NMDA receptor (NMDAR) function directly and acts locally at synapses to which it has bound and whether synaptic activity influences Aβ synaptic binding and synaptotoxicity have remained fundamental questions. Here, we used subcellular Ca2+ imaging in rat hippocampal neurons to visualize NMDAR function at individual synapses before and after Aβ application. Aβ triggered a robust impairment of NMDAR Ca2+ entry at most, but not all, synapses. NMDAR function was more severely impaired at highly active synapses and synapses with bound Aβ, but activity was not required for Aβ synapse binding. Blocking NMDARs during Aβ exposure prevented Aβ-mediated impairment. Finally, Aβ impaired NMDAR Ca2+ entry at doses much lower than those required for NMDAR internalization, revealing a novel, potent mode of NMDAR regulation by Aβ. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Amyloid β (Aβ) is strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease. Aβ triggers the elimination of excitatory synapses through a mechanism that requires NMDA receptors (NMDARs). However, little is known about how or whether Aβ influences synaptic NMDAR function. We used an imaging-based assay to investigate the relationship among Aβ binding, activity, and NMDAR function at individual synapses. Aβ triggered a robust impairment of NMDAR Ca2+ entry at most, but not all, synapses. NMDAR function was more severely impaired at highly active synapses and synapses with bound Aβ. Blocking NMDARs during Aβ exposure prevented Aβ-mediated impairment. Together, our experiments reveal a novel use-dependent, potent, and local mode of Aβ-mediated NMDAR impairment.
Chronic cognitive deficits and amyloid precursor protein elevation after selective immunotoxin lesions of the basal forebrain cholinergic system

ALZHEIMER'S disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder that causes cognitive deficits in the elderly. Its neuropathology is characterized by amyloid deposition and specific cholinergic degeneration. To address the link between amyloid formation and cholinergic loss, we examined histologically the amyloid precursor protein (APP) changes following selective immunolesion of the basal forebrain cholinergic system with 192 IgG-saporin in rats at 6 months post-lesion. In such rats with cognitive deficits observed in Morris water maze tests, we found increased levels of APP by optical density measurements in regions of cholinergic denervation. APP elevation and performance in the water maze task correlate with reduction of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in the frontal cortex and CA3 subfield of hippocampus. The data indicate that loss of cholinergic innervation can affect APP expression.
Promoter Hypermethylation of GATA3, IL-4, and TGF-β Confers Susceptibility to Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease in Han Chinese.

Purpose We investigated the role of promoter methylation of transcriptional and inflammatory factors, including TBX21, GATA3, RORγt, FOXP3, IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-17A, and TGF-β in the development of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease. Methods The promoter methylation levels were detected by the Sequenom MassARRAY system in CD4+ T cells that were separated from 20 healthy individuals and 32 VKH patients (20 in the active stage without medication, 12 in inactive stage with medication). The mRNA expression level of GATA3, IL-4, and TGF-β in CD4+ T cells was analyzed by real-time RT-PCR. Results The promoter methylation levels of GATA3, IL-4, and TGF-β were significantly higher in active VKH patients than in healthy individuals (P < 0.05). A decreased mRNA expression of GATA3 and TGF-β was found in active VKH patients, which was correlated negatively with the DNA methylation of these factors. Treatment with systemic corticosteroid and cyclosporin A (CsA) decreased the methylation level of GATA3 and TGF-β in association with an increased mRNA expression of molecules and reduced disease activity. Conclusions Our findings suggest that promoter hypermethylation of GATA3 and TGF-β in CD4+ T cells confers risk to VKH disease in Han Chinese.