Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein hydrolysates and recovery of muscle damage following eccentric exercise

Background : A whey protein hydrolysate (NatraBoost XR; WPHNB) has been shown to speed repair muscle damage. We sought to determine whether this benefit is specific to this hydrolysate to evaluate a marker for quality control. Methods : Three hydrolysates of the same whey protein isolate (WPI) were prepared (WPHNB, WPH1 and WPH2). Isometric knee extensor strength was measured in 39 sedentary male participants before and after 100 maximal eccentric contractions of the knee extensors to induce muscle damage. Participants were then randomised to consume 250 ml of flavoured water (FW, n=9), or 250 ml of FW containing 25 g of either NatraBoost XR (n=3), WPH1 (n=9), WPH2 (n=9) or WPI (n=9). Strength was reassessed over the next seven days while the supplements were consumed daily. Fibroblasts were cultured for 48 hr in the presence of the different hydrolysates, WPI, saline or fetal bovine serum to ascertain effects on cell proliferation. Results : Strength was reduced in all treatment groups after eccentric exercise (P<0.001). Strength recovered steadily over 7 days in the FW, WPI, WPH1 and WPH2 treatment groups (P<0.001), with no difference between treatments (P=0.87). WPHNB promoted faster strength recovery compared with the other treatments (P<0.001). Fibroblast proliferation was greater with WPHNB compared with saline, WPI or the other hydrolysates (P<0.001). Conclusions : Promoting recovery from muscle damage seems unique to WPHNB. In vitro fibroblast proliferation may be a useful marker for quality control. It is not clear whether effects on fibroblast proliferation contribute to the in vivo effect of WPHNB on muscle damage. Keywords : tissue repair, fibroblast proliferation, strength recovery, whey protein
Tacrolimus in rheumatoid arthritis

Tacrolimus is an immunosuppressive drug that has been used widely in organ transplantation and topically for atopic dermatitis. Tacrolimus exerts its immunosuppressive effects by the inhibition of calcineurin, leading to interference with T-cell activation. As T-cell activation plays a major role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis, there has been an interest in the use of tacrolimus for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The pharmacological properties of tacrolimus have the potential of suppressing the production of inflammatory cytokines, improvement of joint inflammation, improvement of bone and cartilage destruction, improvement of functional status and relief from arthritic pain. This article reviews the pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, clinical efficacy, safety and role of tacrolimus in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Comparison of Real-Ear to Coupler Difference Values in the Right and Left Ear of Adults Using Three Earmold Configurations

Objective: The purpose of the study was to compare real-ear to coupler difference (RECD) values in the right and left ear of adults using three earmold configurations. Design: The RECD was obtained from both ears of 18 normal hearing adults by subtracting the HA2 2-cc coupler response from the real-ear response using an ER-3A insert earphone and a swept pure tone on the Audioscan RM500 probe-tube microphone system. The measurements were made with a personal earmold, foam eartip, and oto-admittance tip. Results: The mean difference between the right and left RECD was close to 0 dB for all earmold configurations and was not statistically significant on a repeated-measures analysis of variance (p > 0.05). In 90% of participants, the difference between ears was generally less than 3 dB at 0.5 to 4 kHz. Conclusions: Cooperative participants with non-occluding wax and normal middle ear function (on tympanometry) show small differences in RECD between the right and left ear, irrespective of the earmold configuration. The study has yet to be extended to the clinical setting where subject cooperation and earmold fit may differ from the present study. In the meantime, the findings from the present study indicate that where an RECD can be obtained from only one ear of a participant, it is probably best to use this to derive real-ear SPL of both ears instead of relying on average age appropriate corrections.
What Constitutes an Episode in Episodic Memory?

