Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cannabis use amongst individuals with severe mental health problems : reasons for use and motivational based interventions

Motivational based approaches have been shown to be effective in reducing problematic behaviours in the general population. The present study reviewed 31 studies that aimed to reduce a number of problematic behaviours amongst individuals with severe mental health problems. Evidence supporting the efficacy of motivational based approaches in increasing adherence to medication was inconsistent. In the minority of studies where an increase in medication adherence was reported, the duration of effect appeared to decline over time. The evidence from the studies that aimed to reduce substance use was more consistent. A number of other positive outcomes were reported reductions in: dependence, general functioning and mental health symptomatology. The empirical paper presents a quantitative study that aimed to look at the reasons for cannabis use amongst individuals with and without severe mental health problems. It was found that the motivations for using cannabis did not differ between the two groups; both using cannabis to cope with negative affect, for pleasure and for social reasons. However, individuals with severe mental health problems differed in that they expected cannabis to be more ‘socially and sexually facilitative’. Irrespective of mental health status, participants who used cannabis more problematically endorsed more coping and pleasure motives.
Atherosclerotic Biomarkers and Aortic Atherosclerosis by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Framingham Heart Study

Background The relations between subclinical atherosclerosis and inflammatory biomarkers have generated intense interest but their significance remains unclear. We sought to determine the association between a panel of biomarkers and subclinical aortic atherosclerosis in a community‐based cohort. Methods and Results We evaluated 1547 participants of the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort who attended the 7th examination cycle and underwent both cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) and assays for 10 biomarkers associated with atherosclerosis: high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein, fibrinogen, intercellular adhesion molecule‐1, interleukin‐6, interleukin‐18, lipoprotein‐associated phospholipase‐A2 activity and mass, monocyte chemoattractant protein‐1, P‐selectin, and tumor necrosis factor receptor‐2. In logistic regression analysis, we found no significant association between the biomarker panel and the presence of aortic plaque (global P=0.53). Using Tobit regression with aortic plaque as a continuous variable, we noted a modest association between biomarker panel and aortic plaque volume in age‐ and sex‐adjusted analyses (P=0.003). However, this association was attenuated after further adjustment for clinical covariates (P=0.09). Conclusions In our community‐based cohort, we found no significant association between our multibiomarker panel and aortic plaque. Our results underscore the strengths and limitations of the use of biomarkers for the identification of subclinical atherosclerosis and the importance of traditional risk factors.
Drug Use and Sex Work Among At-risk Women: A Qualitative Study of Initial Factors

Background: In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in performing research on drug use and sex work among at-risk women. Although there is a well-documented literature of the initial reasons associated with drug use and sex work among women, there is, however, a paucity of information in this area in Iran. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the initial reasons associated with drug use and sex work in a group of female treatment seekers, who presented health-related risk behaviors, in Tehran, Iran. Patients and Methods: This qualitative study enrolled a total of 65 at-risk women, from five women-specific drug clinics, who participated in the study in 2011. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted. Focus group interviews were conducted with 10 key informants. All interviews were audio-taped and thematically written. The recorded data were analyzed using ATLASti qualitative research software version 10. Results: The median age of the sample was 34 years. In addition, 44.6% of subjects were opiate users, and 55.4% were users of opiates and methamphetamine. Sex work was the main source of income for almost half of the sample. The most frequently reported reasons, associated with initial drug use, were extrinsic motivations, including the drug-using family, friends or social networks. Intrinsic motivations, including curiosity and individual willingness to use drugs, were other initial reasons. The most frequently reported reasons, associated with initial sex work, included the need to purchase drugs and financial problems. Conclusions: The study findings demonstrated a number of reasons associated with initial drug use and sex work. The role of sex work in providing drugs necessitates education and prevention. Special treatment programs should be implemented to prevent sex work among at-risk women in Iran.
Alleviation of postanesthetic hypoxemia in the horse.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of the nasotracheal insufflation of oxygen at a flow rate of 15 L/min on the arterial partial pressure of oxygen during the recovery period following inhalation anesthesia in the horse. It has been stated that this is a suitable flow rate to prevent postoperative hypoxemia but without any experimental evidence to support those statements. Horses being used for the study of healing of cartilage were anesthetized on two separate occasions. Following one period of anesthesia they were allowed to recover breathing room air, and following the other period of anesthesia oxygen was insufflated into the trachea at 15 L/min throughout the recovery period. This permitted each horse to act as its own control and allowed statistical analysis using Student's t-test for paired samples.The insufflated horses had a higher arterial partial pressure of oxygen during the recovery period than did the noninsufflated horses (p < 0.05).
The Selection and Validation of Output Sound Pressure Level in Multichannel Hearing Aids

