Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of hypothalamic Foxo1 expression reduced food intake in diet‐induced obesity rats

Insulin signalling in the hypothalamus plays a role in maintaining body weight. The forkhead transcription factor Foxo1 is an important mediator of insulin signalling in the hypothalamus. Foxo1 stimulates the transcription of the orexigenic neuropeptide Y and Agouti‐related protein through the phosphatidylinositol‐3‐kinase/Akt signalling pathway, but the role of hypothalamic Foxo1 in insulin resistance and obesity remains unclear. Here, we identify that a high‐fat diet impaired insulin‐induced hypothalamic Foxo1 phosphorylation and degradation, increasing the nuclear Foxo1 activity and hyperphagic response in rats. Thus, we investigated the effects of the intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) microinfusion of Foxo1‐antisense oligonucleotide (Foxo1‐ASO) and evaluated the food consumption and weight gain in normal and diet‐induced obese (DIO) rats. Three days of Foxo1‐ASO microinfusion reduced the hypothalamic Foxo1 expression by about 85%. i.c. v. infusion of Foxo1‐ASO reduced the cumulative food intake (21%), body weight change (28%), epididymal fat pad weight (22%) and fasting serum insulin levels (19%) and increased the insulin sensitivity (34%) in DIO but not in control animals. Collectively, these data showed that the Foxo1‐ASO treatment blocked the orexigenic effects of Foxo1 and prevented the hyperphagic response in obese rats. Thus, pharmacological manipulation of Foxo1 may be used to prevent or treat obesity.
Unsupervised topic discovery by anomaly detection

Abstract : With the vast amount of information and public comment available online, it is of increasing interest to understand what is being said and what topics are trending online. Government agencies, for example, want to know what policies concern the public without having to look through thousands of comments manually. Topic detection provides automatic identification of topics in documents based on the information content and enhances many natural language processing tasks, including text summarization and information retrieval. Unsupervised topic detection, however, has always been a difficult task. Methods such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) convert documents from word space into document space (weighted sums over topic space), but do not perform any form of classification, nor do they address the relation of generated topics with actual human level topics. In this thesis we attempt a novel way of unsupervised topic detection and classification by performing LDA and then clustering. We propose variations to the popular K-Mean Clustering algorithm to optimize the choice of centroids, and we perform experiments using Facebook data and the New York Times (NYT) corpus. Although the results were poor for the Facebook data, our method performed acceptably with the NYT data. The new clustering algorithms also performed slightly and consistently better than the normal K-Means algorithm.
Piriformis syndrome: comparison of the effectiveness of local anesthetic and corticosteroid injections: a double-blinded, randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND Piriformis syndrome (PS), which is characterized by pain radiating to the gluteal region and posterior leg, is accepted as one of the causes of sciatalgia. Although the importance of local piriformis muscle injections whenever PS is clinically suspected has been shown in many studies, there are not enough studies considering the clinical efficacy of these injections. OBJECTIVE To investigate the differences between local anesthetic (LA) and LA + corticosteroid (CS) injections in the treatment of PS. STUDY DESIGN A prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial. SETTING Physical medicine and rehabilitation department of a university hospital. METHODS Fifty-seven patients having unilateral hip and/or leg pain with positive FAIR test and tenderness and/or trigger point at the piriformis muscle were evaluated. Out of 50 patients randomly assigned to 2 groups, 47 patients whose pain resolved at least 50% from the baseline after the injection were diagnosed as having PS. The first group (n = 22) received 5 mL of lidocaine 2% while the second group (n = 25) received 4 mL of lidocaine 2% + 1 mL of betametazone under the guidance of ultrasound. OUTCOME ASSESSMENT Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and Likert Analogue Scale (LAS). RESULTS No statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) was detected between the groups in NRS score values at resting (P = 0.814), night (P = 0.830), and in motion (P = 0.145), and LAS values with long duration of sitting (P = 0.547), standing (P = 0.898), and lying (P = 0.326) with evaluations at baseline, first week, and first and third months after the injection. A statistically highly significant (P < 0.005) reduction of pain was evaluated through NRS scores at resting (P = 0.001), in motion (P = 0.001), and at night (P = 0.001) and LAS values with long duration of sitting (P = 0.001), standing (P = 0.001), and lying (P = 0.001) in both of the groups. LIMITATIONS Presumed limitations of this study include having a relatively small sample. CONCLUSION LA injections for the PS were found to be clinically effective. However, addition of CS to LA did not give an additional benefit. This gives us the idea that PS is mostly muscular in origin and responds well to both LA and LA+CS injections.
Empirical channel matched quantizer design and UEP for robust image transmission

