Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
P2X receptor-mediated visceral hyperalgesia in a rat model of chronic visceral hypersensitivity

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal disorder characterised by abdominal pain and bloating in association with altered bowel movements. Its pathogenesis and the underlying molecular mechanisms of visceral hyperalgesia remain elusive. Recent studies of somatic and other visceral pain models suggest a role for purinergic signalling mediated by the P2X receptor (P2XR) family. Aims: To examine the role of P2XR signalling in the pathogenesis in a rat model of IBS-like visceral hyperalgesia. Methods: Visceral hypersensitivity was induced by colonic injection of 0.5% acetic acid (AA) in 10-day-old rats and experiments were conducted at 8 weeks of age. Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons innervating the colon were labelled by injection of DiI (1,1′-dioleyl-3,3,3′,3-tetramethylindocarbocyanine methanesulfonate) fluorescence into the colon wall. Results: Visceral hypersensitivity was reversed by TNP-ATP (2′-(or-3′)-O-(trinitrophenyl) ATP), a potent P2X1, P2X3 and P2X2/3 receptor antagonist. Rapid application of ATP (20 μM) induced a fast inactivating current in colon-specific DRG neurons from both control and AA-treated rats. There was a twofold increase in the peak ATP responses in neurons from AA-treated rats. These currents were sensitive to TNP-ATP (100 nM). Under current-clamped conditions, ATP evoked a larger membrane depolarisation in neurons from neonatal AA-treated rats than in controls. P2X3R protein expression was significantly enhanced in colon-specific DRGs 8 weeks after neonatal AA treatment. Conclusions: These data suggest that the large enhancement of P2XR expression and function may contribute to the maintenance of visceral hypersensitivity, thus identifying a specific neurobiological target for the treatment of chronic visceral hyperalgesia.
EEG evidence for the presence of an action observation–execution matching system in children

In the adult human brain, passive observation of actions performed by others activates some of the same cortical areas that are involved in the execution of actions, thereby contributing to action recognition. This mechanism appears to occur through activation of a population of action‐coding cells known as mirror neurons (MN). In the adult motor cortex, performing actions and observing human movement reduces the magnitude of the mu (8–13 Hz) rhythm, possibly reflecting MN system activity. Despite the wealth of information available regarding the adult MN system, little is known about its existence in children. Here, we used EEG to probe mu rhythm modulation in 15 children during observation and execution of hand actions. Our data show that mu rhythm attenuation occurs in children under 11 years old during observation of hand movements. Similarly to what has been reported in adults, observation of goal/object‐orientated movement produces greater modulation of the mu rhythm than intransitive movement. These data confirm the existence of an observation–execution matching system in the immature human brain and may be of clinical value in the understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders associated with a faulty MN system, such as autism spectrum disorder.
Is first-line single-agent mitoxantrone in the treatment of high-risk metastatic breast cancer patients as effective as combination chemotherapy? No difference in survival but higher quality of life were found in a multicenter randomized trial.

BACKGROUND To determine whether patients with high-risk metastatic breast cancer draw benefit from combination chemotherapy as first-line treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 260 women with measurable metastatic breast cancer fulfilling high-risk criteria, previously untreated with chemotherapy for their metastatic disease, were randomized to receive either mitoxantrone 12 mg/m(2) or the combination of fluorouracil 500 mg/m(2), epirubicin 50 mg/m(2) and cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m(2) (FEC) every 3 weeks. Treatment was continued until complete remission plus two cycles, or until disease progression. In the case of partial remission or stable disease, treatment was stopped after 12 cycles. Second-line treatment was vindesine, mitomycin and prednisolone. Gain from treatment was estimated using a modified Brunner's score composed of time to progression, patients' rating of the treatment benefit, alopecia, vomiting and performance status. RESULTS After recruitment from 1992 to 1997 and observation from 1997 to 1999, the final evaluation showed that single-agent treatment with mitoxantrone does not differ significantly from combination treatment with FEC in terms of response, objective remission rate, remission duration, time to response, time to best response, time to progression or overall survival. There was, however, a significant difference in gain from treatment using a modified Brunner's score favoring the single-agent treatment arm. There was no evidence that any subgroup would fare better with combination treatment. CONCLUSIONS No significant difference was detected between the treatment with mitoxantrone as a single agent and the combination of low-dose FEC in terms of response or survival; therefore, the imperative of the necessity of first-line combination chemotherapy for patients with high-risk metastatic breast cancer may be questioned. Since toxicity and quality of life score favored the single-agent mitoxantrone treatment arm, this treatment may be offered to patients preferring quality of life to a potential small prolongation of survival.
Anomaly cancellation in six dimensions

