Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anatomical and Functional Characterization of the Ventral Hippocampus in a Rodent Model of Schizophrenia Neuropathology

Anatomical and Functional Characterization of the Ventral Hippocampus in a Rodent Model of Schizophrenia Neuropathology Kelley Elizabeth Remole Schizophrenia is a debilitating, life-long illness with a still-unknown, complex etiology and, currently, no cure. Many studies have implicated the hippocampus and the parahippocampal region as a place of both primary pathology in the disease and as regions correlated to symptom severity. To better understand the pathophysiology of the region and potentially uncover mechanisms of the disease, the appropriate choice of an animal model is essential. The “MAM E17” model of hippocampal pathology shows anatomical, neurophysiological, and behavioral changes relevant to schizophrenia. Because of these wide-ranging disease-relevant changes, we aimed to relate anatomical to neurophysiological phenotypes in this model. We also performed experiments to assess the feasibility and validity of transferring the MAM E17 model to the mouse in order enable future studies of the genetic basis of the vulnerability or resilience to MAM. In adult offspring of rats exposed to to methylazoxymethanol (MAM) at embryonic day 17 (E17), we found changes in regional hippocampal anatomy and subicular pyramidal cell morphology with homology to abnormalities reported in schizophrenia. Specifically, we found a decrease in dendritic spine density in specific regions of the dendrite of ventral subicular neurons. At the neurophysiological level, we observed abnormalities in afferent-evoked synaptic responses in the ventral subiculum. These changes were not however, accompanied by changes in in vivo spontaneous spike activity in subicular neurons . In the mouse, MAM was found to have much less impact on brain development, as observed at the gross morphological level. However, these mice showed an increased sensitivity to some psychostimulants and a weak trend for metabolic abnormalities relevant to schizophrenia. We conclude from the rat studies that prenatal disruption of brain development by MAM at E17 in the rat, a manipulation that leads to a profile of gross anatomical and cognitive deficits relevant to schizophrenia, also leads to „dysconnectivity‟ between the ventral subiculum and its inputs. While further work is needed to understand this, we speculate that this synaptic dysconnectivity may contribute to the cognitive deficits in this model and, further, may model an aspect of hippocampal pathophysiology in schizophrenia. A better understanding of these circuits could point to new strategies for treating this disease.
Adding Affine Invariant Geometric Constraint for Partial-Duplicate Image Retrieval

The spring up of large numbers of partial-duplicate images on the internet brings a new challenge to the image retrieval systems. Rather than taking the image as a whole, researchers bundle the local visual words by MSER detector into groups and add simple relative ordering geometric constraint to the bundles. Experiments show that bundled features become much more discriminative than single feature. However, the weak geometric constraint is only applicable when there is no significant rotation between duplicate images and it couldn’t handle the circumstances of image flip or large rotation transformation. In this paper, we improve the bundled features with an affine invariant geometric constraint. It employs area ratio invariance property of affine transformation to build the affine invariant matrix for bundled visual words. Such affine invariant geometric constraint can cope well with flip, rotation or other transformations. Experimental results on the internet partial-duplicate image database verify the promotion it brings to the original bundled features approach. Since currently there is no available public corpus for partial-duplicate image retrieval, we also publish our dataset for future studies.
Ventricular Fibrillation Detection using Empirical Mode Decomposition and Approximate Entropy

Efficient detection of ventricular fibrillation is very important for clinical purposes as it is the most serious cardiac rhythm disturbance that can be life threatening. This paper presents a new method for detection of Ventricular fibrillation by discriminating it with Ventricular tachycardia using empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and Approximate Entropy. First Intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) of each ECG signal is used to distinct between them by calculating their approximate Entropy. We have used MIT/BIH database to validate the efficiency of our method. Simulations were carried out in MATLAB environment. The result shows that this method gives good result as accuracy of 91% is achieved for detection of Ventricular fibrillation. Keywords— Accuracy, Approximate Entropy, Empirical mode decomposition, Ventricular fibrillation, Ventricular tachycardia.
Coding Schemes for Multi-Level Channels that are Intrinsically Resistant Against Unknown Gain and / or Offset Using Reference Symbols

