Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Role for Electrotonic Coupling Between Cortical Pyramidal Cells

Many brain regions communicate information through synchronized network activity. Electrical coupling among the dendrites of interneurons in the cortex has been implicated in forming and sustaining such activity in the cortex. Evidence for the existence of electrical coupling among cortical pyramidal cells, however, has been largely absent. A recent experimental study measured properties of electrical connections between pyramidal cells in the cortex deemed “electrotonic couplings. ” These junctions were seen to occur pair-wise, sparsely, and often coexist with electrically-coupled interneurons. Here, we construct a network model to investigate possible roles for these rare, electrotonically-coupled pyramidal-cell pairs. Through simulations, we show that electrical coupling among pyramidal-cell pairs significantly enhances coincidence-detection capabilities and increases network spike-timing precision. Further, a network containing multiple pairs exhibits large variability in its firing pattern, possessing a rich coding structure.
Genetic, Immunological, and Metabolic Determinants of Risk for Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in Families

Prospective studies of the relatives of people with Type 1 diabetes can provide insights into risk factors for processes leading to the ultimate destruction of the pancreatic islet 8‐cells. Relatives ascertained through the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh diabetes registry were followed and rates of conversion to diabetes were determined. We studied the role of genetic and immunological markers, and used the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to study metabolic disturbances among first‐degree relatives. A group of siblings was serotyped for the HLA‐A and ‐B antigens, and the degree of HLA haplotype sharing with the diabetic sibling was established. Later, islet cell antibody (ICA) assays were performed, and subjects were followed to determine the predictive value of ICA testing for the subsequent development of diabetes. The rate of conversion to diabetes among the siblings was 14 times greater than the rate observed in the general population from which they come. This is comparable to rates observed by other centres following relatives of people with Type 1 diabetes. Impaired glucose tolerance (by National Diabetes Data Group (USA) criteria) carried a three‐fold greater risk for subsequent Type 1 diabetes than did a normal OGTT. Those relatives with detectable ICA were about 50 times more likely to convert to diabetes than were those without ICA. In a group of siblings in whom HLA haplotype sharing was determined, the prevalence of detectable ICA was greater among those who were HLA‐identical to the diabetic sibling (9.9 %) than among those who were haplo‐identical (5.3 %) or completely dissimilar (2.4 %) at the HLA‐A and ‐B regions. Similarly, the incidence of Type 1 diabetes was greater among those who were HLA‐identical (8.4 per 103 sibling‐years), than among those who were not HLA‐identical to the proband (4.2 per 103). The greatest risk for subsequent diabetes was found among HLA‐identical siblings who were ICA‐positive. Approximately 7 % of those who were HLA non‐identical or haplo‐identical and ICA‐positive became diabetic within 5 years, while more than 30 % of HLA‐identical siblings who were ICA‐positive became diabetic during the 5 years after ICA were detected.
Bi-Directional Evidence Linking Sentence Production and Comprehension: A Cross-Modality Structural Priming Study

Natural language involves both speaking and listening. Recent models claim that production and comprehension share aspects of processing and are linked within individuals (Pickering and Garrod, 2004, 2013; MacDonald, 2013; Dell and Chang, 2014). Evidence for this claim has come from studies of cross-modality structural priming, mainly examining processing in the direction of comprehension to production. The current study replicated these comprehension to production findings and developed a novel cross-modal structural priming paradigm from production to comprehension using a temporally sensitive online measure of comprehension, Event-Related Potentials. For Comprehension-to-Production priming, participants first listened to active or passive sentences and then described target pictures using either structure. In Production-to-Comprehension priming, participants first described a picture using either structure and then listened to target passive sentences while EEG was recorded. Comprehension-to-Production priming showed the expected passive sentence priming for syntactic choice, but not response time (RT) or average syllable duration. In Production-to-Comprehension priming, primed, versus unprimed, passive sentences elicited a reduced N400. These effects support the notion that production and comprehension share aspects of processing and are linked within the individual. Moreover, this paradigm can be used for the exploration priming at different linguistic levels as well as the influence of extra-linguistic factors on natural language use.
Comparative Susceptibility of Different Populations of Amblyomma sculptum to Rickettsia rickettsii