The idea of episodic memory implies the existence of a process that segments experience into episodes so that they can be stored in memory. It is therefore surprising that the link between event segmentation and the organization of experiences into episodes in memory has not been addressed. We found that after participants read narratives containing temporal event boundaries at varying locations in the narrative, their long-term associative memory for information across event boundaries was lower than their memory for information within an event. This suggests that event segmentation during encoding resulted in segmentation of those same events in memory. Further, functional imaging data revealed that, across participants, brain activity consistent with the ongoing integration of information within events correlated with this pattern of mnemonic segmentation. These data are the first to address the mechanisms that support the organization of experiences into episodes in long-term memory.
SAR target recognition and posture estimation using spatial pyramid pooling within CNN

Many convolution neural networks(CNN) architectures have been proposed to strengthen the performance on synthetic aperture radar automatic target recognition (SAR-ATR) and obtained state-of-art results on targets classification on MSTAR database, but few methods concern about the estimation of depression angle and azimuth angle of targets. To get better effect on learning representation of hierarchies of features on both 10-class target classification task and target posture estimation tasks, we propose a new CNN architecture with spatial pyramid pooling(SPP) which can build high hierarchy of features map by dividing the convolved feature maps from finer to coarser levels to aggregate local features of SAR images. Experimental results on MSTAR database show that the proposed architecture can get high recognition accuracy as 99.57% on 10-class target classification task as the most current state-of-art methods, and also get excellent performance on target posture estimation tasks which pays attention to depression angle variety and azimuth angle variety. What’s more, the results inspire us the application of deep learning on SAR target posture description.
Detection of single and multilayer clouds in an artificial neural network approach

Determining whether a scene observed with a satellite imager is composed of a thin cirrus over a water cloud or thick cirrus contiguous with underlying layers of ice and water clouds is often difficult because of similarities in the observed radiance values. In this paper an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm, employing several Aqua MODIS infrared channels and the retrieved total cloud visible optical depth, is trained to detect multilayer ice-over-water cloud systems as identified by matched April 2009 CloudSat and CALIPSO (CC) data. The CC lidar and radar profiles provide the vertical structure that serves as output truth for a multilayer ANN, or MLANN, algorithm. Applying the trained MLANN to independent July 2008 MODIS data resulted in a combined ML and single layer hit rate of 75% (72%) for nonpolar regions during the day (night). The results are comparable to or more accurate than currently available methods. Areas of improvement are identified and will be addressed in future versions of the MLANN.
Physics and applications of laser shock processing of materials

Shock waves induced by laser-plasma in Water Confinement Regime (WCR) are used in order to improve the metallurgical properties of metallic materials. In a first part of this paper we discuss the basic principles which limit the pressure generation in this regime: the effects of laser intensity, target material, laser pulse duration and laser wavelength are discussed. Depending on laser parameters, the peak pressure is saturated and its duration is reduced above a laser intensity threshold, due to laser-induced breakdown plasma in the confining water. The observation of the interaction zone shows that this parasitic breakdown occurs only at the water surface and limits the efficiency of the process. The relative influence of main physical mechanisms occurring during the generation of the laser breakdown at the surface of water have been discussed. According to the wavelength effect which tends to authorize higher pressure with longer wavelengths, the influence of multiphotoionic processes dominates the effect of avalanche ionization. The second part of the paper deals with the surface modifications induced by laser-shock processing. Depending on the operating parameters, Residual Stresses (RS) field can be optimized. Typical present or future applications such as the improvement of fatigue or corrosion properties, are then presented.
Development and Testing of a Prenatal Breastfeeding Education Intervention for Hispanic Women

Many immigrant Hispanic women in the United States choose to bottle-feed rather than breastfeed. This article describes an intervention that was developed and tested in a two-step process. Two studies were undertaken. First, a qualitative inquiry explored the breastfeeding beliefs, attitudes, meanings, and practices of Hispanic women. Results informed the design of a culturally appropriate prenatal breastfeeding education intervention. Secondly, the researchers undertook a quantitative study of the intervention’s success in increasing breastfeeding duration among Hispanic women. Methodology and findings of this study have implications for future interventions that promote breastfeeding.
The Oregon experiment--effects of Medicaid on clinical outcomes.

