Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Iron-Deficiency on Cognitive Skills and Neuromaturation in Infancy and Childhood

Background: Although, the literature is abundant on the adverse effects of micronutrient deficiencies on neurocognitive performance, iron deficiency is a major public health problem worldwide because it continues to be the single most common nutritional deficiency and the main cause of anaemia in infancy and childhood. Nutritional anemia occurs when body reserves for a specific nutrient are inadequate for the synthesis of hemoglobin. This deficiency is due to inadequate iron intake and poor bioavailability. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 2 billion people in the world today are estimated to be deficient in iron deficiency. Objectives: Rates of the highest prevalences in the developing world were found among pregnant women with 56% of school children followed directly 53%. The distribution of iron in the brain is very heterogeneous, a characteristic of the species in which the concentrations were determined. The highest concentrations are localised in the nucleus accumbens, the substantia nigra (nigra), the nucleolus cerebellar deep red nucleus and some portions of the hippocampus. These distributions occur at an advanced age especially when all the neuro-developmental activity is performed. Results: Iron supplementation improves mental development scores of anemic children. These results are amplified by psychosocial stimulation at home or in specialized centers. In sectoriel studies that our team has made in the region of Kenitra with populations of school children, the results are unanimous on the correlation between martial status and school performance and/or overall intelligence score determined by Raven’s Progressive Matrices when socioeconomic variables are controlled. Conclusion: A comprehensive study using evoked potentials is desirable to confirm the relationship between iron deficiency neuro-cognitive development.
Pricing Flexible Natural Gas Supply Contracts Under Uncertainty in Hydrothermal Markets

The worldwide development of the natural gas industry resulted in an integration process between electrical and gas sectors in several countries. In Brazil, this process has been taking place in a consistent manner, especially on account of the increase in gas consumption for industrial use and of the installation of thermoelectric plants. Due to the predominance of hydro plants in electric power generation, thermoelectric energy production is basically dependent on hydrology and, as a result, presents a wide annual variability. Consequently, the investment applied to gas production and transportation infrastructure may become under-utilized during a large part of the time; thus, it is important to find mechanisms apt to improve its utilization. In this respect, the present work investigates the creation of a flexible market for gas, where contracts for flexible gas supply would be offered to industrial users, who would receive the gas assigned to thermal power plants when the latter are not dispatched, and would resort to an alternate fuel when these plants are dispatched. The attractiveness of such a contract would depend, of course, on its price. The purpose of this work is to develop a stochastic model for pricing flexible gas supply contracts, taking into account the uncertainty associated to the supply - dependent on the dispatch of the thermal power plants, which have the priority of use of the gas - and the risk profile of potential consumers.
Evolution of regional performance after an acute anterior myocardial infarction in humans using magnetic resonance tagging

Regional remodelling after a left ventricular myocardial infarction is the first step in a cascade that may lead to heart failure and death. To understand better the mechanisms underlying this process, it is important to study not only the evolution in local deformation parameters but also the corresponding loading conditions. Using magnetic resonance (MR) myocardial tagging, we measured the regional contribution to ejection (regional ejection fraction) and loading (systolic blood pressure × radius of curvature (mean of short and long axes)/wall thickness) in 32 regions throughout the left ventricle (LV) in patients 1 week (1W) and 3 months (3M) after a first anterior infarction. Using positron emission tomography (PET), the LV was divided into infarct, adjacent and remote regions. In the remote regions the average deformation decreased between 1W and 3M (from 59.3 ± 5.6 to 57.9 ± 6.7 %, P < 0.05) due to an increase in loading conditions only (from 730 ± 290 to 837 ± 299 mmHg, P < 0.05). In the adjacent myocardium, no change in function was observed (49.0 ± 10.8 to 49.0 ± 6.5 %, P= n.s.), although loading increased (806 ± 297 to 978 ± 287 mmHg, P < 0.05). In the infarct region only, an increase in deformation was seen (30.7 ± 14.2 to 37 ± 6.9 %, P < 0.05), together with a higher loading level (1229 ± 422 to 1466 ± 284 mmHg, P < 0.05), which indicates a true improvement in function. The fact that MR tagging can identify both regional deformation and loading permits us to differentiate between changes due to alterations in regional loading conditions and true changes in function. After an acute myocardial infarction (MI), an improvement can be observed in the deformation‐loading relation in the adjacent and infarct regions, but the improvement is mainly in the infarct region. Using this technique, types of intervention leading to even more functional gain could be evaluated.
Unfolded Deep Recurrent Convolutional Neural Network with Jump Ahead Connections for Acoustic Modeling