We will present coding techniques for transmission and storage channels, such as optical recording and Non-Volatile Memory (Flash), with unknown gain and offset. We will show that q-ary codewords, where T reference symbols appear at least once in each codeword, can be used for calibrating the detection circuitry. We will enumerate the number of T -constrained q-ary n-length sequences. Implementation issues regarding efficient encoding, detection, and decoding of the new coding method will be discussed. We will present a novel minimum Euclidean distance detection method for T -constrained sequences whose performance is intrinsically resistant against uncertainties in the channel’s gain and offset. Results of computer simulations will show the performance of the new coding and detection methods.
Expectations of the parenting experience and willingness to consider selective termination for Down Syndrome

This study examines the dominant normative perceptions of parenting a child with Down Syndrome, and the relationship of these perceptions to willingness to consider selective termination subsequent to a foetal diagnosis of Down Syndrome. Within a community sample (N = 355), the perceptions of parenting a child with Down Syndrome were less positive than those of parenting either a child with muscular dystrophy or a child with no disability, especially in terms of the anticipated rewards (personal enrichment and family continuity) associated with the parenting experience. Further, the expectation of less personal enrichment as a result of parenting a child with Down Syndrome emerged as a significant predictor of willingness to abort a diagnosed foetus, although the expectation of enhanced parental costs did not, suggesting that it is the perception of fewer rewards associated with parenting a child with Down Syndrome that are salient in decisions regarding selective abortion. The role of negative stereotypes and implications for interventions are discussed.
Trajectories of Volunteering and Self-Esteem in Later Life

By combining stakeholder theory and activity theory, this study examines the dynamic relationships among wealth, volunteering, and self-esteem of older adults. This study uses latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) to capture the longitudinal patterns of self-esteem across four waves of data from the Americans’ Changing Lives (ACL) Study. As time-varying variables, the longitudinal trajectories of volunteering hours and self-esteem are analyzed. As time-invariant independent variables, the authors consider two types of wealth measurements: homeownership and the amount of total liquid assets at Wave 1. The authors find that the intercept of volunteering hours is positively associated with the intercept of self-esteem. This study also finds that volunteering hours partially mediates the relationship between wealth and self-esteem. This study sheds lights on dynamic mechanisms of wealth, volunteering, and self-esteem among older adults.
Follower need for cognitive closure as moderator of the effectiveness of leader procedural fairness

Leader procedural fairness is an important factor in leadership effectiveness, but the study of the contingencies of its influence is still in its infancy. Addressing this issue we focus on the moderating role of follower need for cognitive closure, the disposition to reduce uncertainty and swiftly reach closure in judgement and decision. We propose that need for closure captures followers sensitivity to the uncertainty-reducing influence of leader procedural fairness. Across three studies designed to yield complementary evidence (two surveys and a scenario experiment), we find support for the hypothesis that perceived leader procedural fairness has a stronger (positive) relationship with leadership effectiveness for followers higher in need for closure. This support is found across a variety of indicators reflecting different aspects of leadership effectiveness: effort and performance, social identification, job satisfaction, and leader evaluations. We discuss how these findings advance our understanding of the uncertainty-reducing role of leader fairness.
Cigarette Smoke-Induced Collagen Destruction; Key to Chronic Neutrophilic Airway Inflammation?