The bacterium Rickettsia rickettsii is the etiological agent of Brazilian spotted fever (BSF), which is transmitted in Brazil mainly by the tick Amblyomma sculptum. Herein, larvae and nymphs of six populations of A. sculptum were exposed to R. rickettsii by feeding on needle-inoculated guinea pigs, and thereafter reared on uninfected guinea pigs or rabbits. Two tick populations were exposed to autochthone R. rickettsii strains, whereas four tick populations were exposed to non-autochthone strains. The six geographically different populations of A. sculptum showed different susceptibilities to R. rickettsii, higher among the two tick populations that were exposed to their autochthone R. rickettsii strain. In addition, higher rates of transovarial transmission of R. rickettsii and vector competence success also included the two tick populations that were exposed to autochthone R. rickettsii strains. These results indicate that the susceptibility of A. sculptum to R. rickettsii varies among different tick populations, with a clear bias for higher susceptibility to an autochthone R. rickettsii strain that has already coevolved with a tick population for some time. Our results demonstrated that the R. rickettsii infection induces higher mortality of engorged larvae and nymphs, and tend to reduce the reproductive fitness of engorged females. All together, these results might explain the low R. rickettsii-infection rates of A. sculptum under natural conditions (usually <1%), and indicate that an A. sculptum population should not be able to sustain a R. rickettsii infection for successive tick generations without the creation of new cohorts of infected ticks via horizontal transmission on vertebrate rickettsemic hosts (amplifying hosts). Finally, despite of the ubiquitous distribution of A. sculptum in southeastern and central-western Brazil, most of the populations of this tick species are devoid of R. rickettsii infection. This scenario might be related to two major factors: (i) insufficient numbers of susceptible amplifying hosts; and (ii) lower susceptibilities of many tick populations. While the first factor has been demonstrated by mathematical models in previous studies, the second is highlighted by the results observed in the present study.
The War on Drugs: Estimating the Effect of Prescription Drug Supply-Side Interventions

This paper estimates the effect of supply-side interventions on prescription drug availability, abuse, and crime. I employ novel data and exploit the timing and geographic location of a crackdown on legal suppliers of pharmaceuticals in Florida, the epicenter of America's prescription drug abuse epidemic during the 2000s. Between 2010-12, nearly 600 pain clinics were shutdown. In turn, average oxycodone quantities decreased 59%, oxycodone street prices increased 238%, opioid abuse treatment admissions increased 33%, and approximately 2,000 oxycodone-related deaths were averted. Spillovers from substitution to illegal drugs were modest, with approximately 139 new heroin-related deaths and no increase in crime.
Clinical characteristics of a large cohort of US participants enrolled in the National Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Registry, 2010–2015

Abstract Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive fatal disease with a varying range of clinical characteristics. Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics in a large cohort of ALS participants enrolled in the National ALS Registry. Methods: Data from ALS participants who completed the Registry’s online clinical survey module during 2010–2015 were analyzed to determine characteristics, such as site of onset, associated symptoms, time of symptom onset to diagnosis, time of diagnosis to hospice referral, and pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. Results: Of the 1758 participants who completed the survey, 60.9% were male, 62.1% were 50–69 years old, and 95.5% white. Approximately, 72.0% reported initial limb weakness onset of disease, followed by bulbar (22.1%), and trunk/global onset (6.1%). Other symptoms ever experienced included cramps (56.7%), fasciculations (56.3%), and dysarthria (33.0%). The median time between an increase of muscle cramps until an ALS diagnosis was 12 months; limb onset participants had cramps longer preceding diagnosis versus those with bulbar onset. The most frequent interventions used included riluzole (48.3% currently using), wheelchairs/scooters (32.8%), and noninvasive breathing equipment (30.0%). Participants with trunk/global onset were referred to hospice almost four times earlier than others. Conclusions: These data show how ALS clinical characteristics differ widely in a large cohort of participants preceding diagnosis and reflect variations in disease onset, progression, and prognosis. Better characterization of symptom onset may assist clinicians in diagnosing ALS sooner, which could lead to earlier therapeutic interventions.
Variability of Temperature, pH, and Moisture in an Aerobic Composting Process

This study measured the environmental variability which exists in a commercial aerobic composting process. The specific process studied is carried out in six decomposition cells which present six different phases of the process. Temperature, pH, and moisture content were determined in several randomly chosen sample sites in each cell, both at the beginning and at the end of the time the material was left in the cell. Temperature and pH varied greatly from one sample site to another in each cell, whereas moisture content was less varied. A significant rise in both temperature and pH was observed at two stages of degradation.
Simultaneous and Continuous Estimation of Shoulder and Elbow Kinematics from Surface EMG Signals

