Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capturing the benefit of vision restoration therapy

Purpose of review Vision restoration therapy has shown promise as a treatment strategy to improve visual field deficits in patients with lesions of the brain or optic nerve. Objective measures of its efficacy, however, have remained controversial. A review of the current theories supporting the reported benefits of vision restoration therapy, and the dissenting opinions, reconsiders vision restoration therapy as an emerging therapy. Recent findings The benefits of vision restoration therapy have been challenged by a study suggesting that no improvement exists with careful control of fixation. Alternatively, others suggest that eye movements are not induced by vision restoration therapy. Functional imaging studies demonstrate the potential role of plasticity in vision restoration therapy. While the exact mechanism remains to be elucidated, subjective improvement in daily functioning is reported in a significant percentage of patients. Summary Vision restoration therapy is a noninvasive, home-based strategy for the rehabilitation of patients with visual field loss caused by structural or ischemic damage. While subjective benefits in functional status have been reported by patients following completion of the program, debate centers around the inadequacy of the methods used to document its efficacy. Until such a method is validated by carefully controlled studies, subjective improvement in visual function stands alone as evidence of vision restoration therapy's benefit.
Intramolecular Hydrogen Bond Reverting the Solvent Effect on Phosphorus Hyperfine Coupling Constants of β-Phosphorylated Nitroxides.

Recently, we reported a dramatic solvent effect on the phosphorus hyperfine coupling constant aP of β-phosphorylated six-membered ring nitroxides, that is, approximately 25 G of difference in aP from n-hexane to water (Org. Biomol. Chem. 2016, 14, -1228-1292). In this article, we report on the effect of intramolecular hydrogen bonding (IHB) in three nitroxides exhibiting IHB between the hydroxyl and diethylphosphoryl groups and one exhibiting IHB between the hydroxyl group and the nitroxyl moiety. It is observed that for the first three nitroxides, aP increases with increasing polarity/polarizability and hydrogen bond donor (HBD) properties of the solvent (π* and α, respectively)-in sharp contrast to the data reported in the literature-and for the last nitroxide, aP decreases with π* and α. In fact, the occurrence of IHB induces a large strain, its suppression by hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) solvents affords an increase in aP .
Spectrum of injuries from snowboarding.

OBJECTIVE To examine and compare the types, frequency, and associated risk factors of injuries sustained in snowboarders with downhill skiers. DESIGN Prospectively administered survey. MATERIALS AND METHODS All snowboarders and skiers who presented to a rural hospital emergency department in California during one winter season were asked to answer a survey eliciting information regarding participants' demographics, previous experience, equipment use and circumstances surrounding their injury. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS An overall response rate of 87.4% yielded examination of 355 injured snowboarders. Victims tended to be male (81%) with a mean age of 19.8. Snowboarders were more likely to injure the upper limb than skiers (58% vs. 32%, respectively, p < 0.001) but less likely to injure the lower extremities (16% vs. 35%, p < 0.001). Wrist injuries were most common. Nonorthopedic injuries were less common but potentially life threatening. The data also suggest that aerial maneuvers are associated with increased risk of injury to the head, face, spine, and abdomen and that collisions are associated with more severe injury. Snow conditions had no apparent effect on the type, location, or severity of injury and the reported use of alcohol and drugs was low (7%). It was estimated that snowboarders comprised 20 to 25% of participants on the slope but represented 45% of emergency department visits. CONCLUSIONS There exists a wide spectrum of injuries from snowboarding, ranging from common extremity injuries to potentially life-threatening nonorthopedic trauma.
Rap1-GTP Is a Negative Regulator of Th Cell Function and Promotes the Generation of CD4+CD103+ Regulatory T Cells In Vivo1

