Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of manipulating the amount of social-evaluative threat on the cortisol stress response in young healthy women

Psychological stress is known to activate the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, resulting in the release of cortisol from the adrenal cortex into the bloodstream. Cortisol is the major human stress hormone and its health correlates continue to be investigated by laboratories around the world. One line of research suggests that specific situational variables play a role in the creation of a stressful situation. The current study examined the effects of systematically varying several situational characteristics on the cortisol stress response in 80 healthy young women exposed to a public speaking task. Three main factors and its interactions were investigated by locating the expert panel either inside or outside of the room, having the subjects speak either about themselves or somebody else, and by asking half of the subjects to perform a distractor task in addition to performing the public speaking. We interpreted these manipulations as variations of social evaluative threat, ego-involvement, and divided attention. We hypothesized that the variations and their interactions would cause differences in endocrine stress responses. The results showed that only the manipulation of social-evaluative threat had a significant main effect on the cortisol stress response in women. There was a further trend (p = 0.07) for a four-way interaction effect. No other main or interaction effects could be observed. We conclude that in women, social-evaluative threat affects the endocrine stress response. This is in contrast to a previous study showing no effects of this variation in men. Thus, future studies should more closely investigate sex or gender effects that might be interacting with the situational aspects of a stressful task.
Cationic poly(amidoamine) dendrimers induced cyto-protective autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers are proposed as one of the most promising nanomaterials for biomedical applications because of their unique tree-like structure, monodispersity and tunable properties. In this study, we found that PAMAM dendrimers could induce the formation of autophagosomes and the conversion of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) in hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells, while the inhibition of the Akt/mTOR and activation of the Erk 1/2 signaling pathways were involved in autophagy-induced by PAMAM dendrimers. We also investigated the suppression of autophagy with the obviously enhanced cytotoxicity of PAMAM dendrimers. Moreover, the blockage of a reactive oxygen species (ROS) could enhance the growth inhibition and apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells, induced by PAMAM dendrimers through reducing autophagic effects. Taken together, these findings explored the role and mechanism of autophagy induced by PAMAM dendrimers in HepG2 cells, provided new insight into the effect of autophagy on drug delivery nanomaterials and tumor cells and contributed to the use of a drug delivery vehicle for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment.
Structural analyses of choroid after half-dose verteporfin photodynamic therapy for central serous chorioretinopathy

Background/aims To investigate the changes in the intrachoroidal structures after half-dose verteporfin photodynamic therapy (PDT) for central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). Methods Swept-source optical coherence tomography cross-sectional images of 22 eyes of 22 patients with CSC were retrospectively analysed by a manual delineation technique and binarisation method. Results In the 22 eyes, the mean subfoveal choroidal thickness decreased from 412.9±112.9 μm at baseline to 340.0±111.0 μm at 3 months (p<0.0001). The mean thickness of the large choroidal vessel layer decreased from 368.7±112.7 μm at baseline to 292.2±118.0 μm at 3 months (p<0.0001), but the mean choriocapillaris-medium choroidal vessel layer thickness did not change from 44.2±29.2 μm at baseline to 47.8±25.7 μm at 3 months (p=0.85). Analyses of the binarised choroidal images showed that a 3 mm subfoveal choroidal area decreased from 1.141±0.290 mm2 at baseline to 0.962±0.320 mm2 at 3 months after PDT (p=0.0001). The mean luminal areas decreased from 0.826±0.246 mm2 at baseline to 0.665±0.234 mm2 at 3 months (p=0.0001), however, the mean stromal areas did not change from 0.315±0.066 mm2 at baseline to 0.297±0.095 mm2 at 3 months (p=0.60). Conclusions Half-dose PDT reduces subfoveal choroidal thickness and alters the intrachoroidal structures in eyes with CSC.
Influence of interleukin 10 promoter polymorphisms in susceptibility to giant cell arteritis in Northwestern Spain.