Background Cigarette smoking induces inflammatory responses in all smokers and is the major risk factor for lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In this progressive disease, chronic inflammation in the lung contributes to lung tissue destruction leading to the formation of chemotactic collagen fragments such as N-acetylated Proline-Glycine-Proline (N-ac-PGP). The generation of this tripeptide is mediated by a multistep pathway involving matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) 8 and 9 and prolyl endopeptidase (PE). Here we investigated whether cigarette smoke extract (CSE) stimulates human PMNs to breakdown whole matrix collagen leading to the generation of the chemotactic collagen fragment N-ac-PGP. Methodology/Principal Findings Incubating PMNs with CSE led to the release of chemo-attractant CXCL8 and proteases MMP8 and MMP9. PMNs constitutively expressed PE activity as well as PE protein. Incubating CSE-primed PMNs with collagen resulted in collagen breakdown and in N-ac-PGP generation. Incubation of PMNs with the tripeptide N-ac-PGP resulted in the release of CXCL8, MMP8 and MMP9. Moreover, we tested whether PMNs from COPD patients are different from PMNs from healthy donors. Here we show that the intracellular basal PE activity of PMNs from COPD patients increased 25-fold compared to PMNs from healthy donors. Immunohistological staining of human lung tissue for PE showed that besides neutrophils, macrophages and epithelial cells express PE. Conclusions This study indicates that neutrophils activated by cigarette smoke extract can breakdown collagen into N-ac-PGP and that this collagen fragment itself can activate neutrophils, which may lead in vivo to a self-propagating cycle of neutrophil infiltration, chronic inflammation and lung emphysema. MMP-, PE- or PGP-inhibitors can serve as an attractive therapeutic target and may open new avenues towards effective treatment of COPD.
Changes in the activities of daily living (ADL) in relation to the level of amputation of patients undergoing lower extremity amputation for arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO).

BACKGROUND The relationship between the level of amputation and the activities of daily living (ADL) in Japanese patients with arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO) is unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS In the present study 81 patients with ASO who underwent lower extremity amputation and were discharged from hospital after rehabilitation we evaluated. The patients were classified into 4 groups: toe amputation group (Toe), heel-preserving amputation group (Heel), below-knee amputation group (BK), and above-knee amputation group (AK). ADL at discharge and factors affecting the length of hospitalization were determined. Patients were walking at discharge in 94.5%, 94.0%, 59.0%, and 0.0% of the Toe, the Heel, BK, and AK group, respectively. However, the ratio of patients able to walk independently was 68% in the Toe group and 19% in the Heel group. In addition, the length of hospital stay was significant shorter in the Toe group than in the other groups. Factors affecting the length of hospital stay were the amputation level, cerebrovascular disease, reoperation, and diabetes. CONCLUSIONS ADL are less affected and the length of hospital stay is shorter for patients undergoing toe amputation than other levels of lower extremity amputation. However, heel-preserving amputation maintains a comparable level of ADL in terms of ambulatory discharge.
Hearing Loss in Older Adulthood

Adult aging is accompanied by declines in many areas of cognitive functioning, including reduced memory for new information. Potential sources of these declines are well established and include slowed processing, diminished working-memory capacity, and a reduced ability to inhibit interference. In addition, older adults often experience sensory decline, including decreased hearing acuity for high-frequency sounds and deficits in frequency and temporal resolution. These changes add to the challenge faced by older adults in comprehension and memory for everyday rapid speech. Use of contextual information and added perceptual and cognitive effort can partially offset the deleterious effects of these sensory declines. This may, however, come at a cost to resources that might otherwise be available for “downstream” operations such as encoding the speech content in memory. We argue that future research should focus not only on sensory and cognitive functioning as separate domains but also on the dynamics of their interaction.
Aquifer Vulnerability to Pesticide Migration Through Till Aquitards