It is shown that anomaly cancellation conditions are sufficient to determine the two most important topological numbers relevant for Calabi–Yau (CY) compactification to six dimensions. This reflects the fact that K3 is the only nontrivial CY manifold in two complex dimensions. The Green–Schwarz counterterms are explicitly constructed and sum rules for charges of additional enhanced U(1) factors are derived and the results with all possible Abelian orbifold constructions of K3 are compared. This includes asymmetric orbifolds as well, showing that it is possible to regain a geometrical interpretation for this class of models. Finally, some models with a broken E7 gauge group which will be useful for more phenomenological applications are discussed herein.
Training psychology students and professionals to recognize and intervene into partner violence: Borrowing a page from medicine

Partner violence is an epidemic with serious medical and psychological consequences. While victims frequently seek medical and psychological help, they rarely, if ever, disclose victimization as a presenting problem. Conversely, health care professionals, including psychologists, rarely ask about violence or provide appropriate help when violence is detected. To address this problem, organized medicine has promoted and developed models and curricula for educating students and professionals to identify and help partner-violence victims. Psychologists have made important contributions to understanding partner violence. However, organized psychology has yet to develop and widely promote model violence education curricula for identifying and helping victims (as well as perpetrators) of partner violence. This article describes a medical-education curriculum and discusses its potential applications for psychology training. The curriculum emphasizes helping learners develop appropriate (a) knowledge of partner-violence issues and dynamics, (b) motivation to identify and help victims and perpetrators, and (c) requisite skills for identification and intervention. Applications of these principles are described and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Impact of Relay Location According to SER for Amplify-and-Forward Cooperative Communications

In this paper, we analyze the symbol-error-rate (SER) performance for a two-user amplify-and-forward cooperative system. By making use of M-PSK modulation, the closed-form SER formulation and corresponding upper bound are derived first. According to the SER performance analysis, the impact of relay location is discussed by making use of a simple line topology. If the power allocation to the source and relay is equal, we can draw an interesting conclusion that the SER performance in such topology shows a symmetry property and the optimum relay location is just in the middle with respect to the source and destination.
Phylogeny-aware identification and correction of taxonomically mislabeled sequences

Molecular sequences in public databases are mostly annotated by the submitting authors without further validation. This procedure can generate erroneous taxonomic sequence labels. Mislabeled sequences are hard to identify, and they can induce downstream errors because new sequences are typically annotated using existing ones. Furthermore, taxonomic mislabelings in reference sequence databases can bias metagenetic studies which rely on the taxonomy. Despite significant efforts to improve the quality of taxonomic annotations, the curation rate is low because of the labour-intensive manual curation process. Here, we present SATIVA, a phylogeny-aware method to automatically identify taxonomically mislabeled sequences (“mislabels”) using statistical models of evolution. We use the Evolutionary Placement Algorithm (EPA) to detect and score sequences whose taxonomic annotation is not supported by the underlying phylogenetic signal, and automatically propose a corrected taxonomic classification for those. Using simulated data, we show that our method attains high accuracy for identification (96.9% sensitivity / 91.7% precision) as well as correction (94.9% sensitivity / 89.9% precision) of mislabels. Furthermore, an analysis of four widely used microbial 16S reference databases (Greengenes, LTP, RDP and SILVA) indicates that they currently contain between 0.2% and 2.5% mislabels. Finally, we use SATIVA to perform an in-depth evaluation of alternative taxonomies for Cyanobacteria. SATIVA is freely available at https://github.com/amkozlov/sativa.
A Chopper Stabilized Pre-amplifier for Magnetic Sensor

This paper introduced chopping principle and presented a design of chopper stabilized pre-amplifier for magnetic sensor. Compared with auto-zeroing technique, chopping technique does not fold noise to DC and the noise performance is better. This chopper stabilized pre-amplifier used the integrated instrumentation amplifier AD620 as the main amplifier. It achieved low voltage noise about 10nV/√Hz, and the corner frequency of 1/f noise about 1.5mHz. Residual offset caused by nonidealities of CMOS switch was reduced by a delayed demodulate clock. And the measured result was found to agree well with the simulated result.
FORKS: Finding Orderings Robustly using k-means and Steiner trees

Recent advances in single cell RNA-seq technologies have provided researchers with unprecedented details of transcriptomic variation across individual cells. However, it has not been straightforward to infer differentiation trajectories from such data, due to the parameter-sensitivity of existing methods. Here, we present Finding Orderings Robustly using k-means and Steiner trees (FORKS), an algorithm that pseudo-temporally orders cells and thereby infers bifurcating state trajectories. FORKS, which is a generic method, can be applied to both single-cell and bulk differentiation data. It is a semi-supervised approach, in that it requires the user to specify the starting point of the time course. We systematically benchmarked FORKS and eight other pseudo-time estimation algorithms on six benchmark datasets, and found it to be more accurate, more reproducible, and more memory-efficient than existing methods for pseudo-temporal ordering. Another major advantage of our approach is its robustness – FORKS can be used with default parameter settings on a wide range of datasets.
The Physiological Responses to a Single Game of Baseball Pitching