In this paper, we present a simultaneous and continuous kinematics estimation method for multiple DoFs across shoulder and elbow joint. Although simultaneous and continuous kinematics estimation from surface electromyography (EMG) is a feasible way to achieve natural and intuitive human-machine interaction, few works investigated multi-DoF estimation across the significant joints of upper limb, shoulder and elbow joints. This paper evaluates the feasibility to estimate 4-DoF kinematics at shoulder and elbow during coordinated arm movements. Considering the potential applications of this method in exoskeleton, prosthetics and other arm rehabilitation techniques, the estimation performance is presented with different muscle activity decomposition and learning strategies. Principle component analysis (PCA) and independent component analysis (ICA) are respectively employed for EMG mode decomposition with artificial neural network (ANN) for learning the electromechanical association. Four joint angles across shoulder and elbow are simultaneously and continuously estimated from EMG in four coordinated arm movements. By using ICA (PCA) and single ANN, the average estimation accuracy 91.12% (90.23%) is obtained in 70-s intra-cross validation and 87.00% (86.30%) is obtained in 2-min inter-cross validation. This result suggests it is feasible and effective to use ICA (PCA) with single ANN for multi-joint kinematics estimation in variant application conditions.
Integrative Analysis Toward Different Glucose Tolerance-Related Gut Microbiota and Diet

Objective: There is evidence that type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is affected by gut microbiota, and gut microbiota diversity modified by diet. To investigate its modifications in Uyghur patients with different glucose tolerance, we enrolled 561 subjects: newly diagnosed T2DM (n = 145), impaired glucose regulation (IGR) patients (n = 138) and in normal control (NC) population (n = 278). Methods: The nutrient intake in food frequency questionnaire was calculated by R language. The regions V3-V4 of 16S ribosomal RNA were sequenced by using Illumina Miseq platform. Sequences were clustered by operational taxonomy units, gut microbiota composition, and diversity was analyzed. Correlations between bacterial composition at different level and dietary factors were evaluated. Results: The α-diversity was highest in NC, followed by T2DM and IGR; β-diversity distinguished between patients and NC. Compared to NC, Saccharibacteria was significantly increased in T2DM and IGR. Deferribacteres was significantly increased in T2DM compared to NC and IGR. Veillonella, Pasteurellaceae, and Haemophilus were over-represented in IGR. Abundance of Bacteroidetes was negatively correlated with LDL-C; Abundance of Tenericutes was negatively correlated with hip circumference and total cholesterol, positively correlated with HDL-C and cake intake; Actinobacteria was positively correlated with BMI and folic acid intake, negatively correlated with oil intake. Firmicutes was negatively correlated with beverage and alcohol intake. Spirochaetae was negatively correlated with fungus, fruits, beans, vitamin C, dietary fiber, and calcium. Fusobacteria was positively correlated with beans intake, and was negatively correlated with fat intake. Proteobacteria was positively correlated with tuber crops intake. Synergistetes was positively correlated with cholesterol, nicotinic acid, and selenium intake. Deferribacteres was negatively correlated with magnesium intake. Conclusions: At the phylum and genus level, the structure and diversity of intestinal microbiota of T2DM and IGR was altered, the number of OTUs, the relative abundance, and diversity were all decreased. The gut microbiota of the newly diagnosed T2DM, IGR, and NC were related to age, blood lipids, BMI, blood pressure, and dietary nutrient intake. Unbalanced nutrient intake in the three groups may affect the structure and abundance of the gut microbiota, which may play a role in the occurrence and development of T2DM.
Acculturation and Naturalization: Insights From Representative and Longitudinal Migration Studies in Germany

In recent years, Western countries have been experiencing a growing wave of immigration. Due to this development, these countries are facing great challenges in successfully integrating large numbers of immigrants and in preserving social cohesion. Research has already developed several assumptions about and models of how acculturation processes occur. The present contribution aims to investigate the relationship between the acculturation (and acculturation profiles) of immigrants and naturalization in their residence countries. Based on representative and longitudinal data, our investigation is a case study on Germany—one of the main receiving countries in recent years. Results show that acculturation in the country of residence is crucial for immigrants' motivation to take up citizenship. Likewise naturalization leads to an increase in identification with the residence country.
Rituals of outspokenness and verbal conflict

This study examines rituals of outspokenness, by analysing cases drawn from the US hidden camera show, Primetime: What Would You Do? Studying ritualistic behaviour in cases when bystanders become side participants as they stand up for victims of abuse fills a knowledge gap in pragmatics. A further merit of studying this phenomenon is that it provides insight into the reactive aspect of ritual behaviour, which is usually described in the field as a form of action rather than reaction. Furthermore, examining the morally loaded acts of rituals of outspokenness reveals the potentially complex relationship between aggression and normative behaviour.
Correlated Changes in the Activity, Amount of Protein, and Abundance of Transcript of NADPH:Protochlorophyllide Oxidoreductase and Chlorophyll Accumulation during Greening of Cucumber Cotyledons