Summary form only given. Channel matched quantization for image transmission over time varying channels reduces the effects of channel errors. The presence of variable length codes in compression standards like the JPEG cause error propagation due to bit errors. Unequal error protection (UEP) schemes have emerged as an effective method to combat catastrophic loss in the received signal due to burst and random errors. An empirical channel matched quantizer design algorithm that jointly optimizes the distortion due to quantization-channel noise and a new efficient UEP scheme for image transmission are proposed. The baseline JPEG encoder is used to compress the 8-bit gray level images before transmission. A slow frequency non-selective Rayleigh fading channel is considered in this study. A quantization table optimized for human visual quality is used for very low channel bit error rates. For higher bit error rates, the quantization table is matched to the channel conditions by multiplying its entries by the optimal quantization multiplication factor, M/sup */ such that the average number of received image blocks in error is minimized. M/sup */ is computed for each bit error rate ranging from 10/sup -4/ to 10/sup -1/ through empirical modeling of the trade-off between the quantization and the channel noise. In order to enhance the performance of the proposed system, a new UEP scheme that limits the error propagation due to variable length encoding is used. This scheme works by packing the output bits of the JPEG coder into slots of fixed size.
Temporal Response of Scattering From Crops for Transmitted Ellipticity Variation in Simulated Compact-Pol SAR Data

In this paper, the received compact polarimetry (CP) parameters are analyzed to infer ellipticity variations related to the transmission of a polarized electromagnetic wave. A generalized <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2 \times 2$</tex-math></inline-formula> CP covariance matrix is created as a function of the transmitting ellipticity and orientation angle. The Stokes parameters, backscattering coefficients, and the <italic>m-χ</italic> decomposition scattering powers are used to interpret the temporal behavior of crop growth stages with varying transmitted ellipticities. Time series RADARSAT-2 fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar data acquired during the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2012 campaign are used to simulate the CP data. The results clearly show that the transmitted ellipticity variation influences the interaction of the radar signal with agricultural targets. It is noted that there is negligible change in the dominant odd-bounce scattering power for corn during its leaf development stage with the transmitted ellipticity varying by <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $10^\circ $</tex-math></inline-formula>. In the case of wheat during tillering and inflorescence, the volume scattering power decreases by ∼14% while the odd-bounce and even-bounce scattering powers increase by ∼6% and ∼8%, respectively, with the transmitted ellipticity varying by <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^\circ $</tex-math></inline-formula>.
Effect of Water Storage on the Flexural Strength of Heat-cured Denture Base Resin Reinforced with Stick (s) Glass Fibers