The purpose of this study was to examine selected physiological responses during a single game of baseball pitching. Six college-age men with varsity pitching experience at the collegiate level participated in the study. Subjects pitched a simulated game during which heart rate (HR), blood lactate (LA), serum glucose (SG), free fatty acid (FFA) and oxygen consumption (&OV0312;O2) were measured. Serum creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were analyzed 24 hours after exercise as an indicator of skeletal muscle damage. HR exhibited a quadratic effect (p ≤ 0.01). There was no change from pre-exercise values for LA or SG. FFA did increase significantly throughout the game (p ≤ 0.01). &OV0312;O2exhibited a quadratic effect during each inning (p ≤ 0.01). Values ranged from 4.9 ml·kg−1·min−1at rest to 20.6 ml·kg−1min−1 during pitching. CK and LDH were significantly elevated 24 hours after exercise. Results indicate that the physiological responses which occur during the pitching of a game correspond with an intensity equal to continuous exercise at 45 percent of &OV0312;O2 max. The increase of muscle enzymes 24 hours after exercise may indicate muscle damage, and warrants further investigation.
Towards compressing Web graphs

We consider the problem of compressing graphs of the link structure of the World Wide Web. We provide efficient algorithms for such compression that are motivated by random graph models for describing the Web. The algorithms are based on reducing the compression problem to the problem of finding a minimum spanning free in a directed graph related to the original link graph. The performance of the algorithms on graphs generated by the random graph models suggests that by taking advantage of the link structure of the Web, one may achieve significantly better compression than natural Huffman-based schemes. We also provide hardness results demonstrating limitations on natural extensions of our approach.
Relationships between physical performance and knee and hip osteoarthritis: findings from the European Project on Osteoarthritis (EPOSA).

BACKGROUND poor physical performance (PP) is known to be associated with disability, lower quality of life and higher mortality rates. Knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA) might be expected to contribute to poor PP, through joint pain and restricted range of movement. Both clinical and self-reported OA are often used for large-scale community and epidemiological studies. OBJECTIVE to examine the relationships between hip and knee OA and PP in a large data set comprising cohorts from six European countries. METHODS a total of 2,942 men and women aged 65-85 years from the Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK were recruited. Assessment included an interview and clinical assessment for OA. PP was determined from walking speed, chair rises and balance (range 0-12); low PP was defined as a score of ≤9. RESULTS the mean (SD) age was 74.2 (5.1) years. Rates of self-reported OA were much higher than clinical OA. Advanced age, female gender, lower educational attainment, abstinence from alcohol and higher body mass index were independently associated with low PP. Clinical knee OA, hip OA or both were associated with a higher risk of low PP; OR (95% CI) 2.93 (2.36, 3.64), 3.79 (2.49, 5.76) and 7.22 (3.63, 14.38), respectively, with relationships robust to adjustment for the confounders above as well as pain. CONCLUSION lower limb OA at the hip and knee is associated with low PP, and for clinical diagnosis relationships are robust to adjustment for pain. Those at highest risk have clinical OA at both sites.
Use of Syntax in Perceptual Compensation for Phonological Reduction

Listeners resolve ambiguity in speech by consulting context. Extensive research on this issue has largely relied on continua of sounds constructed to vary incrementally between two phonemic endpoints. In this study we presented listeners instead with phonetic ambiguity of a kind with which they have natural experience: varying degrees of word-final /t/-reduction. In two experiments, Dutch listeners decided whether or not the verb in a sentence such as Maar zij ren(t) soms ‘But she sometimes run(s)’ ended in /t/. In Dutch, presence versus absence of final /t/ distinguishes third- from first-person singular present-tense verbs. Acoustic evidence for /t/ varied from clear to absent, and immediately preceding phonetic context was consistent with more versus less likely deletion of /t/. In both experiments, listeners reported more /t/s in sentences in which /t/ would be syntactically correct. In Experiment 1, the disambiguating syntactic information preceded the target verb, as above, while in Experiment 2, it followed the verb. The syntactic bias was greater for fast than for slow responses in Experiment 1, but no such difference appeared in Experiment 2. We conclude that syntactic information does not directly influence pre-lexical processing, but is called upon in making phoneme decisions.
Erosion of Lizard Diversity by Climate Change and Altered Thermal Niches

