Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sleep and executive function in older women: the moderating effect of physical activity.

BACKGROUND Sleep and physical activity are both important for cognition. However, few cognitive function studies include comprehensive measurement of both sleep and physical activity. The purpose of this study was to examine the independent and interactive associations of sleep and physical activity in relation to cognitive function in older women. METHODS A subset of 121 women from the Healthy Women Study, mean age 73.3 ± 1.7 years, wore an actigraphy sleep monitor, physical activity accelerometer, and kept sleep and physical activity diaries for 7 consecutive days. Executive function was measured with the Digit Symbol Substitution Test and the Trail Making Test B. Verbal fluency was assessed with a word generation task. RESULTS In adjusted models, greater actigraphy-assessed sleep efficiency was associated with more correct responses on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (β = 0.35, SE = 0.15, p < 0.02). Sleep was not associated with verbal fluency. A significant interaction (p < 0.05) was observed between accelerometer-assessed physical activity and actigraphy-assessed sleep efficiency. Specifically, lower sleep efficiency was associated with poorer performance on both the Digit Symbol Substitution Test and the Trail Making Test B among women with low levels of physical activity but not among women with high levels of physical activity. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that greater levels of physical activity may attenuate the negative impact of poor sleep on executive function in older women, with the clearest effects observed using direct measurements of sleep and physical activity.
Current practice in regional anaesthesia in Germany

Background and objective: Several new techniques and agents (e.g. ropivacaine) have been introduced in regional anaesthesia to improve patients outcome and safety. The beneficial effects on patient outcome are clear with these techniques, however, no information is available about their pattern and frequency of use in clinical practice. This study presents data concerning the current practice of regional anaesthesia in Germany. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to every German anaesthesia department (n = 1381). Questions focused on the frequency and range of regional anaesthetic procedures employed, with attention also to the organizational structural of the individual institution. Results: Six hundred and sixty‐seven questionnaires were returned anonymously, representing a return rate of 48.3%. In hospitals with less than 200 beds, the number of regional anaesthetics was markedly higher compared to large hospitals with more than 400 beds. In contrast, small hospitals tended to provide only basic techniques of regional anaesthesia, whereas larger hospitals implemented more advanced techniques. Bupivacaine remains the most commonly used long‐lasting local anaesthetic. Staff structure was also different in small departments – patient care was performed by board certified anaesthesiologists while residents were responsible for the patients in larger departments. Conclusions: In small hospitals a majority of board certified anaesthesiologists rely on basic regional anaesthesia techniques. In large departments some consultants provide the entire spectrum of regional anaesthesia, with the majority of cases transferred to the residents responsibility. These results indicate the strong need to improve residency programs with regard to regional anaesthesia.
Awareness of Genetic Testing for Cancer among United States Hispanics: The Role of Acculturation

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine how acculturation affected awareness of genetic testing for cancer among Hispanic Americans. Methods: Subjects were 10,883 Hispanic respondents from the 2000 and 2005 National Health Interview Surveys. Acculturation was measured with language use and the length of time subjects had lived in the US. Weighted logistic regression was used to determine subjects’ awareness of genetic susceptibility testing. Results: Greater use of English (adjusted odds ratio, OR = 1.25, 95% confidence interval, CI = 1.15–1.36) was associated with increased awareness of genetic testing. Residence in the US for less than 5 years (adjusted OR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.36–0.83) was associated with lower awareness of testing. Conclusions: To better inform diverse American groups about genetic testing, intercultural variations and language skills must be taken into account.
Growth Differentiation Factor-9 and Stem Cell Factor Promote Primordial Follicle Formation in the Hamster: Modulation by Follicle-Stimulating Hormone1