Objective To validate the Australian National Acoustic Laboratories’ (NAL) procedure for prescribing output sound pressure level (OSPL) for multichannel hearing aids (Dillon & Storey, 1998) Design The NAL OSPL prescriptive procedure for multichannel hearing aids was used to calculate Predicted OSPL, Predicted Maximum Acceptable OSPL and Predicted Minimum Acceptable OSPL for 20 subjects with sensorineural hearing loss fitted with a 2-channel linear hearing aid. Subjects rated the speech clarity and quality of average (65 dBA) and loud (80 dBA) speech, in quiet and in noise, with the hearing aid set to a number of OSPL settings. These data were used to evaluate the validity of the Predicted OSPL. Frequency-specific loudness discomfort levels (LDLs) were measured to determine whether use of measured LDLs would improve the accuracy of the prediction. Results The Predicted Minimum Acceptable OSPL was in good agreement with the measured minimum acceptable OSPL for both the low- and high-frequency channels. The Predicted Maximum Acceptable OSPL was in good agreement with the measured maximum acceptable OSPL for the low-frequency channel, but was only a fair predictor for the high-frequency channel. The use of measured LDLs rather than predicted LDLs did little to improve the accuracy of the fitting. A direct comparison between the NAL single-channel and multichannel prescribed OSPL settings showed that most listeners rated speech clarity higher for the multichannel settings. Conclusions In two channel hearing aids, the NAL Predicted Minimum Acceptable OSPL and Predicted Maximum Acceptable OSPL are reasonable predictors of minimum and maximum OSPL levels measured using sound clarity and quality ratings. The results of this study support the use of the NAL prescriptive formula for setting OSPL in multichannel hearing aids. Such settings should be verified by having the listener rate the loudness of an intense speech signal. If tolerance problems are evident, the OSPL in the high-frequency channel(s) should be reduced first.
Hiwi Mediated Tumorigenesis Is Associated with DNA Hypermethylation

Expression of Piwi proteins is confined to early development and stem cells during which they suppress transposon migration via DNA methylation to ensure genomic stability. Piwi's genomic protective function conflicts with reports that its human ortholog, Hiwi, is expressed in numerous cancers and prognosticates shorter survival. However, the role of Hiwi in tumorigenesis has not been examined. Here we demonstrate that (1) over-expressing Hiwi in sarcoma precursors inhibits their differentiation in vitro and generates sarcomas in vivo; (2) transgenic mice expressing Hiwi (mesodermally restricted) develop sarcomas; and (3) inducible down-regulation of Hiwi in human sarcomas inhibits growth and re-establishes differentiation. Our data indicates that Hiwi is directly tumorigenic and Hiwi-expressing cancers may be addicted to Hiwi expression. We further show that Hiwi associated DNA methylation and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI) silencing is reversible along with Hiwi-induced tumorigenesis, via DNA-methyltransferase inhibitors. Our studies reveal for the first time not only a novel oncogenic role for Hiwi as a driver of tumorigenesis, but also suggest that the use of epigenetic agents may be clinically beneficial for treatment of tumors that express Hiwi. Additionally, our data showing that Hiwi-associated DNA hyper-methylation with subsequent genetic and epigenetic changes favoring a tumorigenic state reconciles the conundrum of how Hiwi may act appropriately to promote genomic integrity during early development (via transposon silencing) and inappropriately in adult tissues with subsequent tumorigenesis.
SAF-Box, a Conserved Protein Domain That Specifically Recognizes Scaffold Attachment Region DNA