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) with jump ahead connections have been used in the computer vision tasks. Still, they have not been investigated well for automatic speech recognition (ASR) tasks. In other words, unfolded RNN has been shown to be an effective model for acoustic modeling tasks. This paper investigates how to elaborate a sophisticated unfolded deep RNN architecture in which recurrent connections use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to model a shortterm dependence between hidden states. In this study, our unfolded RNN architecture is a CNN that process a sequence of input features sequentially. Each time step, the CNN inputs a small block of the input features and the output of the hidden layer from the preceding block in order to compute the output of its hidden layer. In addition, by exploiting either one or multiple jump ahead connections between time steps, our network can learn long-term dependencies more effectively. We carried experiments on the CHiME 3 task showing the effectiveness of our proposed approach.
Acute and chronic effects of pentobarbital in relation to postsynaptic GABA receptors: A study with muscimol

Muscimol, a GABA agonist, enhanced pentobarbital sleeping time in a dose‐dependent manner. The GABA antagonists such as bicuculline and picrotoxin, and the CNS stimulant such as pentylenetetrazol, inhibited pentobarbital sleeping time; however, all except picrotoxin produced less than 35% maximum inhibition. Picrotoxin, an agent which blocks the chloride ionophore of GABA‐receptor complex, exhibited a parallel dose‐response curve with respect to muscimol. Chronic administration of pentobarbital by pellet implantation induced tolerance as evidenced by decreased sleeping time; the tolerance receded gradually upon abrupt withdrawal. Muscimol enhanced pentobarbital sleeping time both in tolerant and withdrawal mice. Na+‐independent GABA‐receptor binding, using [3H]muscimol as a ligand, was increased after acute and chronic pentobarbital administration; withdrawal of the pentobarbital reversed the increase in receptor population. None of the treatments altered the affinity of [3H]muscimol binding. These results support the contention that pentobarbital (a) directly acts on the postsynaptic chloride ionophore and (b) augments GABA‐mediated postsynaptic effects. The functional significance of the increase in GABA receptor population after pentobarbital treatment is unclear.
The TRPM8 Protein Is a Testosterone Receptor

Background: TRPM8 channels are highly expressed in prostate tissues, where the role of this cold receptor is not well understood. Results: Testosterone activates TRPM8 in various cellular systems and in the planar lipid bilayers. Conclusion: TRPM8 is an ionotropic testosterone receptor. Significance: TRPM8 channels may be implicated in various physiological processes regulated by androgens. Testosterone is a key steroid hormone in the development of male reproductive tissues and the regulation of the central nervous system. The rapid signaling mechanism induced by testosterone affects numerous behavioral traits, including sexual drive, aggressiveness, and fear conditioning. However, the currently identified testosterone receptor(s) is not believed to underlie the fast signaling, suggesting an orphan pathway. Here we report that an ion channel from the transient receptor potential family, TRPM8, commonly known as the cold and menthol receptor is the major component of testosterone-induced rapid actions. Using cultured and primary cell lines along with the purified TRPM8 protein, we demonstrate that testosterone directly activates TRPM8 channel at low picomolar range. Specifically, testosterone induced TRPM8 responses in primary human prostate cells, PC3 prostate cancer cells, dorsal root ganglion neurons, and hippocampal neurons. Picomolar concentrations of testosterone resulted in full openings of the purified TRPM8 channel in planar lipid bilayers. Furthermore, acute applications of testosterone on human skin elicited a cooling sensation. Our data conclusively demonstrate that testosterone is an endogenous and highly potent agonist of TRPM8, suggesting a role of TRPM8 channels well beyond their well established function in somatosensory neurons. This discovery may further imply TRPM8 channel function in testosterone-dependent behavioral traits.
GRB 021004: Tomography of a gamma-ray burst progenitor and its host galaxy