Abstract Growth differentiation factor-9 (GDF-9) and stem cell factor (SCF) influence follicle formation beyond the primary stage; however, factors influencing the formation of primordial follicles remain elusive. To determine whether GDF-9 and SCF promoted primordial follicle formation during ovarian morphogenesis in the hamster, and whether FSH had any modulatory influence, fetal ovaries were collected on Gestation Day 15 from pregnant hamsters treated with or without an FSH antiserum on Gestation Day 12 and cultured in vitro up to Day 9 with SCF, GDF-9, or FSH. The percentages and diameters of primordial, primary, and secondary follicles and their oocytes were determined by morphometric evaluation, and the expression of GDF-9 was detected by immunolocalization. SCF, GDF-9, and FSH promoted primordial and primary follicle formation, but GDF-9 was more efficient. The diameters of the follicles developed under GDF-9 or FSH, but not SCF, compared well with those developed in vivo. FSH- and GDF-9-induced folliculogenesis was attenuated by the SCF antibody. Similarly, in vitro formation of primordial follicles decreased markedly in ovaries exposed to the FSH antiserum in utero, which was reversed by SCF, GDF-9, or FSH; however, GDF-9 had a profound effect on follicular development. GDF-9 protein appeared exclusively in the oocytes on Postnatal Day 4; however, it appeared in vitro by 48 h, and the expression was upregulated by FSH. These results suggest that although SCF-induced primordial follicle formation constitutes primarily somatic cell development, GDF-9 influences both the oocyte and its companion somatic cells. FSH plays an important role in primordial folliculogenesis in the hamster via GDF-9 and SCF.
Proliferative Retinopathy in NIDDM: Incidence and Risk Factors in Pima Indians

The incidence of proliferative diabetic retinopathy was determined in the Pima Indians of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. Over 4 yr, this complication developed in 25 of 953 subjects ≥9 yr of age with non-insulin-dependent diabetes. No cases were diagnosed in <35-yr-old subjects, and the incidence was strongly related to the duration of diabetes. The cumulative incidence of proliferative retinopathy after 20 yr duration was 14%. All cases of proliferative retinopathy occurred in subjects with background retinopathy. Younger age at diagnosis of diabetes was associated with a higher incidence of proliferation when subjects with diabetes of similar duration were compared. A higher incidence of proliferative retinopathy, after controlling for age, sex, and diabetes duration, was associated with hypertension, proteinuria, renal insufficiency, absence of Achilles tendon reflex, elevated total serum cholesterol concentration, and insulin therapy.
Pituitary-adrenal activity in untreated congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

The pituitary and adrenal activitiesin untreated congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) were studied. Two children had 11β-hydroxylase deficiency: subject 1, 8½ yr, and subject 2, 6½ yr. The daily 11-desoxycortisol and cortisol secretionrates were 47 and 18 mg respectively, for subject 1 and 32 and 10 mg respectively for subject 2. The plasma half-life, distribution volume and MCR of 11-desoxycortisol in subject 2 were 22 min., 38.5 l and 1750 l/day. The values for cortisol in subject 1 were T½ = 45 min., 26.6 l distribution volume and MCR of 590 l/day. Two children had 21-hydroxylase deficiency: subject 3, 5 10/12 yr, and subject 4, 10 months old. In subject 3 the plasma T½, apparent distribution volume and MCR of cortisol were 51 min., 11.7 1 and 230 l/day. It was calculated that subject 3 produced 35 mg of 21-desoxycortisol and 9 mg of cortisol daily. Urinary steroid metabolites were studied in all 4 subjects; the patterns weretypical for their respective genetic defect. Plasma corticosteroid concentrati.
Toward A Progress Indicator for Parallel Queries *

In parallel query-processing environments, accurate, time-oriented progress indicators could provide much utility to users given that queries take a very long time to complete and both interand intra-query execution times can have high variance. In these systems, query times depend on the query plans and the amount of data being processed, but also on the amount of parallelism available, the types of operators (often user-defined) that perform the processing, and the overall system load. None of the techniques used by existing tools or available in the literature provide a non-trivial progress indicator for parallel queries. In this paper, we introduce Parallax, the first such indicator. Several parallel data processing systems exist. In this paper, we target environments where queries consist of a series of MapReduce jobs. Parallax builds on recently-developed techniques for estimating the progress of single-site SQL queries. It enhances and extends these techniques in non-trivial ways. We implemented our estimator in the Pig system and demonstrate its performance on experiments with the PigMix benchmark and other queries running in a real, small-scale cluster.
Do improvements in emotional distress correlate with becoming more mindful? A study of older adults