ABSTRACT SARs (scaffold attachment regions) are candidate DNA elements for partitioning eukaryotic genomes into independent chromatin loops by attaching DNA to proteins of a nuclear scaffold or matrix. The interaction of SARs with the nuclear scaffold is evolutionarily conserved and appears to be due to specific DNA binding proteins that recognize SARs by a mechanism not yet understood. We describe a novel, evolutionarily conserved protein domain that specifically binds to SARs but is not related to SAR binding motifs of other proteins. This domain was first identified in human scaffold attachment factor A (SAF-A) and was thus designated SAF-Box. The SAF-Box is present in many different proteins ranging from yeast to human in origin and appears to be structurally related to a homeodomain. We show here that SAF-Boxes from four different origins, as well as a synthetic SAF-Box peptide, bind to natural and artificial SARs with high specificity. Specific SAR binding of the novel domain is achieved by an unusual mass binding mode, is sensitive to distamycin but not to chromomycin, and displays a clear preference for long DNA fragments. This is the first characterization of a specific SAR binding domain that is conserved throughout evolution and has DNA binding properties that closely resemble that of the unfractionated nuclear scaffold.
Electrostatic funneling of substrate in mitochondrial inner membrane carriers

Exchange of ATP and ADP across mitochondrial membrane replenishes the cytoplasm with newly synthesized ATP and provides the mitochondria with the substrate ADP for oxidative phosphorylation. The sole means of this exchange is the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier (AAC), a membrane protein that is suggested to cycle between two conformationally distinct states, cytosolic-open (c-state) and matrix-open (m-state), thereby shuttling nucleotides across the inner mitochondrial membrane. However, the c-state is the only structurally resolved state, and the binding site of ADP remains elusive. Here, we present ≈0.3 μs of all-atom MD simulations of the c-state revealing rapid, spontaneous binding of ADP to deeply positioned binding sites within the AAC lumen. To our knowledge, a complete ligand-binding event has heretofore not been described in full atomic detail in unbiased simulations. The identified ADP-bound state and additional simulations shed light on key structural elements and the initial steps involved in conversion to the m-state. Electrostatic analysis of trajectories reveals the presence of an unusually strong positive electrostatic potential in the lumen of AAC that appears to be the main driving force for the observed spontaneous binding of ADP. We provide evidence that the positive electrostatic potential is likely a common attribute among the entire family of mitochondrial carriers. In addition to playing a key role in substrate recruitment and translocation, the electropositivity of mitochondrial carriers might also be critical for their binding to the negatively charged environment of the inner mitochondrial membrane.
Does Botox Buffer the Negative Effects of Social Rejection?: A Test of the Facial Feedback Hypothesis

OF THESIS DOES BOTOX BUFFER THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL REJECTION? : A TEST OF THE FACIAL FEEDBACK HYPOTHESIS Can a common facial cosmetic procedure buffer against the negative impact of adverse social interactions? This pilot tested the hypothesis that an injection of botulinum toxin (Botox) to the corrugator supercilii muscles used in anger, compared to a placebo injection to the same location, will reduce the impact of social rejection on mood, selfesteem, control, meaningful existence, and aggression. Freezing facial musculature was hypothesized to alter the first physical signal of negative emotional reactions, thereby reducing the impact of social rejection on distress and aggression. This was the first study using Botox to examine the effects of reduced facial feedback on felt emotions during social interactions. While the findings in this pilot were not statistically significant, a trend in the data suggests that the effect was in the opposite direction of the prediction such that participants in the Botox (vs. saline) condition experienced greater feelings of rejection. Further investigation is needed.
Multi-level language modeling and decoding for open vocabulary end-to-end speech recognition

