Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seasonal glucocorticoid production correlates with a suite of small-magnitude environmental, demographic, and physiological effects in mandrills.

OBJECTIVES The activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is a neuroendocrine response to external and internal changes that animals face on a predictable or unpredictable basis. Across species, variation in glucocorticoid production has been related to such changes. In this study, we investigated the predictable, seasonal sources of variation in the levels of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGCM) in a large natural population of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) in Southern Gabon. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using five years of regular behavioral monitoring and hormone analyses performed on 1,233 fecal samples collected on 99 individuals of both sexes and all ages and General Linear Mixed Models, we studied the three main seasonal predictors of fGCM concentrations: (i) weather conditions, (ii) number of adult males, and (iii) female reproductive status. These three predictors all vary seasonally in mandrills. RESULTS We first showed an increase in fGCM concentrations during the short dry season while controlling for other factors. Pregnant females, which include the large majority of adult females at this time of the year, mainly drove this increase, although a combination of other small-magnitude, season-related effects linked to climatic events and demographic changes also partly explained this seasonal trend. Indeed, fGCM concentrations increased with both low temperatures (and low rainfall) and high numbers of adult males present in the group. These seasonal changes, while correlated, held true throughout the studied years and when restricting our analyses to a given season. Finally, we found that older mandrills showed on average higher fGCM concentrations than younger ones and that medium-ranked females exhibited the highest levels of fGCMs. DISCUSSION The observed patterns suggest that plasticity in mandrills' metabolism in the form of glucocorticoid production allows them to adjust to predictable changes in climatic, demographic and physiological conditions by mobilizing and redirecting energetic resources toward appropriate, calibrated seasonal responses.
Serum S100--a marker for disease monitoring in metastatic melanoma.

BACKGROUND S100 proteins are low-molecular-weight calcium-binding proteins and appear to play an important role in various cellular processes such as cell division and differentiation. In histopathology, S100 is widely accepted as the marker of choice for immunohistochemical identification of malignant melanoma. When S100 was detected in the serum of patients with malignant melanoma, it was suggested that serum S100 may be a useful marker for the stage of disease. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine serum S100 concentrations of patients with different stages of malignant melanoma and to determine the value of serum S100 in the follow-up of melanoma patients during treatment. METHODS Sera were obtained from 73 melanoma patients in different stages of the disease. The control group consisted of 130 healthy subjects. In 4 patients with metastatic melanoma, serum S100 was measured serially. Serum levels were measured by a commercially available immunoradiometric assay. RESULTS While only 1 out of 25 stage I/II patients and 3 of 14 patients with lymph node metastases (stage III, 21.4%) showed detectable serum S100 levels, 27 of 34 patients with disseminated disease (stage IV, 79.4%) had elevated serum S100. Interestingly, rising levels of serum S100 in the serial measurement indicated progression of the disease, and a complete decline reflected 2 patient remissions. CONCLUSION The data support the value of serum S100 as a clinical marker for progression of metastatic melanoma and serological monitoring during systemic therapies.
Melatonin application in targeting oxidative‐induced liver injuries: A review

It is believed that oxidative stress is a key causing factor of liver damage induced by a variety of agents, and it is a major contributing factor in almost all conditions compromising liver function, including ischemia–reperfusion injury (IRI), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), liver fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver is the organ that high concentration of melatonin (N‐acetyl‐5‐methoxytryptamine) accumulates, and it is the sole organ where circulating melatonin is metabolized. Melatonin is one of the best antioxidants that protects liver, and its metabolites also have antioxidative function. Melatonin exerts its antioxidative function directly through its radical scavenging ability and indirectly through stimulation of antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidative response from melatonin in liver affects from various factors, including its dosage, route, time and duration of administration, the type of oxidative‐induced agent and species aging. This indoleamine is also an effective and promising antioxidative choice for targeting liver IRI, NAFLD, NASH, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and HCC.
Diffusion-Weighted Imaging of Brain Metastasis from Lung Cancer: Correlation of MRI Parameters with the Histologic Type and Gene Mutation Status

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Development of noninvasive imaging biomarkers indicating the histology and the gene mutation status of brain metastasis from lung cancer is important. We aimed to investigate diffusion-weighted imaging parameters as predictors of the histology and gene mutations of brain metastasis from lung cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DWI data for 74 patients with brain metastasis from lung cancer were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were first grouped according to the primary tumor histology (adenocarcinoma, small-cell lung cancer, squamous cell carcinoma), and those with adenocarcinoma were further divided into epidermal growth factor receptor (EFGR) mutation–positive and wild type groups. Sex; age; number, size, and location of brain metastasis; DWI visual scores; the minimum ADC; and the normalized ADC ratio were compared among groups using χ2 and ANOVA. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to determine independent predictors of the EGFR mutation. RESULTS: The minimum ADC was lower in the small-cell lung cancer group than in the other 2 groups, though the difference was not significant. Furthermore, minimum ADC and the normalized ADC ratio were significantly lower in the EGFR mutation–positive group than in the wild type group (P = .021 and .014, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that minimum ADC and the normalized ADC ratio were independently associated with the EGFR mutation status (P = .028 and .021, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that DWI parameters (minimum ADC and normalized ADC ratio) for the solid components of brain metastasis from lung cancer are not correlated with their histology, whereas they can predict the EGFR mutation status in brain metastasis from lung adenocarcinoma.
Relationships Between Impulsivity, Anxiety, and Risk-Taking and the Neural Correlates of Attention in Adolescents