OBJECTIVE Proinflammatory cytokines such as interferon-g (IFN-g) play an important role in the pathogenesis of giant cell arteritis (GCA). Interleukin 10 (IL-10) is a Th2 cytokine with a suppressor effect on IFN-g production. We assessed the influence of functional IL-10 gene promoter polymorphisms in susceptibility to GCA in individuals from Northwestern Spain. METHODS One hundred three patients with biopsy-proven GCA and 226 matched controls from the Lugo region of Northwest Spain were genotyped for IL-10 -1082 G/A (rs1800896) and -592 C/A (rs1800872) promoter single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) by Taqman 5' allelic discrimination assay using Taqman predesigned SNP genotyping assays (numbers C_1747360_10 and C_1747363_10, respectively). RESULTS A significant difference in the distribution of -1082 G/A genotypes between GCA patients and controls was observed (p = 0.034). It was mainly due to a decreased number of GCA patients carrying the -1082 A/A genotype (23.3%) compared with controls (36.7%) [p = 0.01, corrected p (pc) = 0.03; OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.31- 0.90]. In addition, haplotype analysis showed that the ATA haplotype frequency was slightly decreased (p = 0.05, pc = 0.2; OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-1.0), whereas the uncommon GTA haplotype was significantly increased in GCA patients compared with controls (p = 0.00005, pc = 0.0002; OR 8.7, 95% CI 2.2-34.8). CONCLUSION Our results suggest a potential implication of IL-10 -1082 promoter polymorphism in susceptibility to GCA in Northwestern Spain.
The Stretta procedure for the treatment of GERD: a registry of 558 patients.

PURPOSE To evaluate gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms, patient satisfaction, and antisecretory drug use in a large group of GERD patients treated with the Stretta procedure (endoluminal temperature-controlled radiofrequency energy for the treatment of GERD) at multiple centers since February 1999. METHODS All subjects provided informed consent. A health care provider from each institution administered a standardized GERD survey to patients who had undergone Stretta. Subjects provided (at baseline and follow-up) (1) GERD severity (none, mild, moderate, severe), (2) percentage of GERD symptom control, (3) satisfaction, and (4) antisecretory medication use. Outcomes were compared with the McNemar test, paired t test, and Wilcoxon signed rank test. RESULTS Surveys of 558 patients were evaluated (33 institutions, mean follow-up of 8 months). Most patients (76%) were dissatisfied with baseline antisecretory therapy for GERD. After treatment, onset of GERD relief was less than 2 months (68.7%) or 2 to 6 months (14.6%). The median drug requirement improved from proton pump inhibitors twice daily to antacids as needed (P < .0001). The percentage of patients with satisfactory GERD control (absent or mild) improved from 26.3% at baseline (on drugs) to 77.0% after Stretta (P < .0001). Median baseline symptom control on drugs was 50%, compared with 90% at follow-up (P < .0001). Baseline patient satisfaction on drugs was 23.2%, compared with 86.5% at follow-up (P < .0001). Subgroup analysis (<1 year vs. >1 year of follow-up) showed a superior effect on symptom control and drug use in those patients beyond 1 year of follow-up, supporting procedure durability. CONCLUSIONS The Stretta procedure results in significant GERD symptom control and patient satisfaction, superior to that derived from drug therapy in this study group. The treatment effect is durable beyond 1 year, and most patients were off all antisecretory drugs at follow-up. These results support the use of the Stretta procedure for patients with GERD, particularly those with inadequate control of symptoms on medical therapy.
Compressive Volume Rendering

Compressive rendering refers to the process of reconstructing a full image from a small subset of the rendered pixels, thereby expediting the rendering task. In this paper, we empirically investigate three image order techniques for compressive rendering that are suitable for direct volume rendering. The first technique is based on the theory of compressed sensing and leverages the sparsity of the image gradient in the Fourier domain. The latter techniques exploit smoothness properties of the rendered image; the second technique recovers the missing pixels via a total variation minimization procedure while the third technique incorporates a smoothness prior in a variational reconstruction framework employing interpolating cubic B‐splines. We compare and contrast the three techniques in terms of quality, efficiency and sensitivity to the distribution of pixels. Our results show that smoothness‐based techniques significantly outperform techniques that are based on compressed sensing and are also robust in the presence of highly incomplete information. We achieve high quality recovery with as little as 20% of the pixels distributed uniformly in screen space.
Periostin is Upregulated in Coronary Arteriopathy in Kawasaki Disease and is a Potential Diagnostic Biomarker