Background: Flexural strength (FS) of denture base resins (DBRs) had been improved by reinforcing it with different glass fibers. However, a limited data are available on the effect of glass fiber reinforcement with conventional heat-cured resin after prolonged water storage. Aims and Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the reinforcing effect of novel S-glass and nylon fibers on the FS of acrylic DBRs. It also aimed to evaluate the effect of glass fiber reinforcement on the FS of acrylic DBRs after a prolonged storage in water. Materials and Methods: One hundred and sixty identical specimens were fabricated in specially designed molds according to the manufacturer's instructions. The three experimental groups were prepared consisting of conventional (unreinforced) acrylic resin, novel S-glass fiber-reinforced and nylon fiber-reinforced acrylic resin. The specimens were fabricated in a standardized fashion for each experimental group. Each group was further subdivided into two groups on the basis of storage conditions (dry and wet). FS was tested using a three-point universal testing machine at a crosshead speed of 5 mm/min. Glass fiber-reinforced group was further tested after prolonged storage in distilled water. Entered data were statistically analyzed with one-way ANOVA and least significant difference post hoc test. Results: In this study, statistically significant differences were noted in the FS of all the groups. S-glass fiber-reinforced group had highest FS compared to the other two groups (P < 0.001). Nylon fiber-reinforced group had lowest FS. All the groups stored in distilled water revealed a decrease in strength compared to those stored in dry atmosphere. Among wet specimens, those stored for 3 weeks had a significantly higher FS than those stored at one and 2 weeks (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Within the limitations of this investigation, the FS of heat-cured acrylic DBR was improved after reinforcement with glass fibers. It can be recommended to strengthen distal extension partial and complete denture bases. Nylon fibers may not be desirable for strengthening acrylic denture bases.
First‐line Bismuth‐containing Five‐day Concomitant Quintuple Therapy for Helicobacter Pylori Eradication

Widespread use of antibiotics has resulted in increased rates of antibiotic resistance and decreased rates of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication, leading to a search for newer therapeutic options. This study aimed to examine the efficacy, tolerability, and patient compliance of a first‐line bismuth‐containing 5‐day concomitant quintuple therapy.
Levodopa‐induced dyskinesias in Parkinson's disease: Clinical and pharmacological classification

Levodopa‐induced dyskinesias (LID) in Parkinson's disease (PD) may be classified into three main categories: “On” dyskinesias, diphasic dyskinesias (DD), and “off” periods. The study of 168 parkinsonian patients showed that about half (n = 84) showed one pattern of LID only. A combination of two was present in 68, and 16 had the three presentation patterns. A fairly good correlation between type of dyskinesia and presentation pattern was established. Chorea, myoclonus, and dystonic movements occurred during the “on” period. Dystonic postures, particularly affecting the feet, were mainly present in the “off” period, but a few patients had a diphasic presentation. Repetitive stereotyped movements of the lower limbs always corresponded to DD. Acute pharmacological tests using dopamine agonists 9subcutaneous apomorphine 3–8 mg; intravenous lisuride 0. (1–0. 15 mg) and dopamine antagonists (intravenous sulpiride 200–400 mg and intravenous chlorpromazine 25 mg) were performed in 40 patients. Dopamine agonists enhanced “on” dyskinesias and markedly reduced or abolished “off” period dystonia and DD. Dopamine antagonists reduced all types of LID but usually aggravated parkinsonism. These clinical and pharmacological results indicate that LID in PD are a heterogeneous phenomenon difficult to explain on the basis of a single pathophysiological mechanism.
Comparative Investigation of Indicators of Growth and Behavioral Disorders in Children with Normal, Low, and Very Low Birth Weight at Pre-school Age in Isfahan during 2015

Introduction: Birth weight is one of the most important indicators of infant's health and could predict their health condition in future. This study was conducted to determine and compare indicators of growth [weight, height, and body mass index (BMI)] and behavioral disorders in children with normal, low, and very low birth weight at pre-school age. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive analytical study, 236 children (126 with normal weight, 100 with low birth weight, and 10 with very low birth weight) at pre-school age were investigated in three groups. Data collection tools were a two-part questionnaire including the Rutter Children Behavior Questionnaire for parents, and parents' and children's demographic characteristics questionnaire, scale, and stadiometer. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, variance analysis, Chi square, and Kruskal–Wallis tests. Results: The mean of weight, height, and BMI at pre-school age in three groups had a significant difference (P = 0.009) and it was lower in the group with very low birth weight than the other two groups; however, the difference between the group with normal birth weight and the group with low birth weight was not significant (P = 0.10). The mean score of behavioral disorder had no significant difference between groups (P = 0.49). Conclusions: Results showed that children with very low birth weight grew less than the other two groups. Therefore, this group needs special attention and long-term follow-up for taking care of them to ensure better growth. It is recommended to conduct more extended studies to evaluate behavioral disorders in these children.
Trichiasis ercurrence in Nother Ethiopia: a one year prospecitve study of Trachomatous Trichiasis surgery done by integrated eye care workers