Demise of the Lizards Despite pessimistic forecasts from recent studies examining the effects of global climate change on species, and observed extinctions in local geographic areas, there is little evidence so far of global-scale extinctions. Sinervo et al. (p. 894; see the Perspective by Huey et al.) find that extinctions resulting from climate change are currently reducing global lizard diversity. Climate records during the past century were synthesized with detailed surveys of Mexican species at 200 sites over the past 30 years. Temperature change has been so rapid in this region that rates of adaptation have not kept pace with climate change. The models were then extended to all families of lizards at >1000 sites across the globe, and suggest that climate change-induced extinctions are currently affecting worldwide lizard assemblages. A historical record of lizard populations in Mexico is used to parameterize models that predict global effects of climate change. It is predicted that climate change will cause species extinctions and distributional shifts in coming decades, but data to validate these predictions are relatively scarce. Here, we compare recent and historical surveys for 48 Mexican lizard species at 200 sites. Since 1975, 12% of local populations have gone extinct. We verified physiological models of extinction risk with observed local extinctions and extended projections worldwide. Since 1975, we estimate that 4% of local populations have gone extinct worldwide, but by 2080 local extinctions are projected to reach 39% worldwide, and species extinctions may reach 20%. Global extinction projections were validated with local extinctions observed from 1975 to 2009 for regional biotas on four other continents, suggesting that lizards have already crossed a threshold for extinctions caused by climate change.
1,2,3 = 2,3,4: accommodating the cladogram.

Although most fields of science are constantly struggling with which methodologies to use, the field of systematics, and especially paleontology, has adopted phylogenetic systematics (cladistic methodology) to the exclusion of other approaches. Despite a barrage of cautions and criticism, cladistics reigns. Considered a triumph of the field of paleontology and the crown jewel of cladistic methodology is the proof of the dinosaurian origin of birds. Among the most important features thought to link theropod dinosaurs and birds is a hand reduced to three fingers, a tridactyl hand. We know that the grasping raking hand of theropod dinosaurs is composed of digits 1-2-3, that is, the thumb and the next two fingers, because a variety of late Triassic forms, show digits 4 and 5 having undergone dramatic reduction and remaining only in vestigial form (Fig. 1). Yet virtually all credible developmental studies have concluded that the bird hand is composed of digits 2-3-4. Here, in a provocative theoretical paper, Wagner and Gauthier (1) accept the developmental evidence that birds have a 2-3-4 hand but propose a frame-shift hypothesis, by which the developmental properties responsible for digits (D)1–D3 are shifted onto embryonic precartilaginous condensations (C)2–C4. To put it another way, although these authors accept that the homology of the primordial condensations are correctly identified as C2, C3, and C4, they propose that subsequent anatomical differentiation reflects a frame shift in digit primoidia (anlagen) in later ontogeny such that C2 becomes D1, C3 becomes D2, and C4 becomes D3. By this proposed shift, birds can still be nested in the same clade or monophyletic grouping as maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs (the putative bird ancestors), as concluded by cladistic hypotheses, which date back to a paper by Gauthier (2), generally conceded to be the pivotal paper for this theory. As Neil Shubin (ref. 3, …
Role of Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription-3 in Estradiol-Mediated Neuroprotection

Estradiol is protective in experimental cerebral ischemia, but the precise mechanisms remain unknown. Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) is a transcription factor that is activated by estrogen, translocates to the nucleus, and induces the transcription of neuroprotective genes, such as bcl-2. We determined whether estradiol increases STAT3 activation in female rat brain after focal cerebral ischemia and whether STAT3 activation contributes to estradiol-mediated neuroprotection against ischemic brain injury. Ovariectomized (OVX) female rats with and without estradiol replacement were subjected to 2 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), and phosphorylated STAT3 (P-STAT3) and total STAT3 (T-STAT3) were quantified by Western blot analysis at 3 and 22 h of reperfusion. STAT3 activation was colocalized with neuronal and survival markers microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) and Bcl-2 using immunohistochemistry. Infarct size was measured at 22 h after MCAO in estradiol-treated OVX animals in the presence and absence of STAT3 inhibitor cucurbitacin I (JSI-124) using 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. Estradiol increased P-STAT3 in the ischemic cortex cytosolic fraction at 3 h after MCAO without affecting T-STAT3. This was associated with increased P-STAT3 in the nuclear fraction, which remained elevated at 22 h after MCAO. The nuclear P-STAT3 colocalized with MAP2 and Bcl-2 within the peri-infarct zone. The P-STAT3 inhibitor JSI-124 abolished the protective effect of estradiol without affecting infarct size in untreated OVX rats. We conclude that estradiol increases STAT3 phosphorylation in neurons after MCAO and that STAT3 activation plays an important role in estradiol-mediated neuroprotection.