Periostin was upregulated 11-fold in acute and chronic Kawasaki Disease coronary arteries compared with controls (P = 0.003). Kawasaki Disease patients had significantly elevated serum periostin values compared with febrile controls (P = 0.0086). There was no relationship between serum periostin values and age, gender or acute phase reactants; there was a relationship between serum periostin and maximal coronary artery Z scores that did not reach significance (P = 0.08). Periostin may prove to be useful as a component of a future diagnostic biomarker panel for Kawasaki Disease.
Motion correction using the k‐space phase difference of orthogonal acquisitions

Rigid body translations of an object in MRI create image artifacts along the phase‐encode (PE) direction in standard 2DFT imaging. If two images are acquired with swapped PE direction, it is possible to determine and correct for arbitrary in‐plane translational interview motions in both images directly from phase differences in the k‐space acquisitions by solving a large system of linear equations. For example, if one assumes two N × N 2D acquisitions with in‐plane translational interview motion, 4N unknown motions may corrupt the two images, but the phase difference at each point in k‐space yields a system of N2 equations in these 4N unknowns. If the acquisitions have orthogonal PE directions, this highly overdetermined system of equations can be solved to provide the motion records, which in turn can be used to correct the motion artifacts in each image. The theory of this orthogonal k‐space phase difference (ORKPHAD) technique is described, and results are presented for synthetic and in vivo motion‐corrupted data sets. In all cases, the data showed clear improvement of translation‐induced artifacts. These methods do not require special pulse sequences and are theoretically generalizable to partial Fourier imaging and 3D acquisitions. Magn Reson Med 48:147–156, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A 12 bits 40 MSPS SAR ADC with a redundancy algorithm and digital calibration for the ATLAS-LArg calorimeter readout

This paper presents a SAR ADC with a generalized redundant search algorithm offering the flexibility to relax the requirements on the DAC settling time and allowing a digital calibration, based on a code density analysis, to compensate the capacitors mismatching effects. The proposed architecture uses a DAC with only 2 unit capacitors, for N-bit resolution, and a simplified monotonic switching algorithm. The design is fully differential featuring 12-bit 40MS/s in 130-nm 1P8M CMOS process. Keywords—Digital calibration, Non-binary, Redundancy, SAR ADC, Switching algorithm.
Intrathecal Synthesis of Oligoclonal Bands in Rapid-Onset Obesity With Hypothalamic Dysfunction, Hypoventilation, and Autonomic Dysregulation Syndrome

Rapid-onset obesity with hypothalamic dysfunction, hypoventilation, and autonomic dysregulation syndrome (ROHHADS) is a rare, but potentially lethal, pediatric disorder. To date, nearly 80 patients have been reported in the literature; however, the etiopathogenesis is still unclear and debated. Both genetic and paraneoplastic or immune-mediated causes have been supposed to be involved in this syndrome. Nonetheless, at this time, a diagnostic biomarker is not available and diagnosis is based exclusively on clinical criteria. Aiming to establish the immune-mediated pathogenesis, we report 2 children with a clinical picture consistent with ROHHADS and whose cerebrospinal fluid analysis disclosed an intrathecal synthesis of oligoclonal bands. Even if many aspects remain to be explained, this finding suggests that ROHHADS could share similar pathogenetic mechanisms with other immune-mediated central nervous system disorders, and even more important, it might pave the way to a therapeutic chance for these patients by means of immunotherapy.
A QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY OF PSYCHIATRISTS ATTITUDES TOWARDS GENETIC COUNSELLING