This study investigates the influence of key factors-mainly recharge rate and degradation half-life--on downward migration of the widely used pesticide mecoprop (MCPP) through a typical clayey till aquitard. The study uses the numerical model FRAC3Dvs, which is a three-dimensional discrete fracture/matrix diffusion (DFMD) numerical transport model. The model was calibrated with laboratory and field data from a site near Havdrup, Denmark, but the overall findings are expected to be relevant to many other sites in similar settings. Fracture flow and MCPP transport parameters for the model were obtained through calibration using well-characterized laboratory experiments with large (0.5 m diameter by 0.5 m high) undisturbed columns of the fractured till and a field experiment. A second level of upscaling and sensitivity analysis was then carried out using data on hydraulic head, fracture spacing, and water budget from the field site. The simulations of downward migration of MCPP show that MCPP concentration and mass flux into the underlying aquifer, and hence the aquifer vulnerability to this pesticide compound, is mainly dependent on the degradation rate of the pesticide, the overall aquitard water budget, and the ground water recharge rate into the aquifer. The influence of flow rate, matrix diffusion, and degradation rate are intertwined. This results in one to four orders of magnitude higher MCPP flux into the aquifer from aquifer recharge rates of 20 and 120 mm/yr, respectively, for no degradation and MCPP half-life of 0.5 yr. From a sensitivity analysis it was found that the range of MCPP flux into the aquifer varied less than one order of magnitude due to (1) changing fracture spacing from 1 to 10 m, or (2) preferential flow along inclined thin sand layers, which represent common conditions for the current and other settings of clayey till in Denmark and other glaciated areas in Europe and North America. The results indicate that for aquifers overlain by fractured clayey tills, the vulnerability to contamination with pesticides (pesticide flux into the aquifer) and other widespread agricultural contaminants is going to vary strongly in the watershed as a function of the distribution of aquitard water budget (flow rate) and aquitard redox environment (controlling contaminant degradation rates), even if the thickness of the till is relatively constant. DFMD modeling of cause-effect relationships within such systems has great potential to support decisions in planning, regulation, and contaminant remediation.
An increased number of CD40-high monocytes in patients with Crohn's disease

OBJECTIVE:CD40-CD40 ligand (CD40L) interaction is essential for the T-lymphocyte–dependent immune response. This interaction may be operational in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The present study examined the expression of CD40 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) and tissue specimens, and CD40-stimulated interleukin (IL)-12 release from PBMNCs in IBD.METHODS:The expression of CD40 in PBMNCs and tissue inflammatory cells was examined by flowcytometry and immunohistochemistry, respectively. IL-12 release was measured in cultured media of PBMNCs by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.RESULTS:Most peripheral blood B-lymphocytes expressed CD40 in all subjects. However, in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, a significantly increased mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of CD40 on B-lymphocytes was detected, compared with control subjects and patients with Crohn's disease (CD). In contrast, both the percentage positivity and MFI of CD40 on monocytes of active CD subjects were significantly increased, compared with the other groups. In active CD patients, a high level of IL-12 release from PBMNCs was observed by CD40 stimulation, compared with those of the other groups. When primed with IFN-γ, PBMNCs from inactive CD patients released a significantly high level of IL-12, probably via stimulation by the CD40 monoclonal antibody. In the affected mucosa of CD, numerous CD40-positive cells were demonstrated, and they were also CD68-positive, suggesting these double CD40/CD68-positive cells are tissue macrophages.CONCLUSIONS:These results suggest that the examination of CD40 expression in PBMNCs might enable the differentiation of CD from UC. CD40-high monocytes in CD patients may play a role in the pathogenesis of CD.
Mcl-1 inhibitors: a patent review

ABSTRACT Introduction: The myeloid cell leukemia−1 (MCL-1) protein is one of the key anti-apoptotic members of the B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) protein family. Over-expression of MCL-1 has been closely related to tumor progression as well as to resistance, not only to traditional chemotherapies but also to targeted therapeutics including BCL-2 inhibitors such as ABT-263. Therefore, there has been extensive research and development in the last decade in both academic and industrial settings to address this unmet medical need. Areas covered: This review covers the research and patent literature of the past 10 years in the field of discovery and development of small-molecule inhibitors of the MCL-1 anti-apoptotic protein. Expert opinion: Small-molecule strategies to disrupt the protein-protein interactions between MCL-1 and its pro-apoptotic counterparts, such as BAK and BIM, have recently emerged. Several small-molecules based on different scaffolds describe promising in vitro data as MCL-1 selective inhibitors. While many lead compounds remain at the in vitro preclinical development stage, the two most recent patent applications describe promising in vivo data, and one small molecule inhibitor has recently entered into clinical development. It is such an exciting moment that the long awaited clinical studies will generate some insight into the therapeutic potential of this anti-cancer approach, and possibly facilitate the further development of other early stage inhibitors.
Willingness to Stepparent