Aims. We analyse the distribution of matter around the progenitor star of gamma-ray burst GRB 021004 and the properties of its host galaxy with high-resolution echelle and near-infrared spectroscopy. Methods. Observations were taken by the 8.2 m Very Large Telescope with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle spectrograph (UVES) and the Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC) between 10 and 14 h after the onset of the event. Results. We report the first detection of emission lines from a GRB host galaxy in the near-infrared, detecting Hα and the [O III] doublet. These allow us to independently measure the systemic redshift (z = 2.3304 ± 0.0005), which is not contaminated by absorption as the Lyα line is, and infer the host galaxy properties. From the visual echelle spectroscopy, we find several absorptionline groups spanning a range of about 3000 km s −1 in velocity relative to the redshift of the host galaxy. The absorption profiles are very complex with both velocity-broadened components extending over several 100 km s −1 and narrow lines with velocity widths of only ∼20 km s −1 . By analogy with QSO absorption line studies, the relative velocities, widths, and degrees of ionization of the lines (“line-locking”, “ionization-velocity correlation”) show that the progenitor had both an extremely strong radiation field and several distinct mass-loss phases (winds). Conclusions. These results are consistent with GRB progenitors being massive stars, such as luminous blue variables (LBVs) or Wolf-Rayet stars, providing a detailed picture of the spatial and velocity structure of the GRB progenitor star at the time of explosion. −
Considerations for submucosal midazolam administration in combination with oral and inhaled medications for sedation of pediatric dental patients

Sedation allows patients to maintain their airway independently and respond appropriately to physical stimulation and verbal command while maintaining a minimum depressed level of consciousness. Drugs commonly used for sedation of pediatric dental patients include a combination of chloral hydrate, hydroxyzine, and nitrous oxide-oxygen. Midazolam is a benzodiazepine and currently one of the most commonly used intravenous sedative agents. It can be easily titrated to provide a wide range of sedation, from conscious sedation to deep sedation, and exhibits a wide safety margin without severe respiratory and circulatory depression. At an appropriate dose, it also decreases patient anxiety and induces amnesia. We found that the submucosal administration of midazolam combined with chloral hydrate provided increased sedative effects and decreased the postoperative vomiting response compared with conventional chloral hydrate administration, with no significant difference in physiological responses. The depth of sedation can be titrated using this technique.
Dissociated functional brain abnormalities of inhibition in boys with pure conduct disorder and in boys with pure attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE Inhibitory dysfunction may be a transdiagnostic etiopathophysiology of disruptive behavior disorders. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of inhibitory control has only been investigated in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including comorbidity with conduct disorder, showing frontal-striatal dysfunction. This study investigates differences and commonalities in functional neural networks mediating inhibitory control between medication-naive adolescents with pure conduct disorder and those with pure ADHD to identify biological markers that distinguish these clinically overlapping disorders. METHOD Event-related fMRI was used to compare brain activation of 13 boys with noncomorbid conduct disorder, 20 with noncomorbid ADHD, and 20 normal boys during an individually adjusted tracking stop task that measures the neural substrates of inhibition and stopping failure. RESULTS During successful inhibition, only patients with ADHD showed reduced activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in relation to comparison subjects and patients with conduct disorder. During inhibition failures compared to go responses, both patient groups shared underactivation in the posterior cingulate gyrus in relation to comparison subjects. Patients with conduct disorder showed reduced activation in bilateral temporal-parietal regions compared to the other groups, which did not differ in this measure. CONCLUSIONS Patients with pure ADHD or pure conduct disorder show qualitative differences in their brain abnormality patterns during inhibitory control. Inhibition-mediating prefrontal regions appear to be specifically reduced in ADHD, whereas posterior temporal-parietal, performance monitoring networks are specifically dysfunctional in conduct disorder. The findings provide pioneering evidence that distinct neurobiological abnormalities may be underlying the overlapping behavioral phenotype of the two disruptive disorders.
On noise- and period-time sensitivity in high order repetitive control