ABSTRACT Although impulsivity, anxiety, and risk-taking may relate to attentional processes, little research has directly investigated how each may be associated with specific facets of attentional processes and their underlying neural correlates. Nineteen adolescents performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging task involving simple, selective, and divided attention. Out-of-scanner-assessed impulsivity, anxiety, and risk-taking scores were not correlated with each other and showed task-phase-specific patterns of association. Results are discussed in light of research and theory suggesting a relationship between these domains and attention and may serve to focus future research aiming to understand these relationships.
Clinical Application of the Bardex IC Foley Catheter

Objectives: We performed two randomized prospective studies with the silver-coated Bardex IC catheter in order to evaluate the incidence of bacteriuria during short- and medium-term catheterization after urological procedures. Methods: During catheterization only consecutive suprapubic urine samples were taken and cultured. After removal of the catheter the patient was allowed one wash-out void, and before the second micturition a suprapubic puncture was performed to collect a culture specimen. Results: In the first trial, after radical prostatectomy 18 patients with the Bardex IC catheter were compared to 17 patients with a silicon catheter after the same procedure. There was no significant difference in bacteriuria after 14 days (50.0 vs. 53.3%). In the second part of the study 180 patients were evaluated 101 with latex and 79 with Bardex IC catheters. The median catheterization time was 5 days. The results show a significant delay in the onset of bacteriuria when a silver alloy catheter is used (p < 0.003). On day 5 only 6.3% had bacteriuria in the Bardex IC group versus 11.9% in the latex group. Conclusion: We conclude that, after urological procedures, short-term catheterization with the Bardex IC catheter is superior to the classical latex catheter.
Predicting Amino Acid Substitution Probabilities Using Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms

Fast genome sequencing offers invaluable opportunities for building updated and improved models of protein sequence evolution. We here show that Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) can be used to build a model capable of predicting the probability of substitution between amino acids in variants of the same protein in different species. The model is based on a substitution matrix inferred from the frequency of codon interchanges observed in a suitably selected subset of human SNPs, and predicts the substitution probabilities observed in alignments between Homo sapiens and related species at 85–100% of sequence identity better than any other approach we are aware of. The model gradually loses its predictive power at lower sequence identity. Our results suggest that SNPs can be employed, together with multiple sequence alignment data, to model protein sequence evolution. The SNP-based substitution matrix developed in this work can be exploited to better align protein sequences of related organisms, to refine the estimate of the evolutionary distance between protein variants from related species in phylogenetic trees and, in perspective, might become a useful tool for population analysis.
Tele-Interpersonal Psychotherapy Acutely Reduces Depressive Symptoms in Depressed HIV-Infected Rural Persons: A Randomized Clinical Trial

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive rural individuals carry a 1.3-times greater risk of a depressive diagnosis than their urban counterparts. This randomized clinical trial tested whether telephone-administered interpersonal psychotherapy (tele-IPT) acutely relieved depressive symptoms in 132 HIV-infected rural persons from 28 states diagnosed with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV major depressive disorder (MDD), partially remitted MDD, or dysthymic disorder. Patients were randomized to either 9 sessions of one-on-one tele-IPT (n = 70) or standard care (SC; n = 62). A series of intent-to-treat (ITT), therapy completer, and sensitivity analyses assessed changes in depressive symptoms, interpersonal problems, and social support from pre- to postintervention. Across all analyses, tele-IPT patients reported significantly lower depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems than SC controls; 22% of tele-IPT patients were categorized as a priori “responders” who reported 50% or higher reductions in depressive symptoms compared to only 4% of SC controls in ITT analyses. Brief tele-IPT acutely decreased depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems in depressed rural people living with HIV.
Defining the clinical relevance of red blood cell autoantibodies by Monocyte Monolayer Assay

The Monocyte Monolayer Assay (MMA) is an in vitro simulation of red blood cell (RBC) alloantibody behavior. It has been classically applied to predict the risks of post‐transfusion hemolytic reactions when transfusing incompatible RBC units. Quantifying erythrophagocytosis by MMA may be an interesting option for situations where there is doubt whether a RBC autoantibody is mediating significant hemolysis. Here, we present three situations involving RBC autoantibodies in which the MMA was decisive for clarifying the diagnosis and choosing the best clinical treatment.
Gene expression of hypothalamic somatostatin and growth hormone-releasing hormone in dexamethasone-treated rats.

