Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pheromone signal transduction in humans: What can be learned from olfactory loss

Because humans seem to lack neuronal elements in the vomeronasal organ (VNO), many scientists believe that humans are unable to detect pheromones. This view is challenged by the observations that pheromone‐like compounds, 4,16‐androstadien‐3‐one (AND) and oestra‐1,3,5(10),16‐tetraen‐3‐ol (EST), activate the human hypothalamus. Whether these activations are mediated via VNO, venous blood or olfactory mucosa is presently unknown. To disentangle between the three alternatives, we conducted activation studies in 12 heterosexual males with chronic anosmia because of nasal polyps. Polyposis hampers signal transduction via the olfactory mucosa without interfering with the VNO or the pheromone transport via venous blood. Twelve healthy men served as controls. Subjects were investigated with 15OH2O PET during smelling of odorless air (base line), AND, EST, vanillin, and acetone. Smelling of EST activated the anterior hypothalamus in controls, but not anosmics. Neither did the anosmics display cerebral activations with AND or vanillin. Clusters were detected only with the trigeminal odorant acetone, and only in the thalamus, brainstem, the anterior cingulate, and parts of the sensorimotor cortex. Direct comparisons with controls (controls–anosmics) showed clusters in the olfactory cortex (amygdala and piriform cortex) with AND, vanillin, and acetone, and in the anterior hypothalamus with EST. The observed absence of olfactory and presence of trigeminal activations in anosmics indicates that polyposis primarily affected signal processing via the olfactory mucosa. The anosmics inability to activate the hypothalamus with EST, therefore, suggests that in healthy men EST signals were primarily transmitted via the olfactory system. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Functional connectivity between the thalamus and visual cortex under eyes closed and eyes open conditions: A resting‐state fMRI study

The thalamus and visual cortex are two key components associated with the alpha power of electroencephalography. However, their functional relationship remains to be elucidated. Here, we employ resting‐state functional MRI to investigate the temporal correlations of spontaneous fluctuations between the thalamus [the whole thalamus and its three largest nuclei (bilateral mediodorsal, ventrolateral and pulvinar nuclei)] and visual cortex under both eyes open and eyes closed conditions. The whole thalamus show negative correlations with the visual cortex and positive correlations with its contralateral counterpart in eyes closed condition, but which are significantly decreased in eyes open condition, consistent with previous findings of electroencephalography desynchronization during eyes open resting state. Furthermore, we find that bilateral thalamic mediodorsal nuclei and bilateral ventrolateral nuclei have remarkably similar connectivity maps, and resemble to those of the whole thalamus, suggesting their crucial contributions to the thalamus‐visual correlations. The bilateral pulvinar nuclei are found to show distinct functional connectivity patterns, compatible with previous findings of the asymmetry of anatomical and functional organization in the nuclei. Our data provides evidence for the associations of intrinsic spontaneous neuronal activity between the thalamus and visual cortex under different resting conditions, which might have implications on the understanding of the generation and modulation of the alpha rhythm. Hum Brain Mapp 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Donor‐Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Remain Present and Functional in the Transplanted Human Heart

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are characterized by their multilineage differentiation capacity and immunosuppressive properties. They are resident in virtually all tissues and we have recently characterized MSC from the human heart. Clinical heart transplantation offers a model to study the fate of transplanted human MSC. In this study, we isolated and expanded MSC from heart tissue taken before, and 1 week up to 6 years after heart transplantation. MSC from posttransplantation tissue were all of donor origin, demonstrating the longevity of endogenous MSC and suggesting an absence of immigration of recipient MSC into the heart. MSC isolated from transplanted tissue showed an immunophenotype that was characteristic for MSC and maintained cardiomyogenic and osteogenic differentiation capacity. They furthermore preserved their ability to inhibit the proliferative response of donor‐stimulated recipient peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In conclusion, functional MSC of donor origin remain present in the heart for several years after transplantation.
Dynamical MEG source modeling with multi‐target Bayesian filtering