Objectives: The study aimed (1) to investigate changes in older adults’ emotional wellbeing (specifically depression, anxiety and stress levels) and mindful ability following a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) course; (2) to explore correlations between mindfulness (measured as an overall ability and as individual components; observe, describe, act with awareness and accept without judgement) and changes in depression, anxiety and stress levels. Method: Twenty-two participants took an eight-week MBCT course. Levels of depression, anxiety and stress were recorded pre- and post-intervention, as was mindfulness ability (measured both as an overall ability and as individual components). Results: Significant improvements in emotional wellbeing and mindfulness were reported post-MBCT, with large to moderate effect sizes. Increased mindfulness was moderately and significantly associated with improved emotional wellbeing. Increases on all four components of mindfulness were positively associated with greater emotional wellbeing, however only act with awareness and accept without judgement were significantly correlated (with reduced depression). Older adults in our sample reported higher scores on observe and act with awareness than other populations. Conclusion: This study adds to a growing evidence-base indicating the efficacy of MBCT for depression, anxiety and stress, and extends these finding to older adults. This study found older adults to have elevated levels of certain facets of mindfulness and recommendations are made for researching the possibility that mindfulness may be an extension of the developmental process.
Biological Variability and Reference Intervals for Total Plasma Homocysteine

We determined the intra-individual biological variability of plasma homocysteine in 20 healthy subjects. The intra-individual coefficient of variation was relatively low (8·3%), indicating that a single measurement can be used to characterize the average homocysteine concentration. A population study measuring plasma homocysteine and serum folate levels was conducted on serum samples collected from 1109 randomly selected, fasting adults with a wide age range. We determined age- and gender-specific central 0·95 intervals and found that subjects in the highest quartile of serum folate had significantly lower (P = 0·0001) mean plasma homocysteine concentrations than did those in the lowest quartile of folate values. An ‘ideal’ homocysteine reference range, based on targeting those subjects who are likely to be folate replete, is preferable to the population-based range using the central 0·95 interval.
Pharmacokinetics and inflammatory fluid penetration of cefpodoxime proxetil in volunteers

The pharmacokinetics of cefpodoxime were determined after a single oral dose of 261 mg of cefpodoxime proxetil, equivalent to 200 mg of cefpodoxime, was given to each of six healthy male volunteers. Concentrations in serum, urine, and cantharidin-induced inflammatory fluid were measured by a microbiological assay. The mean peak level in plasma was 2.1 micrograms/ml, attained at a mean time of 2.9 h. The mean half-life of elimination from serum was 2.2 h. The inflammatory exudate was penetrated moderately rapidly, the mean peak level being 1.7 micrograms/ml at 3.5 h. The mean percent penetration of the inflammatory exudate was 103.7. The mean 24-h urine recovery of cefpodoxime was 32.2%. This study suggests that cefpodoxime proxetil taken once or twice daily will be sufficient to treat urinary or systemic infections caused by susceptible pathogens.
Return Reversals, Idiosyncratic Risk, and Expected Returns

The empirical evidence on the cross-sectional relation between idiosyncratic risk and expected stock returns is mixed. We demonstrate that the omission of the previous month's stock returns can lead to a negatively biased estimate of the relation. The magnitude of the omitted variable bias depends on the approach to estimating the conditional idiosyncratic volatility. Although a negative relation exists when the estimate is based on daily returns, it disappears after return reversals are controlled for. Return reversals can explain both the negative relation between value-weighted portfolio returns and idiosyncratic volatility and the insignificant relation between equal-weighted portfolio returns and idiosyncratic volatility. In contrast, there is a significantly positive relation between the conditional idiosyncratic volatility estimated from monthly data and expected returns. This relation remains robust after controlling for return reversals. The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org. , Oxford University Press.
The Amino-terminal Domain of Heat Shock Protein 90 (hsp90) That Binds Geldanamycin Is an ATP/ADP Switch Domain That Regulates hsp90 Conformation*