Supraphysiological doses of glucocorticoids inhibit growth hormone (GH) secretion in man and experimental animals. We investigated whether glucocorticoids inhibit GH secretion through changes in the gene expression of GH, hypothalamic somatostatin (SS) and GH-releasing hormone (GHRH), and whether such changes vary with the dose and duration of glucocorticoid excess. Male rats, 6 weeks of age, were treated with injections of either saline or different doses of dexamethasone (40, 200, 500 or 1,000 micrograms/kg/day) intraperitoneally for 3 or 8 days. Total RNA extracted from the anterior pituitary and hypothalamus was analyzed by Northern blot hybridization. SS mRNA level was also assessed in smaller hypothalamic fragments containing predominantly the periventricular and paraventricular nuclei, and by in situ hybridization. A biphasic effect on SS mRNA levels was observed such that a significant increase (p < 0.001) was demonstrated in the periventricular nucleus after 3 days of dexamethasone 1,000 micrograms/kg/day, but a reduction in hypothalamic SS mRNA was seen after 8 days for all doses employed (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). On the other hand, hypothalamic GHRH mRNA levels showed a reduction which appeared to increase with the dose and duration of treatment and became statistically significant after 8 days at doses > or = 200 micrograms/kg/day (p < 0.05). Pituitary GH mRNA levels were increased after 3 days at doses > or = 500 micrograms/kg/day (p < 0.05) but showed no significant change at all doses after 8 days. We conclude that glucocorticoid excess is associated with changes in the gene expression of GH, hypothalamic SS and GHRH, which vary with the dose and duration of glucocorticoid treatment. Glucocorticoids inhibit GH secretion in vivo through a reduction in hypothalamic GHRH gene expression and, in animals with shorter duration of glucocorticoid excess also through an increase in SS gene expression in the periventricular nucleus.
Incentive Mechanism Design in Mobile Opportunistic Data Collection With Time Sensitivity

Mobile crowdsensing systems aim at providing various novel sensing applications by recruiting pervasive users with mobile devices, which are now equipped with enriched built-in sensors (e.g., GPS, microphone, camera, gyroscope, accelerometer, etc.). A key factor to enable such systems is substantial participation of large amount of mobile users. In this paper, we focus on the data collection in mobile opportunistic crowdsensing, where the data can be transferred between mobile users via opportunistic device-to-device communications. The goal is to deliver the sensed data from the collector to the corresponding requester, which can maximize the collector’s rewards. Here, we assume that the data collection has time-sensitive characteristics, i.e., the reward is time-sensitive. We consider selfish mobile users with rational behaviors, and propose a credit-based incentive-aware mechanism to stimulate mobile users to participate in data collection for mobile opportunistic crowdsensing. Particularly, we propose an effective mechanism to define the expected rewards for the sensed data, and formulate the sensed data trading as a two-person cooperative game, whose solution is obtained through the Nash bargaining theory. Extensive simulations based on both synthetic and real-world mobility traces are conducted to validate the efficiency of our incentive-aware mechanisms.
Synchrotron Radiation Maps from Relativistic MHD Jet Simulations

Relativistic jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) often display a non-uniform structure and are, under certain conditions, susceptible to a number of instabilities. An interesting example is the development of non-axisymmetric, Rayleigh-Taylor type instabilities in the case of differentially rotating two-component jets, with the toroidal component of the magnetic field playing a key role in the development or suppression of these instabilities. We have shown that higher magnetization leads to stability against these non-axisymmetric instabilities. Using ray-casting on data from relativistic MHD simulations of two-component jets, we now investigate the effect of these instabilities on the synchrotron emission pattern from the jets. We recover many well known trends from actual observations, e.g., regarding the polarization fraction and the distribution of the position angle of the electric field, in addition to a different emitting region, depending on the stability of the jet.
Chronic subjective dizziness: Analysis of underlying personality factors.