We present a Bayesian filtering approach for automatic estimation of dynamical source models from magnetoencephalographic data. We apply multi‐target Bayesian filtering and the theory of Random Finite Sets in an algorithm that recovers the life times, locations and strengths of a set of dipolar sources. The reconstructed dipoles are clustered in time and space to associate them with sources. We applied this new method to synthetic data sets and show here that it is able to automatically estimate the source structure in most cases more accurately than either traditional multi‐dipole modeling or minimum current estimation performed by uninformed human operators. We also show that from real somatosensory evoked fields the method reconstructs a source constellation comparable to that obtained by multi‐dipole modeling. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Optimal diffusion MRI acquisition for fiber orientation density estimation: An analytic approach

An important challenge in the design of diffusion MRI experiments is how to optimize statistical efficiency, i.e., the accuracy with which parameters can be estimated from the diffusion data in a given amount of imaging time. In model‐based spherical deconvolution analysis, the quantity of interest is the fiber orientation density (FOD). Here, we demonstrate how the spherical harmonics (SH) can be used to form an explicit analytic expression for the efficiency of the minimum variance (maximally efficient) linear unbiased estimator of the FOD. Using this expression, we calculate optimal b‐values for maximum FOD estimation efficiency with SH expansion orders of L = 2, 4, 6, and 8 to be approximately b = 1,500, 3,000, 4,600, and 6,200 s/mm2, respectively. However, the arrangement of diffusion directions and scanner‐specific hardware limitations also play a role in determining the realizable efficiency of the FOD estimator that can be achieved in practice. We show how some commonly used methods for selecting diffusion directions are sometimes inefficient, and propose a new method for selecting diffusion directions in MRI based on maximizing the statistical efficiency. We further demonstrate how scanner‐specific hardware limitations generally lead to optimal b‐values that are slightly lower than the ideal b‐values. In summary, the analytic expression for the statistical efficiency of the unbiased FOD estimator provides important insight into the fundamental tradeoff between angular resolution, b‐value, and FOD estimation accuracy. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Chronic Kidney Disease in Elderly Population

인구의고령화와당뇨병, 고혈압등의만성질환의증가, 만성콩팥병의 진행속도 증가, 만성콩팥병 환자들의 사망률 감소와 만성콩팥병 환자들의 치료 접근성이 향상됨 에따라만성콩팥병과만성콩팥병의최종형태인말기신부 전이 전 세계적으로 증가하고 있다(1). 만성콩팥병의 증가 는사회적인의료부담을증가시킬뿐만아니라심혈관계합 병증증가와기타질환이환율과사망률의증가를유발함으 로써 국가적 보건 문제를 유발한다. 미국에서는 1991년에 서 2000년 사이 말기 신부전의 유병률은 97% 증가하였고 발병률은 57% 증가하였으며(1), 만성콩팥병환자수는전체 미국 인구의 11%에 해당할 것으로 예측하고 있다(2). 미국 에서지출되는의료비중만성콩팥병환자에게지출되는의 료비는 콩팥병이 없는 환자들에 비하여 1. 8배가 높으며 2010년에이르면 65만명의말기신부전환자에게 280억불 이상의 의료비가 지출될 것으로 예상되고 있다(3). 호주의 경우인구중 11.2%가 3기이상의만성콩팥병을가지고있 노인에서 만성콩팥병의 의미
Chemical and biomolecular analyses to discriminate three taxa of Pistacia genus from Sardinia Island (Italy) and their antifungal activity

Abstract This work reports the results and the comparison concerning the chemical and biomolecular analyses and the antifungal activity of three wild Pistacia species (Anacardiaceae) from Sardinia. Volatile oils from leaves and twigs of Pistacia x saportae, Pistacia lentiscus and Pistacia terebinthus were characterised using GC-FID and GC-MS techniques and tested against some fungal strains. Two DNA nuclear regions (ITS and 5S-rRNA-NTS) were amplified through PCR technique and sequenced. The three **Pistacia have similar chemical profile, although there are some important quantitative differences. The analysis of ITS and 5S-rRNA-NTS regions, reveals a species-specific nucleotide variation among the three **taxa. This method could emerge as a powerful tool for the species identification, especially because the discrimination of these three **taxa appears difficult for non-expert botanists. Concerning the antifungal activity, P. lentiscus and P. x saportae show the highest activity against Cryptococcus neoformans, with a MIC value of 0.32 μL/mL.
Functional integration within the human pain system as revealed by Granger causality