Abstract Background: Blindness due to trachomatous trichiasis can be prevented by simple eyelid surgery that can be performed by trained nurses. Objective: To evaluate the post-operative outcome of posterior tarsal rotation done by integrated eye care workers (IECWs) at the twelfth postoperative month. Methods: A prospective study to evaluate trichiasis surgery for recurrence was conducted in Yilmana Densa District. Trained IECWs did transverse tarsotomy with lid margin rotation for 455 patients with trichiasis following the standard procedure. Post-operative follow-up evaluation was done at the 12th month by IECWs who neither took part in the operation nor knew the specific surgeons for the corresponding patients. Results: Out of 695 a total of 560 operated eyelids were available for follow-up just at the 12th month. In terms of persons, 79.3% (361/455) patients came for follow-up evaluation. The recurrence rate among the operated eyelids was found to be 16.6%. There was an increase in likelihood of having recurrence with increasing age of patients (X2=5.6, P=0.02). We also found a statistically significant difference in rates of recurrence among patients operated by different surgeons(X2 =12.8, P=0.005). Conclusion: Trichiasis recurrence following surgery done by non-ophthalmologists is low indicating the possibility of avoiding preventable blindness due to trachoma through the training of integrated eye care workers. Moreover, monitoring mechanism appeared essential to track the performance of IECWs. [Ethiop.J.Health Dev. 2008;22(1):8- 13]
Effects of vicarious pain on self-pain perception: investigating the role of awareness

The observation of pain in others may enhance or reduce self-pain, yet the boundary conditions and factors that determine the direction of such effects are poorly understood. The current study set out to show that visual stimulus awareness plays a crucial role in determining whether vicarious pain primarily activates behavioral defense systems that enhance pain sensitivity and stimulate withdrawal or appetitive systems that attenuate pain sensitivity and stimulate approach. We employed a mixed factorial design with the between-subject factors exposure time (subliminal vs optimal) and vicarious pain (pain vs no pain images), and the within-subject factor session (baseline vs trial) to investigate how visual awareness of vicarious pain images affects subsequent self-pain in the cold-pressor test. Self-pain tolerance, intensity and unpleasantness were evaluated in a sample of 77 healthy participants. Results revealed significant interactions of exposure time and vicarious pain in all three dependent measures. In the presence of visual awareness (optimal condition), vicarious pain compared to no-pain elicited overall enhanced self-pain sensitivity, indexed by reduced pain tolerance and enhanced ratings of pain intensity and unpleasantness. Conversely, in the absence of visual awareness (subliminal condition), vicarious pain evoked decreased self-pain intensity and unpleasantness while pain tolerance remained unaffected. These findings suggest that the activation of defense mechanisms by vicarious pain depends on relatively elaborate cognitive processes, while – strikingly – the appetitive system is activated in highly automatic manner independent from stimulus awareness. Such mechanisms may have evolved to facilitate empathic, protective approach responses toward suffering individuals, ensuring survival of the protective social group.
Strong Convergence Theorems Of Cesaro Mean Iterations Of Nonexpansive Mappings