Changes in the activity and abundance of NADPH:protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase (NPR) and the abundance of mRNA encoding it were examined during the greening of 5-d-old etiolated cucumber cotyledons under continuous illumination. To measure NPR activity in the extracts from fully greened tissues, we have developed an improved method of assay. Upon exposure of etiolated cotyledons to light, NPR activity decreased rapidly within the first 2 h of exposure. Thereafter, enzymatic activity increased transiently, reaching a submaximum level at 12 h, and decreased slowly. The level of immunodetectable NPR protein followed the same pattern of changes during 96 h of greening as observed for NPR activity. The NPR mRNA in etiolated cotyledons disappeared quickly in the 1st h of irradiation. However, the level of mRNA increased thereafter to reach 3-fold or more of the dark level at 12 h and then decreased. The changes in the activity, protein level, and mRNA level after the first rapid decreases corresponded chronologically and nearly paralleled the increase in the rate of chlorophyll accumulation. These findings suggest that the greening of cucumber cotyledons is regulated basically by the level of NPR protein without activation or repression of enzymatic activity and that NPR mRNA increased by light maintains the level of enzyme protein necessary for greening.
Diabetes mellitus type 2 is not a risk factor for aminoglycoside induced renal injury.

The aim of the study was to investigate the extent and time course of aminoglycoside (AG)-induced serum creatinine elevation in patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). This prospective study included patients with and without DM2 who were administered AG parenterally. The outcome of interest was the extent and time course of serum creatinine elevation suggestive of renal injury during AG therapy. Data were entered and analyzed using a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 16). Of 94 patients included in the study, there were 42 DM2 and 52 non-DM2 patients. There was no significant between-group difference in initial (P=0.18) and final serum creatinine (P=0.15). Furthermore, no significant difference in serum creatinine elevation was observed between patients with and without DM2 during the course of AG therapy. Eleven (26.2%) of 42 DM2 patients and 13 (25%) of 52 non-DM2 patients had an increase of ≥44.2 μmol/L in serum creatinine level during therapy (P=0.89). In DM2 group, a significant rise (P=0.04) in serum creatinine level was evident on day 4 and maximum rise (28%) from baseline value was evident on day 6 of therapy. Similar extent and time course of serum creatinine elevation was observed in non-DM2 group. In conclusion, type 2 diabetes mellitus is not a risk factor for AG-induced renal injury.
Risk factors associated with the isolation of colistin-resistant Gram-negative bacteria: A matched case-control study

Objective:The emergence of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria has led to the re-use of colistin, but resistance to this agent has already been reported. We aimed to investigate the potential risk factors for the isolation of colistin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa from hospitalized patients. Design:Matched case-control study. Setting:Tertiary care hospital in Athens, Greece. Patients:Case patients were those who had provided a clinical specimen from which a colistin-resistant K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, or P. aeruginosa was isolated. Controls were selected from a pool of patients who had susceptible to colistin isolates and were matched (1:1) to cases for species of microorganism and site of isolation. Susceptibility to colistin was determined with the Etest. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:Data regarding patient demographics, comorbidities, admission to the intensive care unit, prior antibiotic use, and invasive procedures performed were analyzed as risk factors in a matched bivariable model. Variables significantly associated with colistin-resistant isolates (p < .05) were entered in a backward multivariable logistic regression model. Forty-one colistin-resistant unique patient isolates were identified from January 1, 2006, until March 31, 2007. These isolates represented infection in 35 of 41 patients. Risk factors significantly associated with the isolation of colistin-resistant isolates were age, duration of intensive care unit stay, duration of mechanical ventilation, surgical procedures, use of colistin, use of monobactams, and duration of use of third-generation cephalosporins. In the multivariable model, use of colistin was identified as the only independent risk factor (adjusted odds ratio = 7.78, p = .002). Conclusions:Colistin-resistant K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, and P. aeruginosa pathogens may be encountered in clinical practice, in association with inappropriate colistin use. To prevent this phenomenon, colistin should be used judiciously, given that treatment options for colistin-resistant Gram-negative bacteria are limited.
The Prevention of Pain from Injection of Rocuronium by Magnesium Sulphate, Lignocaine, Sodium Bicarbonate and Alfentanil

We compared the efficacy of magnesium sulphate, lignocaine, sodium bicarbonate or alfentanil in minimizing pain due to injection of rocuronium in 250 patients. After tourniquet application on the forearm, the patients were given saline, magnesium sulphate, lignocaine, sodium bicarbonate 8.4% or alfentanil, diluted into a 3 ml solution. The occlusion was released after 20 seconds, and rocuronium was injected over 10 to 15 seconds. The patients were observed and asked immediately if they had pain in the arm and the response was assessed. Reactions such as discomfort and pain, withdrawal of the hand and screaming after the administering of the rocuronium were recorded as side-effects and patients were reassessed at 24 hours postoperatively. We concluded that magnesium sulphate, lignocaine, sodium bicarbonate or alfentanil decreased the level of rocuronium injection pain. Of these drugs, magnesium sulphate, lignocaine and sodium bicarbonate were the most effective while alfentanil was the least effective.