Pain is a complex experience subserved by an extended network of brain areas. However, the functional integration among these brain areas, i.e., how they interact and communicate to generate a coherent pain percept and an adequate behavioral response is largely unknown. Here, we used magnetoencephalography to investigate functional integration among pain‐related cortical activations in terms of Granger causality and compared it with tactile‐related activations. The results show causal influences of primary somatosensory cortex on secondary somatosensory cortex for tactile‐related but not for pain‐related activations, which supports the proposition of a partially parallel organization of pain processing in the human brain. Furthermore, during a simple reaction time task, the strength of causal influences between somatosensory areas but not the latencies between activations correlated significantly with the speed of reaction times. These findings show how the analysis of functional integration complements traditional analyses of electrophysiological data and provides novel and behaviorally relevant information about the organization of the human pain system. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Helmintoses intestinais: I - Conhecimentos, atitudes e percepção da população

Com o objetivo de coletar subsidios que norteassem parte de um programa de intervencao em helmintoses intestinais, foi realizada uma pesquisa, no Municipio de Sao Carlos, SP (Brasil), sobre conhecimentos, atitudes e percepcao da populacao local, sobre o assunto. A pesquisa foi realizada com responsaveis por escolares, no periodo de tres meses (1984-1985), por meio de questionario aplicado em uma amostra da populacao, correspondendo a 50% + 2 do universo de estudo. Os resultados mostraram que a populacao detem uma codificacao para identificacao de helmintoses, asssim como conceituacao propria sobre sinais e sintomas, aspectos epidemiologicos e formas de tratamento. Esses achados sao de fundamental importância para o planejamento das campanhas e projetos educacionais em verminoses.
Pressure Pain Thresholds in Chronic Whiplash Associated Disorder: Further Evidence of Altered Central Pain Processing

Objective: To investigate pressure pain thresholds [PPTs] at sites both within and remote to the region involved with whiplash trauma. Methods: One hundred and fifteen subjects with chronic whiplash associated disorder [WAD] and 95 healthy asymptomatic subjects were included in the study. Pressure pain thresholds were measured at eight sites bilaterally within the cervical spine and upper limbs and a remote site in the lower limb. Results: Subjects with chronic WAD had significantly lower PPTs than the asymptomatic subjects in both local and remote sites [all P < 0.001]. There was a greater decrease of PPTs over cervical spine sites than either the upper or lower limb sites. Conclusion: The generalized decrease in PPTs in sites both local and remote to the site of injury suggests a sensitized central nervous system contributes to persistent pain experienced by WAD patients. The greater decrease in PPTs over cervical spine sites may reflect the continuing role of sensitized nociceptors within the cervical spine in the pain syndrome.
Disorder‐specific inferior prefrontal hypofunction in boys with pure attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder compared to boys with pure conduct disorder during cognitive flexibility