Genetic counselling in psychiatry aims at facilitating mentally ill patients and their relatives to make informed choices after understanding what is known about the genetics of a given mental disorder This area of practice is a recent development in mental health care. This study surveyed the attitudes and practices of Indian psychiatrists towards genetic counselling. Fifty-nine out of 150 randomly selected psychiatrists completed a semi-structured questionnaire assessing various aspects of genetic counselling in practice. The results show that there is a felt need for genetic counselling among patients. Most of the respondents provide information regarding the hereditary nature and risk of inheritance of mental illnesses in single sessions of less than 30 minutes duration in clinical situations. Most psychiatrists (76%) felt that genetic counselling is feasible in practice, but 24% felt inadequate knowledge, illiteracy among patients and time constraints as some hindering factors for the same. Genetic counselling was considered to be important in planning management for patients by most respondents. The need to improve their knowledge and skills in the genetic understanding of mental illnesses was also reported. These results have implications for future practice of genetic counselling in the Indian setting.
Evidence of recall bias in volunteered vs. prompted responses about occupational exposures.

BACKGROUND Recall bias remains a concern in case-control studies, although few investigations have found evidence of differential recall. This study examined whether differences in occupational exposure reporting occur in volunteered vs. prompted questionnaire responses. METHODS In a large, population-based, case-control study of a childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, we calculated odds ratios for broad occupational exposure groups on the assumption that in the absence of recall bias, risk estimates for such broad groupings should be close to the null value. RESULTS Prompted exposures and work activities showed little evidence of differential recall by parents of cases and controls (all OR < 1.2), but case parents were more likely to volunteer information about other exposures or activities (ORs: 1.35-1.71). Case mothers were also more likely than control mothers to report activities involving indirect exposure (OR = 1.41). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that prompted exposure questions are less likely to be subject to recall bias than open-ended questions.
Relational Properties in Interaction Aesthetics: The Ubiquitous Music Turn

Taking as a point of departure recent theoretical advances in Interaction Design and Human-Computer Interaction (Lowgren 2009), we discuss a body of knowledge gathered in Ubiquitous Music practices (Keller et al. 2011a) during the last six years. New concepts and methods have been proposed to describe aspects of the ideation and materialisation of experiences with technology. Pliability (Lowgren 2007) and anchoring (Keller et al. 2010) are two of the multiple design qualities that surfaced in interaction design that impact information technology creative practices. We present results of experiments addressing creativity support for ubiquitous music making through the time tagging metaphor (Radanovitsck et al. 2011). The studies serve to exemplify how relational properties can be integrated within creativity-centred design. Our research indicates that sonic relational properties may provide affordances for proto-musical phenomena. We discuss the theoretical and methodological implications of this proposal highlighting its impact on everyday musical creativity.
Dimensionality-reduction frameworks for computationally expensive problems

Real-world design optimization problems are typically computationally-expensive and to address this various model-assisted evolutionary frameworks have been proposed. However, often such problems are also high-dimensional and in such settings models tend to have poor accuracy and thus degrade the optimization search. To address this we propose two complementary dimensionality-reduction frameworks for evolutionary model-assisted optimization: one uses variable-selection to identify an important subset of the original variables while the other uses topological mapping to project the high-dimensional data to a lower-dimension. Performance analysis with both mathematical test functions and a problem of airfoil shape optimization evaluates the efficacy of the frameworks.
The effect of drying on timber frame connections post flooding

Timber structures face a unique risk from flooding. Elevations in moisture content due to prolonged wetting will lead to a reduction in the mechanical properties of the building. Despite recent growth of timber construction in the UK and a known increased risk from flooding, little research has been conducted into its effects on light frame timber construction and the most efficacious drying method. This paper presents the results of experiments to determine the optimum drying conditions for light timber frame construction with oriented strand board sheathing after simulated flooding. A series of specimens were wetted for 5 d to simulate flooding before exposure to different environments. The specimens were load tested and values of ultimate strength, yield strength and stiffness were compared to those of un-wetted control specimens. It was found that the optimum drying condition for recovery of the maximum pre-wetting mechanical properties was an environment of 38°C and 40% relative humidity. Although th.
Studies on freshwater bacteria: effect of medium composition and method on estimates of bacterial population.