Marriage markets have become increasingly filled with those who already have children, which may discourage marriage. Research has generally failed to assess the role of prospective stepchildren in new union formation, particularly from the point of view of the men who might become their stepfathers. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), the authors examine willingness to marry someone who already has children as well as partners who have been previously married, are of a different religion or race, or are unlikely to hold a steady job. The most consistent determinants of attitudes toward stepparenthood are related to exposure to and/or approval of other nontraditional families, particularly the experience of own parenthood. This suggests that these unions could become more common in the future.
Optimal Insulin Treatment in Syngeneic Islet Transplantation

Insulin-induced normoglycemia has shown to have a beneficial effect on the outcome of pancreatic islets transplanted to diabetic recipients. The aim of the study was to identify the insulin treatment that can maximize its beneficial effect on islet transplants. Six groups of streptozotocin diabetic C57B1/6 mice were transplanted (Tx) with 100 syngeneic islets, an insufficient beta cell mass to restore normoglycemia, and were treated with insulin as follows: group 1 (n = 9): from day 10 before Tx to day 14 after Tx; group 2 (n = 11): from day 6 before Tx to Tx day; group 3 (n = 11): from Tx day to day 6 after Tx; group 4 (n = 7): from Tx day to day 14 after Tx; group 5 (n = 8): from day 10 to day 24 after Tx; group 6 (n = 18): Tx mice were not treated with insulin. Sixty days after Tx, normoglycemia was achieved in 100% of mice in groups 1, 4, and 5, in 73% of mice in group 2, and in only 45% and 33% of mice in groups 3 and 6, respectively (p < 0.01). Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance, determined only in normoglycemic mice, was similar in groups 1, 2, 4, and normal controls. In contrast, normoglycemic mice from groups 3, 5, and 6, exposed to more severe and prolonged hyperglycemia after Tx, showed higher glucose values after glucose injection, suggesting that hyperglycemia had a long-lasting deleterious effect on transplanted beta cell function. The initially transplanted beta cell mass was maintained in the grafts of normoglycemic mice, but was severely reduced in hyperglycemic mice. Transplanted beta cell mass was similar in normoglycemic groups with normal or impaired glucose tolerance, indicating that impaired glucose tolerance was not due to reduced beta cell mass. In summary, the beneficial effect of insulin-induced normoglycemia on transplanted islets was maximal when insulin treatment was maintained the initial 14 days after transplantation. Exposure to sustained hyperglycemia initially after transplantation had a long-lasting deleterious effect on transplanted islets.
Erucylphosphocholine‐induced apoptosis in glioma cells: involvement of death receptor signalling and caspase activation

Erucylphosphocholine (ErPC) is a promising anti‐neoplastic drug for the treatment of malignant brain tumours. It exerts strong anti‐cancer activity in vivo and in vitro and induces apoptosis even in chemoresistant glioma cell lines. The purpose of this study was to expand on our previous observations on the potential mechanisms of ErPC‐mediated apoptosis with a focus on death receptor activation and the caspase network. A172 and T98G glioma cells were treated with ErPC for up to 48 h. ErPC effects on the expression of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and TNF‐related apoptosis‐inducing ligand (TRAIL) receptor system, and on caspase activation were determined. ErPC had no effect on the expression of TNFα or TRAIL. Inhibition of the TNF or TRAIL signalling pathway with antagonistic antibodies or fusion proteins did not affect apoptosis induced by ErPC, and a dominant‐negative FADD construct did not abolish ErPC‐induced effects. Western blot analysis indicated that ErPC‐triggered apoptosis resulted in a time‐dependent processing of caspases‐3, ‐7, ‐8 and ‐9 into their respective active subunits. Co‐treatment of A172 cells with different caspase inhibitors prevented apoptosis but did not abrogate cell death. These data suggest that A172 cells might have an additional caspase‐independent pathway that insures cell death and guarantees killing of those tumour cells whose caspase pathway is incomplete.