Background. Problems with cognitive flexibility have been observed in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and in patients with conduct disorder (CD), characterized by the violation of societal rules and the rights of others. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of cognitive switching, however, has only been investigated in patients with ADHD, including comorbidity with CD, finding frontostriatal and temporoparietal underactivation. This study investigates disorder‐specific functional abnormalities during cognitive flexibility between medication‐naïve children and adolescents with noncomorbid CD and those with noncomorbid ADHD compared to healthy controls. Methods. Event‐related fMRI was used to compare brain activation of 14 boys with noncomorbid, childhood‐onset CD, 14 boys with noncomorbid ADHD, and 20 healthy comparison boys during a visual–spatial Switch task. Results. Behaviorally, children with ADHD compared to children with CD had significantly slower reaction times to switch compared to repeat trials. The fMRI comparison showed that the patients with ADHD compared to both controls and patients with CD showed underactivation in right and left inferior prefrontal cortex. No disorder‐specific brain underactivation was observed in patients with CD. Only when compared with controls alone, the disruptive behavior group showed reduced activation in bilateral temporoparietal and occipital brain regions. Conclusions. The findings extend previous evidence for disorder‐specific underactivation in patients with ADHD compared to patients with CD in inferior prefrontal cortex during tasks of inhibitory control to the domain of cognitive flexibility. Inferior prefrontal underactivation thus appears to be a disorder‐specific neurofunctional biomarker for ADHD when compared with patients with CD. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Factors Associated with Failure to List HIV‐Positive Kidney Transplant Candidates

With improved survival in the antiretroviral era, data from ongoing studies suggest that HIV patients can be safely transplanted. The disproportionate burden of HIV‐related end‐stage renal disease in minority populations may impose additional obstacles to successful completion of the transplant evaluation. We retrospectively reviewed 309 potentially eligible HIV patients evaluated for kidney transplant at our institution since 2000. Only 20% of HIV patients have been listed, compared to 73% of HIV‐negative patients evaluated over the same period (p < 0.00001). Failure to provide documentation of CD4 and viral load (36% of candidates) was the most common reason for failure to progress beyond initial evaluation. Other factors independently associated with failure to complete the evaluation included CD4 < 200 at initial evaluation (OR 15.17; 95% CI 1.94–118.83), black race (OR 2.33; 95% CI 1.07–5.06), and history of drug use (OR 2.56; 95% CI 1.22–5.37). More efficient medical record sharing and an awareness of factors associated with failure to list HIV‐positive transplant candidates may enable transplant centers to more effectively advocate for these patients.
Overall brain connectivity maps show cortico‐subcortical abnormalities in schizophrenia

Abnormal interactions between areas of the brain have been pointed as possible causes for schizophrenia. However, the nature of these disturbances and the anatomical location of the regions involved are still unclear. Here, we describe a method to estimate maps of net levels of connectivity in the resting brain, and we apply it to look for differential patterns of connectivity in schizophrenia. This method uses partial coherences as a basic measure of covariability, and it minimises the effect of major physiological noise. When overall (net) connectivity maps of a sample of 40 patients with schizophrenia were compared with the maps from a matched sample of 40 controls, a single area of abnormality was found. It is an area of patient hyper‐connectivity and is located frontally, in medial and orbital structures, clearly overlapping the anterior node of the default mode network (DMN). When this area is used as a region of interest in a second‐level analysis, it shows functional hyper‐connections with several cortical and subcortical structures. Interestingly, the most significant abnormality is found with the caudate, which has a bilateral pattern of abnormality, pointing to a possible DMN–striatum deviant relation in schizophrenia. However, hyper‐connectivity observed with other regions (right hippocampus and amygdala, and other cortical structures) suggests a more pervasive alteration of brain connectivity in this disease. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Multimodality Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer With Liver Metastases Using Chemotherapy, Radiation Therapy, and/or Chinese Herbal Medicine

Objective: To explore the utility of multidisciplinary approaches in the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer with liver metastases (PCLM). Methods: From 2002 to 2007, a total of 164 consecutive patients with PCLM treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or Chinese herbal medicine were included in this study. Clinical parameters, treatments received, and survival time from initial diagnosis were analyzed. Results: Of the 164 patients, 113 (69%) were men and 51 (31%) were women, with median age of 58 years. One hundred thirty-two patients (80%) had synchronous liver metastases, and 57 patients (35%) had extrahepatic metastases. Overall median survival time of the 164 patients was 4.7 months; 23 (14%) were alive at least 12 months after initial diagnosis of liver metastases. Karnofsky performance status of less than 80, weight loss (>10% within 6 months), ascites, and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 of 1000 U/mL or greater were the most relevant predictors of poor survival. Multivariate analysis showed that chemotherapy and Chinese herbal medicine were protective factors. Conclusions: Multimodality treatment is well tolerated by patients with PCLM and may be effective in prolonging their survival. Awareness of the implications of these prognostic factors may assist in evaluating the survival potential of patients and selecting the most appropriate treatments.
When response inhibition is followed by response reengagement: An event‐related fMRI study