Many functions of the chaperone, heat shock protein 90 (hsp90), are inhibited by the drug geldanamycin that specifically binds hsp90. We have studied an amino-terminal domain of hsp90 whose crystal structure has recently been solved and determined to contain a geldanamycin-binding site. We demonstrate that, in solution, drug binding is exclusive to this domain. This domain also binds ATP linked to Sepharose through the γ-phosphate. Binding is specific for ATP and ADP and is inhibited by geldanamycin. Mutation of four glycine residues within two proposed ATP binding motifs diminishes both geldanamycin binding and the ATP-dependent conversion of hsp90 to a conformation capable of binding the co-chaperone p23. Since p23 binding requires regions outside the 1–221 domain of hsp90, these results indicate a common site for nucleotides and geldanamycin that regulates the conformation of other hsp90 domains.
Reproducibility in the Assessment of Caries Lesion Behaviour: A Comparison between Conventional Film and Subtraction Radiography

The purpose of this study was to compare reproducibility in the assessment of caries lesion behaviour in digital subtraction images and conventional radiographs. Ninety–seven pairs of conventional film bite–wings were included. The radiographs had been taken with a Kwik–Bite filmholder without further standardisation. The selection criterion was that at least one surface imaged in a bite–wing pair should show progresssion of a caries lesion from the first exposure to the second. The time interval between the bite–wings was 1–2 years. The radiographs were scanned into a personal computer and the two images from the same patient subtracted. Seven observers scored the subtraction images and the conventional films. The scale was based on no change/ change in surface appearance scored in the following categories: 0 = no change; 1 = development of a new caries lesion in enamel; 2 = development of caries lesion in enamel and dentine/progression of an existing enamel lesion into dentine/progression of a dentinal lesion further into dentine; 3 = development of secondary caries; 4 = new filling/change of filling/extension of filling. Cohen’s κ coefficients were calculated for intra– and inter–observer agreement for the two radiographic methods separately. The κ value served as the statistical sampling unit for testing differences between the two methods (Wilcoxon’s test for ranked pairs). The average intra–observer κ value was 0.875 (range 0.775–0.958) for the subtraction images and 0.758 (range 0.560–0.890) for the conventional radiographs. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). For inter–observer agreement, the κ values were lower than for intra–observer agreement. The average value was 0.678 (range 0.485–0.754) for the subtraction images and 0.701 (range 0.497–0.817) for the conventional radiographs (p>0.1). This study suggests a new way of comparing reproducibility in terms of κ values between diagnostic methods in clinical studies where accuracy cannot be evaluated. The subtraction method may be useful in the assessment of caries lesion behaviour in the clinic.
Multimeric CD4 binding exhibited by human and simian immunodeficiency virus envelope protein dimers

The envelope (Env) glycoproteins of human and simian immunodeficiency viruses (HIV and SIV) form noncovalently associated oligomers which mediate virus binding to the cell surface and fusion between the viral envelope and plasma membrane. A high-affinity interaction with CD4 is a critical step in this process. In this report, we show that Env protein dimers, but not monomers, can bind two CD4 molecules simultaneously. Multimeric CD4 binding may have important implications for Env protein-CD4 avidity, CD4-induced release of gp120, and subunit-subunit cooperativity during virus membrane fusion as well as for therapeutic strategies.
Effect of selection of pH in swimming pool on formation of chlorination by-products