BACKGROUND Despite the imminent expansion of Medicaid coverage for low-income adults, the effects of expanding coverage are unclear. The 2008 Medicaid expansion in Oregon based on lottery drawings from a waiting list provided an opportunity to evaluate these effects. METHODS Approximately 2 years after the lottery, we obtained data from 6387 adults who were randomly selected to be able to apply for Medicaid coverage and 5842 adults who were not selected. Measures included blood-pressure, cholesterol, and glycated hemoglobin levels; screening for depression; medication inventories; and self-reported diagnoses, health status, health care utilization, and out-of-pocket spending for such services. We used the random assignment in the lottery to calculate the effect of Medicaid coverage. RESULTS We found no significant effect of Medicaid coverage on the prevalence or diagnosis of hypertension or high cholesterol levels or on the use of medication for these conditions. Medicaid coverage significantly increased the probability of a diagnosis of diabetes and the use of diabetes medication, but we observed no significant effect on average glycated hemoglobin levels or on the percentage of participants with levels of 6.5% or higher. Medicaid coverage decreased the probability of a positive screening for depression (-9.15 percentage points; 95% confidence interval, -16.70 to -1.60; P=0.02), increased the use of many preventive services, and nearly eliminated catastrophic out-of-pocket medical expenditures. CONCLUSIONS This randomized, controlled study showed that Medicaid coverage generated no significant improvements in measured physical health outcomes in the first 2 years, but it did increase use of health care services, raise rates of diabetes detection and management, lower rates of depression, and reduce financial strain.
Child ADHD Severity , Behavior Problems and Parenting Styles

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) begins in childhood and is characterized by attention deficits, hyperactivity, or impulsiveness which is not appropriate for a person’s age. The effects of ADHD are not limited to the subject alone, but go beyond and can affect their closest social and familiar context, and particularly to parenting practices, especially when children with ADHD present associated behavior problems. In this study we attempted to identify the differences in the relations between, on one hand, parenting styles and Child ADHD severity and, in other hand, parenting styles and comorbid behavior problems. Sixty-eight parents of 6 to 11 year old children (48 boys and 20 girls) accepted to participate. Data showed that both Child ADHD Severity and Child Behavior Problems were associated to inadequate parenting styles, with more strong correlations in the case of criticismrejection. These findings have practical implications highlighting the importance of parent education programs that help them reduce the negative impact of Child ADHD Severity and Behavior problems in the use of effective discipline and appropriate communication with their children.
Endogenous Timing in a Quantity Setting Duopoly

I provide an equilibrium analysis of the role of private information on timing decisions of duopolists in a quantity setting framework. The firms are privately informed about their costs and may decide their quantities in one of two dates. In the unique symmetric perfect Bayesian equilibrium, a firm with a low cost produces in the first date, while a firm with a high cost produces in the second date, after having learned the other firm’s decision in the first date. Thus, if the firms have dierent costs, a leader-follower outcome will emerge, with leadership
Evaluation of triple test score in palpable breast lump