In the course of daily living, changing environmental demands often make our actions, once initiated, unnecessary or even inappropriate. Under such circumstances, the ability to inhibit the obsolete action and to update behavior can be of vital importance. Previous lesion and neuroimaging studies have shown that the right prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia seem to play an important role in the inhibition of already initiated motor responses. The present study was designed to investigate whether the neural activity of inhibitory motor control was altered if the inhibition process was succeeded by an additional process, namely the reengagement into an alternative action. Therefore, cerebral blood oxygenation during performance of a stop‐change paradigm was registered in 15 male participants using event‐related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Data analysis showed, that during successful and failed stopping and changing (response inhibition and subsequent response reengagement) of initiated motor responses a very similar network was activated including primarily the right inferior frontal cortex (IFC). Besides, stopping‐related activation in right IFC was significantly greater for fast inhibitors than for slow ones. Results of the present study thus further underline the important role of right IFC in response inhibition and suggest that the inhibition process functions similarly regardless whether changing task demands require the complete suppression of an already initiated motor response or its suppression and a subsequent response reengagement into an alternative action. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Knowledge and opinions of school children about epilepsy

Epilepsy is one of the earliest diseases of the mankind, and is referred to as paroxysmal and transitory disturbance of brain function that is developing rapidly and has a tendency to recur. The aim of the paper was to determine the knowledge and attitudes of students in the eighth grade related to epilepsy. The study was conducted in March-April 2010. The survey comprised 193 eighth-grade students of both sexes. The study included children from the City of Novi Sad and two suburbs of the four elementary schools: 'Ivo Lola Ribar' and 'Attila Jožeg' from Novi Sad, 'Đura Jaksic' from Kac and 'Jovan Ducic' from Petrovaradin. The majority of students (98.4%) had the knowledge about epilepsy. Half of the respondents had heard of it on television and one quarter from parents or in school. As a trigger of epileptic attacks, students usually mention insomnia (47.1%) and food deficiency (19.5%). The most typical symptoms students described were foaming at the mouth, sudden loss of consciousness and convulsions. For most students (84.4%), epilepsy is considered an organic disease; one-third of respondents (34.4%) considered epilepsy curable disease. The results indicate that students have the basic eighth-grade level of knowledge about epilepsy, including the fact that most of them (71.1%) believe that a child with epilepsy can play and socialize with their peers.
Single subject task‐related BOLD signal artifact in a real‐time fMRI feedback paradigm

Real‐time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) has been proposed as a method of providing feedback to develop a participant's ability to control his or her own neuronal activity. However, this BOLD signal is vulnerable to contamination from nonneuronal sources that can also be shaped by the feedback provided. Here we illustrate an artifact found while training participants to control signal from an ROI in the insula. As the artifact was directly behind the eye and the experiment used an echo‐planar imaging (EPI) sequence with phase encoding direction that included the orbits and the insula in the same line, we hypothesized that the artifact was due to eye motion. We demonstrate a reduced training effect when eyeball signal is regressed out of the data and reproduce the artifact with block design voluntary eye movement. Further, using independent components analysis on historical data, we find the artifact is common in BOLD data, but typically not task‐correlated, even in tasks where one might expect differing amounts of eye movement in the active task blocks. The artifact, thus, does not significantly impact group results in typical fMRI experiments. Finally, we demonstrate this particular artifact can be avoided in rtfMRI experiments by ensuring that the phase encoding direction does not project any eye movement related artifact onto the ROI being used for feedback training. Our findings underscore the importance of taking great care in designing rtfMRI feedback procedures to avoid contamination with nonneuronal sources of BOLD signal alteration. Hum Brain Mapp, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.