We propose a combination of character-based and word-based language models in an end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR) architecture. In our prior work, we combined a character-based LSTM RNN-LM with a hybrid attention/connectionist temporal classification (CTC) architecture. The character LMs improved recognition accuracy to rival state-of-the-art DNN/HMM systems in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese tasks. Although a character-based architecture can provide for open vocabulary recognition, the character-based LMs generally under-perform relative to word LMs for languages such as English with a small alphabet, because of the difficulty of modeling Linguistic constraints across long sequences of characters. This paper presents a novel method for end-to-end ASR decoding with LMs at both the character and word level. Hypotheses are first scored with the character-based LM until a word boundary is encountered. Known words are then re-scored using the word-based LM, while the character-based LM provides for out-of-vocabulary scores. In a standard Wall Street Journal (WSJ) task, we achieved 5.6 % WER for the Eval'92 test set using only the SI284 training set and WSJ text data, which is the best score reported for end-to-end ASR systems on this benchmark.
Topology Mapping for Blue Gene/L Supercomputer

Mapping virtual processes onto physical processors is one of the most important issues in parallel computing. The problem of mapping of processes/tasks onto processors is equivalent to the graph embedding problem which has been studied extensively. Although many techniques have been proposed for embeddings of two-dimensional grids, hypercubes, etc., there are few efforts on embeddings of three-dimensional grids and tori. Motivated for better support of task mapping for Blue Gene/L supercomputer, in this paper, we present embedding and integration techniques for the embeddings of three-dimensional grids and tori. The topology mapping library that based on such techniques generates high-quality embeddings of two/three-dimensional grids/tori. In addition, the library is used in BG/L MPI library for scalable support of MPI topology functions. With extensive empirical studies on large scale systems against popular benchmarks and real applications, we demonstrate that the library can significantly improve the communication performance and the scalability of applications
Robust MPC of constrained discrete-time nonlinear systems based on zonotopes

A robust MPC for constrained nonlinear system with uncertainties is presented. Uncertain evolution sets are used to predict the evolution of the system under any admisible uncertainty. The robust stability is guaranteed by a terminal and contractive constraint that drives the system to a robust positively invariant set. A new method to calculate the uncertain evolution sets is used. The method uses zonotopes to represent the uncertain sets.
Risk and protective factors related to HIV-risk behavior: A comparison between HIV-positive and HIV-negative young men who have sex with men

Abstract The objective of this study was to assess and compare the prevalence of high-risk sexual behaviors among young HIV-negative (n=8064) and HIV-positive (n=171) men who have sex with men (MSM) on predictors of unprotected anal intercourse (UAI). Using venue-based time-space sampling, 8235 MSM aged 15–25 were anonymously surveyed as a part of the Community Intervention Trial for Youth (CITY). The Project was conducted in 13 communities across the USA from 1999 to 2002. Forty percent of HIV-positive men and 34% of HIV-negative men reported that they had UAI in the previous 3 months. HIV-positive MSM were more likely than their uninfected peers to have traded sex within the previous year, to have had sex while high during their last sexual encounter, and to have UAI with a greater number of partners. Multivariate analyses indicated that for HIV-negative men, positive peer norms regarding safer sex and being Black or Latino predicted avoidance of UAI. Among HIV-positive men, having social support for safer sex and positive peer norms predicted avoidance of UAI. Young HIV-positive MSM are a relevant subgroup for prevention because they constitute a significant source from which future infections could be generated.
Differential contributions of transcallosal sensorimotor fiber tract structure and neurophysiologic function to manual motor control in young and older adults