The Objective is to perform and evaluate Triple Test Score (TTS) in patients with palpable breast lump in comparison with gold standard histopathology (HPE) and to develop a standard protocol for management of breast lump especially when discordant results are obtained from triple assessment. The Study was conducted on 100 patients presenting with breast lump to the department of General Surgery at R.L. Jalappa Hospital & Research Centre, Kolar, during the period from JANUARY 2012 to AUGUST 2014. It was a prospective study. Women presenting for evaluation of palpable breast lump underwent assessment by clinical examination, mammography and FNAC and got the Triple Test Scoring done. All patients who underwent complete TTS at our institution were entered into the study. All patients were subjected to necessary surgery, post TTS and followed up with histopathology of the specimen. A structured proforma was used to collect relevant information from each patient selected. In our study the mean age of the patients was found to be 46.12 ± 11.48 years, most of the patients were in the age group of 35-45 years (60%). Positive family history was found in 17%. Patients on an average took 6 months to seek medical help after recognition of the breast lump. Most common location of breast lump was upper outer quadrant (39%). Out of 9 cases with suspicious interpretation in clinical diagnosis: 5 were diagnosed to be benign and 4 were diagnosed as malignant. Two cases which were diagnosed clinically as benign turned out to be malignant on HPE. Out of 5 cases with suspicious interpretation in FNAC: 2 were diagnosed to be benign and 3 were diagnosed as malignant. One case which was diagnosed as benign turned out to be malignant on HPE. Out of 6 cases with suspicious interpretation in mammography all were diagnosed as malignant. Three cases which were diagnosed as benign turned out to be malignant on HPE. All the cases diagnosed as malignant with TTS were proved malignant by HPE, all cases diagnosed as benign were proved benign on HPE, one case with TTS of 5 required a further test in form of biopsy for confirmation, and it turned out to be benign. The study clearly demonstrates the superiority of TTS over other components of triple assessment or all of them put together. A TTS of </=4 is consistent with a benign lesion; a TTS of >/= 6 indicates malignancy. Only in patients in whom TTS score is 5, biopsy is recommended to obtain a definitive diagnosis. Thus a standard protocol can be developed, for the management of breast lump even with discordant results obtained via triple test assessment, which can be followed universally, thus empowering surgeon to go ahead in managing breast lump effectively and confidently.
Evidence that TMPRSS2 Activates the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Spike Protein for Membrane Fusion and Reduces Viral Control by the Humoral Immune Response

ABSTRACT The spike (S) protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) can be proteolytically activated by cathepsins B and L upon viral uptake into target cell endosomes. In contrast, it is largely unknown whether host cell proteases located in the secretory pathway of infected cells and/or on the surface of target cells can cleave SARS S. We along with others could previously show that the type II transmembrane protease TMPRSS2 activates the influenza virus hemagglutinin and the human metapneumovirus F protein by cleavage. Here, we assessed whether SARS S is proteolytically processed by TMPRSS2. Western blot analysis revealed that SARS S was cleaved into several fragments upon coexpression of TMPRSS2 (cis-cleavage) and upon contact between SARS S-expressing cells and TMPRSS2-positive cells (trans-cleavage). cis-cleavage resulted in release of SARS S fragments into the cellular supernatant and in inhibition of antibody-mediated neutralization, most likely because SARS S fragments function as antibody decoys. trans-cleavage activated SARS S on effector cells for fusion with target cells and allowed efficient SARS S-driven viral entry into targets treated with a lysosomotropic agent or a cathepsin inhibitor. Finally, ACE2, the cellular receptor for SARS-CoV, and TMPRSS2 were found to be coexpressed by type II pneumocytes, which represent important viral target cells, suggesting that SARS S is cleaved by TMPRSS2 in the lung of SARS-CoV-infected individuals. In summary, we show that TMPRSS2 might promote viral spread and pathogenesis by diminishing viral recognition by neutralizing antibodies and by activating SARS S for cell-cell and virus-cell fusion.
A head to head comparison of oral vs intravenous omeprazole for patients with bleeding peptic ulcers with a clean base, flat spots and adherent clots.

AIM To compare the effect of intravenous and oral omeprazole in patients with bleeding peptic ulcers without high-risk stigmata. METHODS This randomized study included 211 patients [112 receiving iv omeprazole protocol (Group 1), 99 receiving po omeprazole 40 mg every 12 h (Group 2)] with a mean age of 52.7. In 144 patients the ulcers showed a clean base, and in 46 the ulcers showed flat spots and in 21 old adherent clots. The endpoints were re-bleeding, surgery, hospital stay, blood transfusion and death. After discharge, re-bleeding and death were re-evaluated within 30 d. RESULTS The study groups were similar with respect to baseline characteristics. Re-bleeding was recorded in 5 patients of Group 1 and in 4 patients of Group 2 (P = 0.879). Three patients in Group 1 and 2 in Group 2 underwent surgery (P = 0.773). The mean length of hospital stay was 4.6 +/- 1.6 d in Group 1 vs 4.5 +/- 2.6 d in Group 2 (P = 0.710); the mean amounts of blood transfusion were 1.9 +/- 1.1 units in Group 1 vs 2.1 +/- 1.7 units in Group 2 (P = 0.350). Four patients, two in each group died (P = 0.981). After discharge, a new bleeding occurred in 2 patients of Group 1 and in 1 patient of Group 2, and one patient from Group 1 died. CONCLUSION We demonstrate that the effect of oral omeprazole is as effective as intravenous therapy in terms of re-bleeding, surgery, transfusion requirements, hospitalization and mortality in patients with bleeding ulcers with low risk stigmata. These patients can be treated effectively with oral omeprazole.
Inhibition of AKT signaling by supercritical CO2 extract of mango ginger (Curcuma amada Roxb.) in human glioblastoma cells