Summary. The effects of various inorganic and organic components used in media for estimating numbers of freshwater bacteria were determined. The inorganic elements appeared to affect the count obtained more than did the organic components. Of the media tested, none could support growth better than the CPS medium of this laboratory. The casein and glycerol concentration was optimal and variation in other organic components had little effect on counts. The surface spread plate was the most suitable method of estimating viable numbers and the effect of numbers of colonies counted on the distribution obtained is discussed.
A General Rate K/N Convolutional Decoder Based on Neural Networks with Stopping Criterion

A novel algorithm for decoding a general rate K/Nconvolutional code based on recurrent neural network (RNN) is described and analysed. The algorithm is introduced by outlining the mathematical models of the encoder and decoder. A number of strategies for optimising the iterative decoding process are proposed, and a simulator was also designed in order to compare the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of the RNN decoder with the conventional decoder that is based on Viterbi Algorithm (VA). The simulation results show that this novel algorithm can achieve the same bit error rate and has a lower decoding complexity. Most importantly this algorithm allows parallel signal processing, which increases the decoding speed and accommodates higher data rate transmission. These characteristics are inherited from a neural network structure of the decoder and the iterative nature of the algorithm, that outperform the conventional VA algorithm.
Stereotype Threat and Arousal: Effects on Women's Math Performance

Theories of arousal suggest that arousal should decrease performance on difficult tasks and increase performance on easy tasks. An experiment tested the hypothesis that the effects of stereotype threat on performance are due to heightened arousal. The authors hypothesized that telling participants that a math test they are about to take is known to have gender differences would cause stereotype threat in women but not in men. In the experiment, each participant took two tests—a difficult math test and an easy math test. Compared to women in a “no differences” condition, women in the “gender differences” condition scored better on the easy math test and worse on the difficult math test. Men's performance was unaffected by the manipulation. These data are consistent with an arousal-based explanation of stereotype threat effects. Data were inconsistent with expectancy, evaluation apprehension, and persistence explanations of the stereotype threat phenomenon.
EURAP Outcomes for Seizure Control during Pregnancy: Useful and Encouraging Data

Seizure Control and Treatment in Pregnancy: Observations from the EURAP Epilepsy Pregnancy Registry EURAP Study Group Neurology 2006;66:354–360 Objective To analyze seizure control and treatment in pregnant women with epilepsy. Methods Seizure control and treatment were recorded prospectively in 1,956 pregnancies of 1,882 women with epilepsy participating in EURAP, an international antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and pregnancy registry. Results Of all cases, 58.3% were seizure-free throughout pregnancy. Occurrence of any seizures was associated with localization-related epilepsy (OR, 2.5; 1.7 to 3.9) and polytherapy (OR, 9.0; 5.6 to 14.8) and for tonic–clonic seizures, with oxcarbazepine monotherapy (OR, 5.4; 1.6 to 17.1). Using first trimester as reference, seizure control remained unchanged throughout pregnancy in 63.6%, 92.7% of whom were seizure free during the entire pregnancy. For those with a change in seizure frequency, 17.3% had an increase and 15.9% a decrease. Seizures occurred during delivery in 60 pregnancies (3.5%), more commonly in women with seizures during pregnancy (OR, 4.8; 2.3 to 10.0). There were 36 cases of status epilepticus (12 convulsive), which resulted in stillbirth in one case but no cases of miscarriage or maternal mortality. AED treatment remained unchanged in 62.7% of the pregnancies. The number or dosage of AEDs were more often increased in pregnancies with seizures (OR, 3.6; 2.8 to 4.7) and with monotherapy with lamotrigine (OR, 3.8; 2.1 to 6.9) or oxcarbazepine (OR, 3.7; 1.1 to 12.9). Conclusions The majority of patients with epilepsy maintain seizure control during pregnancy. The apparently higher risk of seizures among women treated with oxcarbazepine and the more frequent increases in drug load in the oxcarbazepine and lamotrigine cohorts prompts further studies on relationships with pharmacokinetic changes. Risks associated with status epilepticus appear to be lower than previously reported.