BACKGROUND Chronic subjective dizziness (CSD) is characterized by persistent dizziness, unsteadiness, and hypersensitivity to one's own motion or exposure to complex visual stimuli. CSD may be triggered, in predisposed individuals with specific personality traits, by acute vestibular diseases. CSD is also thought to arise from failure to re-establish normal balance strategies after resolution of acute vestibular events which may be modulated by diathesis to develop anxiety and depression. OBJECTIVE To confirm the role of personality traits linked to anxiety and depression (i.e., neuroticism, introversion, low openness) as predisposing factors for CSD and to evaluate how individual differences in these personality traits are associated with CSD severity. METHODS We compared 19 CSD patients with 24 individuals who had suffered from periferal vestibular disorders (PVD) (i.e., Benign Paroxysmal Postural Vertigo or Vestibular Neuritis) but had not developed CSD as well as with 25 healthy controls (HC) in terms of personality traits, assessed via the NEO-PI-R questionnaire. RESULTS CSD patients, relative to PVD patients and HCs, scored higher on the anxiety facet of neuroticism. Total neuroticism scores were also significantly associated with dizziness severity in CSD patients but not PVD patients. CONCLUSIONS Pre-existing anxiety-related personality traits may promote and sustain the initial etiophatogenetic mechanisms linked with the development of CSD. Targeting anxiety-related mechanisms in CSD may be therefore a promising way to reduce the disability associated with CSD.
Aerodynamic modelling of quasi steady stall using neural-network based Gauss Newton method

The maximum likelihood estimators are commonly used in the estimation of aerodynamic model coefficients but, their performance depends on the initial guess values and the noise level of the data. Some of its variants are iterative in nature hence, computational cost is higher. An alternative investigation is performed with the artificial neural network (ANN) where an accurate non-linear mapping is produced with the input-output dataset. And further, the trained network is utilized in the Gauss-Newton based optimization process to estimate the optimal paramters. Our objective of the research is to produce an optimal neural network for non-linear mapping of the quasi steady stall data of aircraft and further, used it to estimate the aerodynamic coefficients. Finally, the validation of the estimates is presented with their Cramer-Rao bounds.
Language lateralization of a bilingual person with epilepsy using a combination of fMRI and neuropsychological assessment findings

ABSTRACT This report describes the findings of language functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a left-handed Urdu and English speaker with right hemisphere-originating epilepsy and unclear language dominance. fMRI is a reliable method for determining hemispheric language dominance in presurgical planning. However, the effects of bilingualism on language activation depend on many factors including age of acquisition and proficiency in the tested language, and morphological properties of the language itself. This case demonstrates that completing fMRI in both spoken languages and interpreting the results within the context of a neuropsychological assessment are essential in arriving at accurate conclusions about language distribution in bilingual patients.
Approach to inguinal hernia in high-risk geriatric patients: Should it be elective or emergent?

BACKGROUND Elderly patients are more prone to have inguinal hernia due to weakened abdominal musculature. However, surgical repair of inguinal hernia (SRIH) may not be performed or may be delayed due to greater risk in presence of comorbidities. Present study is investigation of outcome of elective and emergency SRIH in geriatric patients. METHODS Records of total of 384 high-risk (American Society of Anesthesiology classification III-IV) patients aged >65 years who underwent SRIH between January 2010 and December 2014 were reviewed. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to procedure type: elective (Group EL) or emergency (Group EM). Demographic features and surgical and postoperative period data of 2 groups were recorded and compared. RESULTS Demographic data were similar, but number of ASA IV patients was greater in Group EM. Frequency of intestinal resection was significantly greater in emergency surgery group (1% vs 21%; p<0.01). Length of hospital stay (1.3 days vs 7.9 days; p<0.01) and intensive care unit stay (0.17 days vs 4.04 days; p<0.01) were also greater in Group EM. Morbidity (1% vs 24%; p<0.01) and mortality (0.3% vs 11%; p<0.01) were also significantly higher in Group EM compared to elective SRIH group. CONCLUSION Emergency inguinal hernia surgery is associated with significantly higher morbidity and mortality compared with elective SRIH in high-risk geriatric patients. Elective hernia repair in these patients should be considered to reduce risk of need for intestinal resection as well as length of hospital stay.
Multiple origins of parasitic feminization: thelygeny and intersexuality in beach-hoppers are caused by paramyxid parasites, not microsporidia

SUMMARY Within populations of the amphipod crustaceans Orchestia gammarellus and Orchestia aestuarensis, a proportion of females produce thelygenic (female-only) broods, which often contain intersexual individuals. This phenomenon is associated with the presence of two putative feminizing parasites, the paramyxid Paramarteilia orchestiae and the microsporidian Dictyocoela cavimanum, which frequently co-infect the same host. In order to determine which of the parasites causes feminization, Orchestia were resampled from the type locality of P. orchestiae in France and from another population in the UK. Breeding experiments indicated that female O. gammarellus infected with P. orchestiae produced a significantly higher proportion of female and intersex offspring than uninfected females, even in the absence of D. cavimanum. There was no difference in mortality between infected and uninfected broods, indicating that the paramyxid alters the sex ratio through feminization rather than male-killing. Although D. cavimanum also displays a female-biased prevalence in Orchestia populations, this is due to co-infection with P. orchestiae, indicating that the paramyxid, rather than the microsporidian, is the cause of feminization in these Orchestia populations.