Abstract Background: Mango ginger (Curcuma amada Roxb.) is a less-investigated herb for anticancer properties than other related Curcuma species. AKT (a serine/threonine protein kinase B, originally identified as an oncogene in the transforming retrovirus AKT8) plays a central role in the development and promotion of cancer. In this investigation, we have analyzed the effect of supercritical CO2 extract of mango ginger (CA) on the genetic pathways associated with AKT signaling in human glioblastoma cells. Methods: The inhibitory effect of supercritical CO2 extract of mango ginger (Curcuma amada) on AKT signaling was investigated in U-87MG glioblastoma cells. Results: CA was highly cytotoxic to glioblastoma cell line (IC50=4.92±0.81 µg/mL) compared to mHypoE-N1 normal mouse hypothalamus cell line (IC50=40.57±0.06 µg/mL). CA inhibits AKT (protein Kinase B) and adenosine monophophate -activated protein kinase α (AMPKα) phosphorylation significantly in a dose-dependent manner. The cell migration which is necessary for invasion and metastasis was also inhibited by CA treatment, with about 43% reduction at 20 µg/mL concentration. Analysis of mRNA and protein expression of genes associated with apoptosis, cell proliferation and angiogenesis showed that CA modulates expression of genes associated with apoptosis (Bax, Bcl-2, Bcl-X, BNIP3, caspase-3, mutant p53 and p21), cell proliferation (Ki67) and angiogenesis vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Additionally, heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) and AMPKα genes interacting with the AKT signaling pathway were also downregulated by CA treatment. Conclusions: These results indicate the molecular targets and mechanisms underlying the anticancer effect of CA in human glioblastoma cells.
Pharmacokinetics of Amiodarone in Rats

Summary We studied the kinetics of amiodarone in the rat. After an intravenous dose of 50 mg/kg, the time-course of the drug concentrations was assessed by high-pressure liquid chromatography in blood and tissues up to 16 h. The drug disappeared from the blood with an elimination half-life (t1/2β) of 514 min and distributed extensively into tissues [apparent volume of distribution (Vd) = 29.51 L/kg]. Concentrations were highest in liver, kidney, and heart, and lowest at all times in the brain. The highest concentrations were found within 5 – 30 min of administration. Amiodarone accumulated extensively in adipose tissue and reached a fat/blood concentration ratio of about 1,000 at 16 h. Single-pass rat liver perfusion experiments gave an hepatic extraction ratio of 0.49 and an intrinsic clearance of 5.48 ml/min. Amiodarone disappearance in rat liver recirculation experiments was biexponential, with a half-life of 58 min.
IEEE 802.15.4a UWB receivers in medical applications

Ultra wideband (UWB) has lots of potential in short range wireless communications. One suitable target area is applications for medical and healthcare sector. In this paper, the performances of different UWB receivers are investigated by simulations. The transceiver system was built following the IEEE 802.15. 4a UWB physical layer definitions. The standard, launched in 2007, is targeted for low-complexity and low-cost devices operating in wireless personal area networks (WPANs) being therefore an option for wireless body area networks (WBANs). Another UWB standard, IEEE 802.15. 6 targeted directly for WBANs, is currently in finalising phase and is assumed to be published by 2012. In this study, a WBAN channel model based on measurements in a real hospital environment is used. This study is contributing to a process in healthcare sector where the costs and the number of elderly people, in developed countries especially, are constantly increasing.