The small GTPase Rap1 is transiently activated during TCR ligation and regulates integrin-mediated adhesion. To understand the in vivo functions of Rap1 in regulating T cell immune responses, we generated transgenic (Tg) mice, which express the active GTP-bound mutant Rap1E63 in their T lymphocytes. Although Rap1E63-Tg T cells exhibited increased LFA-1-mediated adhesion, ERK1/2 activation and proliferation of Rap1E63-Tg CD4+ T cells were defective. Rap1E63-Tg T cells primed in vivo and restimulated with specific Ag in vitro, exhibited reduced proliferation and produced reduced levels of IL-2. Rap1E63-Tg mice had severely deficient T cell-dependent B cell responses, as determined by impaired Ig class switching. Rap1E63-Tg mice had an increased fraction of CD4+CD103+ regulatory T cells (Treg), which exhibited enhanced suppressive efficiency as compared with CD4+CD103+ Treg from normal littermate control mice. Depletion of CD103+ Treg significantly restored the impaired responses of Rap1E63-Tg CD4+ T cells. Thus Rap1-GTP is a negative regulator of Th cell responses and one mechanism responsible for this effect involves the increase of CD103+ Treg cell fraction. Our results show that Rap1-GTP promotes the generation of CD103+ Treg and may have significant implications in the development of strategies for in vitro generation of Treg for the purpose of novel immunotherapeutic approaches geared toward tolerance induction.
Unilateral paralytic strabismus in the adult cat induces plastic changes in interocular disparity along the visual midline: Contribution of the corpus callosum

Neurones activated through the corpus callosum (CC) in the cat visual cortex are known to be almost entirely located at the 17/18 border. They are orientation selective and display receptive fields (RFs) distributed along the central vertical meridian of the visual field (“visual midline”). Most of these cells are binocular, and many of them are activated both from the contralateral eye through the CC, and from the ipsilateral eye via the direct retino-geniculo-cortical (GC) pathway. These two pathways do not carry exactly the same information, leading to interocular disparity between pairs of RFs along the visual midline. Recently, we have demonstrated that a few weeks of unilateral paralytic strabismus surgically induced at adulthood does not alter the cortical distribution of these units but leads to a loss of their orientation selectivity and an increase of their RF size, mainly toward the ipsilateral hemifield when transcallosally activated (Watroba et al., 2001). To investigate interocular disparity, here we compared these RF changes to those occurring in the same neurones when activated through the ipsilateral direct GC route. The 17/18 transition zone and the bordering medial region within A17 were distinguished, as they display different interhemispheric connectivity. In these strabismics, some changes were noticed, but were basically identical in both recording zones. Ocular dominance was not altered, nor was the spatial distribution of the RFs with respect to the visual midline, nor the amplitude of position disparity between pairs of RFs. On the other hand, strabismus induced a loss of orientation selectivity regardless of whether neurones were activated directly or through the CC. Both types of RFs also widened, but in opposite directions with respect to the visual midline. This led to changes in incidences of the different types of position disparity. The overlap between pairs of RFs also increased. Based on these differences, we suggest that the contribution of the CC to binocular vision along the midline in the adult might be modulated through several intrinsic cortical mechanisms.
Factors in sample volume and quality of CT-guided vertebral biopsy: location and needle trajectory.

AIM To assess sample volume (by its length and diameter) and sample quality (judging by its integrity) in CT-guided vertebral biopsy due to lesion location and needle trajectory method as individual study variables each. MATERIAL AND METHODS Of 48 patients, 25 were men and 23 were women; ranging from 33 to 85 years of age, with a median age of 65.5 years. The independent variables were primarily vertebral location and needle trajectory. Two cervical lesions were excluded from location analysis. We examined sample length and width, and macroscopic (5-scale) and microscopic (3-scale) scores as dependent variables. We did not encounter with any major complication and infection. RESULTS Median sample length and sample diameter were found to be 10 mm and 2 mm, respectively. No relation was observed between the dependent variables and location in the spine. There was a relation between sample length and needle trajectory (p=0.002) with values of 11 mm in the transpedicular method vs. 6 mm in the posterolateral method (p=0.01). CONCLUSION Transpedicular trajectory had an advantage over the posterolateral method as it provides a longer sample. We believe that transpedicular biopsy should be preferred. Nevertheless, studies are needed to validate the most advantageous standard access position in spine biopsies.
A new medium voltage drive system based on ANPC-5L technology