In a reflexive and strictly convex Banach space which has uniformly Gateaux differentiable norm, we consider the problem of the convergence of the Cesaro mean iterations for non-expansive mappings. Under suitable conditions, it was proved that the iterative sequence converges strongly to a fixed point. The results presented in this paper also extend and improve some recent results.
Movement behaviour in patients with chronic neck pain.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The present study evaluated whether patients with chronic neck pain demonstrate characteristic angular movement deviations during repeated cervical spine movements. METHOD Sixteen patients with chronic neck pain and a group of 18 aged-matched healthy control subjects performed 10 repetitive maximal cervical movement cycles (flexion/extension, rotation, lateral flexion) at a self-determined velocity. To collect the kinematic data of the cervical spine, a three-dimensional ultrasonic movement analysis system (Zebris CMS70, Germany) was used. To describe the movement variability in the maximum oscillation amplitudies the intra-subject coefficients of variation (CV %) was calculated. The maximum difference was characterized by the absolute differences between the minimum and maximum oscillation amplitudes of iterated movement cycles. Pain intensity was obtained by visual analogue scales (VAS). RESULTS The average pain rating of the patients with chronic neck pain indicated moderate neck pain intensity (3.7 (+/-0.8)). Independent Student's t-tests revealed a significantly decreased range of movement (ROM) in the chronic neck pain group for all anatomic values (p < 0.05), except for the lateral flexion to the right. The maximum differences and variability parameters showed significantly increased values in the chronic neck pain group in all directions (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION Maximal cervical ROM was significantly lower, and movement variability was significantly higher, in patients compared with healthy control subjects. The differences of cervical motion variability point towards increased movement irregularities in patients with chronic neck pain. The present study shows evidence to support the hypothesis that additional information may be gained from the analysis of movement variability.
Metabotropic glutamate receptor-mediated suppression of L-type calcium current in acutely isolated neocortical neurons.

1. The effects of metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) stimulation on whole-cell Ca2+ currents were studied in pyramidal neurons isolated from the dorsal frontoparietal neocortex of rat. The selective mGluR agonist cis-(+/-)-1-aminocyclopentane-1,3-dicarboxylic acid [trans-ACPD (100 microM)] suppressed the peak high-threshold Ca2+ current by 21 +/- 1.7% (mean +/- SE) in 40 of 43 cells from 10- to 21-day-old rats. Consistent with previous findings for mGluR, glutamate, quisqualate, and ibotenate [but not alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)] reduced the Ca2+ currents, and the responses were not blocked by the ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonists 6-cyano-7-nitro-quinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX) and DL-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (APV). EC50S for Ca2+ current suppression were 29 nM for quisqualate, 2.3 microM for glutamate, and 13 microM for trans-ACPD. 2. The low-threshold Ca2+ current was not modulated by trans-ACPD. The component of the high-threshold CA2+ current suppressed by mGluR was determined by pharmacology; the responses were not affected by omega-conotoxin GVIA but were occluded by the dihydropyridine Ca2+ antagonist nifedipine. Ca2+ tail currents prolonged by the dihydropyridine Ca2+ agonist (+)-SDZ 202-79] were suppressed by mGluR stimulation in parallel with the peak current. These findings strongly suggest that L-type Ca2+ channels are modulated by mGluR. 3. In neurons dialyzed with 100 microM guanosine 5'-(gamma-thio)triphosphate (GTP-gamma-S), Ca2+ current suppression was elicited by the first application of trans-ACPD (in 5 of 6 cells), but not by subsequent applications. Responses in neurons dialyzed with 2 mM guanosine 5'-(beta-thio)diphosphate (GDP-beta-S) were significantly smaller than controls. The results are consistent with mGluR acting via linkage to a G protein. 4. The responses to mGluR agonists were smaller when the external Ca2+ was replaced by Ba2+, indicating that some part of the mechanism underlying the current suppression is Ca2+ dependent. Because mGluR stimulates phosphoinositide turnover and release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores in other types of neurons, the possibility of released Ca2+ mediating inactivation of Ca2+ channels was considered. However, the Ca2+ current suppression was not attenuated by strong intracellular Ca2+ buffering [20 mM bis-(o-aminophenoxy)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (BAPTA)], by dialysis with 100 microM inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3), or by external application of 1 microM thapsigargin. 5. We conclude that in neocortical neurons, one action of mGluR is to suppress the component of high-threshold Ca2+ current conducted by L-type Ca2+ channels. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)