Recent studies have demonstrated neuroanatomically selective relationships between white matter tract microstructure, physiological function and task performance. Such findings suggest that the microstructure of transcallosal motor fibers may reflect the capacity for interhemispheric inhibition between the primary motor cortices, although full characterization of the transcallosal inhibitory sensorimotor network is lacking. Thus, the goal of the current study was to provide a comprehensive description of transcallosal fibers connecting homologous sensorimotor cortical regions and to identify the relationship(s) between fiber tract microstructure and interhemispheric inhibition during voluntary cortical activity. To this end, I assessed microstructure of fiber tracts connecting homologous sensorimotor regions of the cortex with diffusion tensor imaging. I also quantified interhemispheric inhibition by eliciting the ipsilateral silent period (iSP) within the same participants. I mapped mutually exclusive transcallosal connections between homologous sensorimotor regions and computed quantitative metrics of each fiber tract. Paralleling work in non-human primates I found the greatest interhemispheric
Articulation strength - readability experiments with a synthetic talking face

A series of perceptual experiments with a parametrically controlled synthetic talking face was performed in order to investigate how a global scaling of the amplitude of the articulatory movements (articulation strength) affects audiovisual intelligibility. In an informal preference test with hearing-impaired subjects, a slight over-articulation compared to the default articulation strength (by 24% on the average) was preferred. In a VCV-test with normal hearing persons, it was shown that a reduction of articulatory strength by 25% reduced intelligibility of consonants in rounded contexts. Increasing the articulatory strength by the same amount did not make a significant contribution to intelligibility. A preference test was also performed where normal hearing subjects were asked which rendition of the face looked the most natural. A preference for the face with 25% reduced articulation was found.
The Membrane Anchor R7BP Controls the Proteolytic Stability of the Striatal Specific RGS Protein, RGS9-2*♦

A member of the RGS (regulators of G protein signaling) family, RGS9-2 is a critical regulator of G protein signaling pathways that control locomotion and reward signaling in the brain. RGS9-2 is specifically expressed in striatal neurons where it forms complexes with its newly discovered partner, R7BP (R7 family binding protein). Interaction with R7BP is important for the subcellular targeting of RGS9-2, which in native neurons is found in plasma membrane and its specializations, postsynaptic densities. Here we report that R7BP plays an additional important role in determining proteolytic stability of RGS9-2. We have found that co-expression with R7BP dramatically elevates the levels of RGS9-2 and its constitutive subunit, Gβ5. Measurement of the RGS9-2 degradation kinetics in cells indicates that R7BP markedly reduces the rate of RGS9-2·Gβ5 proteolysis. Lentivirus-mediated RNA interference knockdown of the R7BP expression in native striatal neurons results in the corresponding decrease in RGS9-2 protein levels. Analysis of the molecular determinants that mediate R7BP/RGS9-2 binding to result in proteolytic protection have identified that the binding site for R7BP in RGS proteins is formed by pairing of the DEP (Disheveled, EGL-10, Pleckstrin) domain with the R7H (R7 homology), a domain of previously unknown function that interacts with four putative α-helices of the R7BP core. These findings provide a mechanism for the regulation of the RGS9 protein stability in the striatal neurons.
Placing Sites on the Edge of Planar Silicon Microelectrodes Enhances Chronic Recording Functionality

Objective: This study aims to identify the impact of using edge sites over center sites on a planar silicon microelectrode array. Methods: We used custom-designed, silicon-substrate multisite microelectrode arrays with sites on the center, edge, and tip. We compared their single unit recording capability, noise level, impedance, and histology to identify the differences between each site location. Wide and narrow devices were used to evaluate if the differences are consistent and meet theoretical expectations. Results: On the wide device, significantly more number of edge sites were functional than center sites over the course of 8 weeks with generally higher signal-to-noise amplitude ratio. On the narrow device, edge sites also performed generally better than center sites, but the differences were not significant and smaller than wide devices. The data from the tip sites were inconclusive. Conclusion: Edge sites outperformed center sites in terms of single unit recording capability. This benefit decreased as the device gets narrower and the distance to center sites decreases. Significance: We showed that a simple alteration to the site placement can greatly enhance the functionality of silicon microelectrodes. This study promotes the idea that not only the substrate but also the site architecture needs attention to lengthen the lifetime of neural implants.