A new medium voltage drive has been developed based on the active neutral-point clamped 5-level (ANPC-5L) topology. In the last decade three-level neutral-point clamped (NPC) converters have become the industry standard in MV Drives. This configuration has proved very successful for applications where high power and high performance requirements necessitated the use of inverter grade motors and the associated costs. On the other hand, there is an increasing demand by industry for drives which can be used to increase the efficiency of standard, low cost direct online (DOL) machines. The problems of high harmonic content, high dv/dt and common mode voltage have been significantly improved in this new drive solution. The structure of the converter will be described with explanation of the multiple levels of redundancy available. The necessary conditions for regulating the neutral-point and phase (or floating) capacitor voltages will be illustrated. The highly dynamic direct torque control (DTC) method has been chosen the inverter control. The synchronous frame current regulator used for rectifier control allows for full four-quadrant operation on the network side. The mechanical design philosophy will be displayed along with the salient technical features: rectifier and inverter operating waveforms, protection concept, and ride through behavior. Finally experience in pilot installations will be reviewed.
Child discipline and social programs: evidence from Colombia

ABSTRACT Early childhood interventions are high on the social policy agenda. Yet their impact on disciplining practices is scarce. This paper examines how early childhood interventions affect disciplining methods in Colombia, where poor households are eligible for different social programmes based on a proxy means index. Using a regression discontinuity design, I found that benefiting on a larger extent of childcare, nutritional programmes and health checks, decreases parents’ use of physical disciplining. Using a different data set and through a propensity score matching, I show that mothers of children exposed longer to a child care service use more often non-physical methods.
Biochemical, genetic, and functional analyses of the phosphorylation sites on the Epstein-Barr virus-encoded oncogenic latent membrane protein LMP-1

LMP-1 is the only Epstein-Barr virus-encoded latent protein known to have the properties of a transforming oncogene in rodent fibroblasts and the only latent protein, besides EBNA-1, detected in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and Hodgkin's lymphoma biopsies. LMP-1 is characterized by serine/threonine phosphorylation and rapid turnover (half-life, 2 to 3 h) due to specific proteolytic cleavage, which causes release of a phosphorylated C-terminal fragment (p25) into the cytoplasm. We used biochemical, functional, and mutational analyses to identify sites of phosphorylation. All of the phosphorylation sites detected lie in the C-terminal domain. In particular, we identified S-313 and T-324 as functionally important sites. Prevention of phosphorylation at S-313, by altering it to a glycine, prevented detectable phosphorylation of both LMP-1 and p25, indicating that it is a major site on both forms of the molecule. However, lack of detectable phosphorylation had no effect on p25 cleavage or on the ability of LMP-1 to transform Rat-1 fibroblasts. Alteration of S-313 to an aspartate resulted in a form of LMP-1 that was toxic to Rat-1 cells. Alteration of T-324 to a glycine residue had no detectable effect on the ability of LMP-1 to become serine phosphorylated or transform Rat-1 cells. Alteration of T-324 to a glutamate, however, inhibited all detectable phosphorylation and resulted in a form of LMP-1 that was unable to transform Rat-1 fibroblasts. These results are discussed in the context of a model in which LMP-1 function is modulated by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation at S-313 and T-324.
Risk and Resilience Factors in the Mental Health and Well-Being of Women with Intellectual Disability.