Repetitive control is useful if periodic disturbances act on a control system. Perfect (asymptotic) disturbance rejection is achieved if the period-time is exactly known. The improved disturbance rejection at the periodic frequency and its harmonics is achieved at the expense of a degraded system sensitivity at intermediate frequencies. A convex optimization problem is defined for the design of high-order repetitive controllers, where a trade-off can be made between robustness for changes in the period-time and for reduction of the error spectrum in-between the harmonic frequencies. The high order repetitive control algorithms are successfully applied in experiments with the tracking control of a CD-player system.
Residencias perfil del usuario e impacto del ingreso

OBJETIVOS: Describir el perfil del anciano que ingresa en Residencia y evaluar la repercusion medica, funcional, cognitiva y emocional del ingreso. SUJETOS, MATERIAL Y METODO: Se realizo un estudio multicentrico en ocho Residencias de la Comunidad de Madrid de diferente titularidad, tamano y equipamiento incluyendo a todos los sujetos mayores de 65 anos con expectativa de permanencia minima de seis meses. Se recogieron los datos en cuatro visitas sucesivas. La primera al ingreso, recogia datos de filiacion, diagnosticos, farmacos consumidos, escala de Cruz Roja Fisica y Psiquica, I. De Katz, I. De Lawton, Mini Examen Cognitivo, Escala de Depresion de Yesavage (GDS) y actitud ante el ingreso. Se repetian las visitas al mes, tres y seis meses recogiendo los mismos datos a excepcion de la filiacion y el I. De Lawton. Con los datos se realizo un analisis descriptivo, diversos tests de contraste de hipotesis y analisis de correlacion simple. RESULTADOS: Se incluyeron 219 sujetos con una media de 82,43 anos. El 67% eran mujeres. La mayoria eran amas de casa, del sector servicios o realizaban profesiones manuales. El 57% eran viudos, el 21 casados y el 20% solteros. La mayoria (82,2%) tenian estudios primarios y el 8,1% eran analfabetos, ingresaban por necesidad de asistencia (86,4%) y procedian del domicilio de un familiar (39,6%) o de otra Residencia (20,8%). El 74,6 % tuvo una actitud buena o muy buena al ingreso y el 12,4 % mala o muy mala. Al ingreso presentaban una media de 3,6 diagnosticos por sujeto que se incremento en 0,5; 0,4 y 0,3 en las sucesivas visitas. Consumian una media de 3,2 farmacos por sujeto que se mantuvo a los seis meses. Al ingreso presentaban incapacidad para 3,3 ABVD que mejoro significativamente al alta (2,9). El alto grado de deterioro cognitivo (media del MEC: 21,29) no se modifico estadisticamente a los seis meses (media 21,9). La funcion afectiva mejoro en los seis meses (GDS1: 12,2; GDS6: 10,2). CONCLUSIONES: El usuario tipo era mujer, ama de casa, con algo mas de 80 anos, soltera o viuda, con bajo nivel formativo y que ingresaba desde el domicilio de un familiar por precisar asistencia. Durante la estancia aumento el numero de diagnosticos, se mantuvo el numero de farmacos, mejoro la situacion funcional y afectiva y se mantuvo la cognitiva. En las Residencias publicas y en las mas equipadas se detectaron mas diagnosticos nuevos y mejoro la funcion cognitiva y en los privados y en los que existia rehabilitacion mejoro mas la situacion funcional.
Hsp72 Induces Inflammation and Regulates Cytokine Production in Airway Epithelium through a TLR4- and NF-κB-Dependent Mechanism1