Chlorine is used as disinfection agent in public swimming pools, but also reacts with organic matter in the water forming chlorinat ed disinfection by-products. In order to evaluate the effect of choice of pH-setpoint in the pool we investigated the effect of chlorination of artificial body fluid analogue at different pH-values between 6 and 8. The formation of trihalomethans, haloacetic acids and haloacetonitriles was measured. It was found that the formation of trihalomethans decreased with decreased pH. Haloacetic acid formation remained almost constant over the pH-range and haloacetonitrile formation increased with decreasing pH. As haloacetonitriles contributes the most to the genotoxicity of the water the predicted genotoxicity of the water was highest at the lowest pH value in the range tested. Adding bromine in the experiments resulted in decreased haloacetic acids formation and increased formation of haloacetonitriles and trihalomethans. Addition of bromide in the experiments resulted in a shift in the formation of DBP to more brominated DBPs which contributed to that the predicted genotoxicity of the water increased significantly regardless of the pH-level.
Loss of Fas (CD95/APO-1) expression by antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells is reversed by inhibiting DNA methylation.

Elimination of clonally expanded peripheral CD8 T cells was thought to involve apoptosis induction mediated principally by TNF, but recently Fas (CD95/APO-1) has been shown to play a role in certain responses. Here we study Fas expression and sensitivity to its ligation on murine CD8 cells specific for the CW3 antigen expressed by transfected P815 cells. Fas was progressively downregulated after successive in vitro restimulations of antigen-specific CD8 cells, until clones became Fas negative and totally resistant to the effects of recombinant Fas ligand. In contrast, Fas expression by in vivo restimulated antigen-specific cells did not diminish. Loss of Fas expression in vitro was not totally irreversible, since it could be reinduced by inhibition of DNA methylation. Understanding how Fas may be differentially regulated in vivo and in vitro is an important issue for the optimal manipulation of T cells for adoptive immunotherapy protocols.
Adrenalectomy Impairs Spatial Memory in Rats

Adrenalectomy (ADX) causes death in the granule cells of the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) 3 to 4 months later in rats. ' Neurodegenerative changes are found three days2 after surgery. Granule cell degeneration caused by adrenal insufficiency is prevented by replacement with corticosterone (CORT). Lesions of the DG by intercranial injection of colchicine produce deficits in radial arm maze performance, a test of spatial memory. Thus, granule cell loss that results from adrenal insufficiency may also produce spatial memory deficits. Initial experiments determined if there are deficits on the 8 arm radial arm maze shortly after ADX. After being shaped to the maze, sham and ADX groups were tested with all of the arms baited. ADX rats made more errors in completing the maze than shams (TABLE 1). Following these trials, rats were tested with a time delay between the 4th and 5th choices. The ADX group continued to make more errors in completing the task when tested with delays (TABLE 1). ADX-dependent impairments were present for up to 71 days. Physiological indicators of adrenal function, serum CORT and saline intake, were assessed in order to determine the presence of accessory adrenal tissue in ADX rats. ADX rats had significantly lower levels of serum CORT (%pg) than shams (0.6 f 0.4 vs 15.0 f 2.3). As expected, ADX rats consumed amounts of saline (midday) well above those of the control group (16.9 f 1.6 vs 1.3 f 0.3). The correlation between saline intake and serum CORT level was significant (r = 0 . 8 5 , ~ <0.0018); i.e., higher saline intake is associated with lower serum levels of CORT. Saline intake provides a simple means for evaluating the completeness of ADX. Morphological analysis of the dentate gyrus showed that there were no differences between groups in cross sectional dentate area (106 pmZ) in creysl violet sections (0.083 in shams vs 0.087 in ADX). While some ADX rats showed an increase in pyknotic cell density, average pyknotic cell count per 106 pm2 dentate area was also not significantly different. Many ADX rats apparently had some accessory adrenal tissue capable of producing CORT which may have been sufficient to suppress granule neuron pyknosis but not enough to suppress salt intake. Physiological indicators of ADX and morphological measures of the dentate gyrus cell loss were tested for correlations with spatial memory performance. Serum CORT levels at the time of sacrifice were negatively correlated to the number of errors in completing the task (p <0.008) suggesting that lower levels of serum CORT are associated with impaired radial arm maze performance. Intake of 3% saline was also significantly correlated to errors (p <0.04). Thus, higher saline consumption was associated with poorer spatial memory performance overall. Cross sectional dentate