BACKGROUND Women with intellectual disability are thought to be at increased risk of mental illness, yet little is known about resiliency factors supporting women's mental health. This article reports on such factors drawn from a study that aimed to address how women with intellectual disability experience their mental health and well-being. MATERIALS AND METHODS Utilizing a broad qualitative approach, 25 New Zealand women, aged 21-65 years were interviewed about their life from childhood to the present, including, where relevant, their experience of mental illness. Data were analysed using a general inductive approach. RESULTS Resiliency factors aligned with the theme 'keeping mentally well', subthemes of which were as follows: the importance of relationships with family and friends; keeping busy; and autonomy and happiness. Challenges for resiliency could be seen in the theme 'mental illness' where subthemes of abuse, long-term stress and medication were identified. CONCLUSIONS Many of the women demonstrated remarkable resiliency, despite setbacks and exposure to risks, provided they were nested within a supportive context. Those women who experienced major mental illness shared evidence of both higher risk factors and less support available at crucial times.
Extended Gaussianization Method for Blind Separation of Post-Nonlinear Mixtures

The linear mixture model has been investigated in most articles tackling the problem of blind source separation. Recently, several articles have addressed a more complex model: blind source separation (BSS) of post-nonlinear (PNL) mixtures. These mixtures are assumed to be generated by applying an unknown invertible nonlinear distortion to linear instantaneous mixtures of some independent sources. The gaussianization technique for BSS of PNL mixtures emerged based on the assumption that the distribution of the linear mixture of independent sources is gaussian. In this letter, we review the gaussianization method and then extend it to apply to PNL mixture in which the linear mixture is close to gaussian. Our proposed method approximates the linear mixture using the Cornish-Fisher expansion. We choose the mutual information as the independence measurement to develop a learning algorithm to separate PNL mixtures. This method provides better applicability and accuracy. We then discuss the sufficient condition for the method to be valid. The characteristics of the nonlinearity do not affect the performance of this method. With only a few parameters to tune, our algorithm has a comparatively low computation. Finally, we present experiments to illustrate the efficiency of our method.
Interaction of the Fibrinolytic Receptor, Annexin II, with the Endothelial Cell Surface

Endothelial cells express a cell surface co-receptor for plasminogen and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) which we recently identified as annexin II (Hajjar, K. A., Jacovina, A. T., and Chacko, J. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 21191-21197). This protein enhances the catalytic efficiency of t-PA-dependent plasmin generation by 60-fold (Cesarman, G. M., Guevara, C. A., and Hajjar, K. A. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 21198-21203). Here, we demonstrate that annexin II is constitutively translocated to the endothelial cell surface within 16 h of biosynthesis, and that cell surface annexin II comprises 4.3 ± 1.0% of the total cellular pool. Exogenous 125I-annexin II bound to EGTA-washed endothelial cells with high affinity (Kd 49 n) and in a calcium-dependent (I50 = 3 μ), phospholipid-sensitive manner. Peptides KASMKGLGTDED and YDSMKGKGTRDK, mimicking the calcium-binding “endonexin” motif (KGXGT) of annexin II, blocked its interaction with endothelial cells. Recombinant annexin II, bearing the calcium-binding site substitution D161A of core repeat 2, failed to compete with binding of the wild type protein to the cell surface, while E246A and D321A mutants, corresponding to core repeats 3 and 4, behaved as effective competitors. These data suggest that translocated annexin II interacts with cell surface phospholipid via a high affinity calcium-dependent binding site that includes residues 118-122 (KGLGT) and the coordinating Asp161 of core repeat 2. Thus, calcium-regulated expression of annexin II on the endothelial cell surface may play a central role in control of plasmin-mediated processes.
Phase III Trial of an emulsion containing trolamine for the prevention of radiation dermatitis in patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: results of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Trial 99-13.