Heat shock proteins are generally regarded as intracellular proteins acting as molecular chaperones; however, Hsp72 is also detected in the extracellular compartment. Hsp72 has been identified in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of patients with acute lung injury. To address whether Hsp72 directly activated airway epithelium, human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE14o-) were treated with recombinant Hsp72. Hsp72 induced a dose-dependent increase in IL-8 expression, which was inhibited by the NF-κB inhibitor parthenolide. Hsp72 induced activation of NF-κB, as evidenced by NF-κB trans-activation and by p65 RelA and p50 NF-κB1 binding to DNA. Endotoxin contamination of the Hsp72 preparation was not responsible for these effects. Next, BALB/c mice were challenged with a single intratracheal inhalation of Hsp72 and killed 4 h later. Hsp72 induced significant up-regulation of KC, TNF-α, neutrophil recruitment, and myeloperoxidase in the BALF. A similar challenge with Hsp72 in TLR4 mutant mice did not stimulate the inflammatory response, stressing the importance of TLR4 in Hsp72-mediated lung inflammation. Last, cultured mouse tracheal epithelial cells (MTEC) from BALB/c and TLR4 mutant and wild-type mice were treated ex vivo with Hsp72. Hsp72 induced a significant increase in KC expression from BALB/c and wild-type MTEC in an NF-κB-dependent manner; however, TLR4 mutant MTEC had minimal cytokine release. Taken together, these data suggest that Hsp72 is released and biologically active in the BALF and can regulate airway epithelial cell cytokine expression in a TLR4 and NF-κB-dependent mechanism.
P 53 Alteration and Microsatellite Instability Have Predictive Value for Survival Benefit from Chemotherapy in Stage III Colorectal Carcinoma 1

Purpose:We recently presented evidence for tumor site and gender-specificity in the survival benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy in Stage III colorectal cancer (CRC). In the current study, we examined whetherp53 alteration or the microsatellite instability (MSI) phenotype provide additional predictive information in CRC patients. Experimental Design: A retrospective series of 891 Stage III CRC patients with negative surgical margins was investigated. Thirty percent (270 of 891) received postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with curative intent and comprising of 5-fluorouracil/levamisole. Adjuvant treatment and nontreatment patient groups were well matched for tumor site, grade,p53alterations, and MSI. Surgical tumor specimens were investigated forp53 overexpression using immunohistochemistry and for p53mutation and MSI using single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis. The predictive value of these markers was evaluated by comparing the survival of adjuvant-treated and nonadjuvant treated patients. Results:A strong inverse correlation was observed between p53 alteration and MSI (P < 0.0001). In univariate analysis, the factors of sex, site, p53 alteration, and MSI were each strong predictors of a survival benefit from chemotherapy. Multivariate analysis revealed that chemotherapy provided maximal survival benefit for female patients (P 5 0.005) and for patients whose tumors contained normal p53 (P 5 0.041). Males whose tumors contained a p53alteration and were negative for MSI appeared not to benefit from chemotherapy. Conclusions:Our findings suggest that p53 alteration and MSI could be clinically useful molecular predictive markers for the identification of CRC patients who might benefit from 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy.
Travellers and influenza: risks and prevention

Background: Influenza viruses are among the major causes of serious human respiratory tract infection worldwide. In line with the high disease burden attributable to influenza, these viruses play an important, but often neglected, role in travel medicine. Guidelines and recommendations regarding prevention and management of influenza in travellers are scarce. Of special interest for travel medicine are risk populations and also circumstances that facilitate influenza virus transmission and spread, like travel by airplane or cruise ship and mass gatherings. Methods: We conducted a PUBMED/MEDLINE search for a combination of the MeSH terms Influenza virus, travel, mass gathering, large scale events and cruise ship. In addition we gathered guidelines and recommendations from selected countries and regarding influenza prevention and management in travellers. By reviewing these search results in the light of published knowledge in the fields of influenza prevention and management, we present best practice advice for the prevention and management of influenza in travel medicine. Results: Seasonal influenza is among the most prevalent infectious diseases in travellers. Known host-associated risk factors include extremes of age and being immune-compromised, while the most relevant environmental factors are associated with holiday cruises and mass gatherings. Conclusions: Pre-travel advice should address influenza and its prevention for travellers, whenever appropriate on the basis of the epidemiological situation concerned. Preventative measures should be strongly recommended for travellers at high-risk for developing complications. In addition, seasonal influenza vaccination should be considered for any traveller wishing to reduce the risk of incapacitation, particularly cruise ship crew and passengers, as well as those participating in mass gatherings. Besides advice concerning preventive measures and vaccination, advice on the use of antivirals may be considered for some travellers.