PURPOSE This multicentered phase III trial was designed to compare an emulsion containing trolamine against the usual supportive care within each participating institution for patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiation therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with biopsy-proven squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx were randomly assigned to one of the following treatments: prophylactic trolamine emulsion, interventional trolamine emulsion, or declared institutional preference. The primary outcome was the reduction in grade 2 or higher skin toxicity, as per National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria version 2.0. Secondary outcomes included patient-reported quality of life (QOL). RESULTS From October 2000 to April 2002, 547 patients from 51 institutions were entered onto the trial. The average age was 59 years. Patients were predominately male (79%) and most continued to use tobacco products (52%). The rates of grade 2 or higher radiation dermatitis were 79%, 77%, and 79% in the prophylactic, interventional, and institutional preference arms of the study, respectively. No significant differences in QOL were found. CONCLUSION The results of this trial demonstrate no advantage for the use of trolamine in reducing the incidence of grade 2 or higher radiation dermatitis or improving patient-reported QOL. The use of 15 different local standards of care highlights the need to continue research that will result in evidence-based recommendations to reduce the burden of radiation dermatitis.
Syk Interacts with and Phosphorylates Nucleolin To Stabilize Bcl-xL mRNA and Promote Cell Survival

ABSTRACT The Syk protein tyrosine kinase, a well-characterized regulator of immune cell function, plays an increasingly recognized role in tumorigenesis as a promoter of cell survival in both hematological and nonhematological malignancies. We show here that the expression of Syk in MCF7 or MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells or in DG75 B-lymphoma cells protects cells from apoptosis induced by oxidative or genotoxic stress by stabilizing the mRNA for Bcl-xL, an antiapoptotic protein. Syk binds robustly to nucleolin and phosphorylates it on tyrosine, enhancing its ability to bind the Bcl-xL mRNA. Consequently, reducing the level of nucleolin by RNA interference attenuates the ability of Syk to protect cells from stress-induced cell death.
Aerotolerance of human clinical isolates of Prevotella spp.

AIMS To determine the influence of oxygen exposure and growth stages on oxygen tolerance for clinical and reference specimens of the genus Prevotella. METHODS AND RESULTS Tolerance to oxygen exposure was evaluated along growth stages for a total of four Prevotella isolates constituted by two strains tested soon after isolation from periodontally compromised patients and two reference strains kept frozen (-86 degrees C) in our laboratory collection. Additionally, the recently recovered isolates were also assayed after 4 months exposed to oxygen during laboratory handling. On solid medium, recently recovered Prevotella specimens proved to be less tolerant to oxygen exposure soon after isolation than when exposed for 4 months to oxygen during laboratory handling. Oxygen resistance of reference strains maintained in the laboratory collection showed to be the highest when compared with the clinical isolates both before and after oxygen exposure. When oxygen tolerance was tested during growth, bacterial cells from the exponential phase were more tolerant. Differences were observed in protein patterns between clinical isolates soon after recovery and after laboratory handling as determined by SDS-PAGE of crude cell-free extracts. However, SOD activities were similar in all bacterial samples tested. CONCLUSIONS The ability to adaptively change oxygen tolerance was observed for pathogenic specimens of Prevotella. This property may be considered a virulence factor. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY Adaptative aerotolerance of Prevotella as a factor for virulence and survival.
Declarative Memory in Early Parkinsons Disease: Serial Position Learning Effects

This study tested the question of whether executive failure associated with frontal lobe deficit is associated with, and therefore, may influence declarative memory dysfunction in Parkinsons disease (PD). A variety of memory and frontal sensitive tasks were used. The frontal lobe dysfunction hypothesis was tested in part, by examining the serial position effects (SPE) of word list learning across five successive trials. The relationship between memory and frontal sensitive task scores was tested also. A total of 39 PD patients early in the course of the disease and 31 matched controls were included in the study. The PD subjects showed mild memory deficits in comparison to the healthy control group. In the face of any hypothesized selective dysexecutive syndrome in PD group, the latter groups learning strategy across five trials did not differ from that of the control group. Also, the expected interrelation between memory and frontal sensitive scores was not obtained. Therefore, the hypothesis that frontal dysfunction alone may account for memory impairments in PD is not fully supported.