Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Body Composition and Water Compartment Measurements in Boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

McDonald CM, Carter GT, Abresch RT, Widman L, Styne DM, Warden N, Kilmer DD: Body composition and water compartment measurements in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2005; 84:483–491. Objective:Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients have a lower percentage of total body water and higher extracellular water to intracellular water (ECW/ICW) ratio compared with normal subjects. However, it is not known whether this is due to increased fat mass or a decreased amount of ICW in muscle cells in DMD patients. The purpose of this study was to (1) determine the effect of increased fat mass and decreased lean mass on the ECW to ICW ratio in DMD patients and to (2) determine the validity of multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (MFBIA) in assessing body composition in DMD patients. Design:This study has a quasi-experimental, comparative design using nonequivalent groups. A total of 46 boys ranging from 6 to 13 yrs of age participated in this study. There were 12 nonobese able-bodied controls, 19 obese able-bodied children (obese), and 15 boys with DMD. Body composition was measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Body composition and body water compartment analysis were assessed by MFBIA. All measurements obtained using MFBIA were compared with those obtained using DEXA for validation. Results:Both MFBIA and DEXA measures were strongly correlated in control (r = 0.99), obese (r = 0.92), and DMD subjects (r = 0.95). However, lean tissue mass measured by DEXA in the DMD subjects was only slightly higher (19.2 ± 1.1 vs. 18.2 ± 1.2, P < 0.02) than as measured by MFBIA. Mean percentage of body fat measured by DEXA in the DMD subjects (30.4 ± 3.1%) was significantly lower than as measured by MFBIA (38.7 ± 2.2%). The mean percentage of body fat measured by DEXA in the control group (23.2 ± 1.8%) was significantly (P < 0.001) lower than as measured by MFBIA (28.6 ± 1.6%). The mean percentage of body fat measured by DEXA in obese able-bodied controls (40.8 ± 0.9%) was not significantly different from that measured by MFBIA (40.4 ± 1.5%). Compared with the obese and control subjects, DMD subjects showed reduced ICW and ECW, with an increased ECW/ICW ratio, as expected. However, the percentage of fat for the DMD group was not different from the obese group. Conclusions:DMD patients have elevated ECW/ICW ratios compared with obese subjects and nonobese controls. However, obese subjects and nonobese controls had similar ECW/ICW ratios, despite the increased fat tissue mass in obese subjects. This suggests that the elevated ECW/ICW ratios in DMD subjects are not due to increased fat mass but rather some other mechanism, likely impaired cellular homeostasis due to muscle membrane instability. Although MFBIA slightly underestimates lean tissue mass in boys with DMD, it has a potential role as an inexpensive and easy to use measurement tool to measure changes in muscle mass in the clinical setting.
Sperm quality in mice acutely treated with parathion.

AIM To investigate the toxic effect of a single injection of the organophosphorous agropesticide, parathion, on spermatogenesis in immature male mice. METHODS Seven-day old mice received a single injection of parathion intraperitoneally at a dose of 1/3 LD50. The epididymal sperm count, sperm morphology and chromatin thermal stability were analyzed 28 and 50 days after injection. RESULTS Sperm counts were decreased and teratozoospermia and thermal denaturation of DNA increased after parathion injection. Sperm parameters were changed to a greater extent in younger animals, denoting a higher lability of spermatogenic process at its beginning. The damages could recover a long time after parathion administration. CONCLUSION Organophosphorous agropesticides are testicular toxicants, eliciting reversible cytotoxic and cytogenetic alterations in germ cells.
The clinical syndrome of Alzheimer's disease: aspects particularly relevant to clinical trials

This paper describes the natural history of the clinical syndrome of Alzheimer's disease (AD) including the cognitive deficit, the neuropsychiatric symptoms, impact on daily functioning, risk factors, medical complications and impact on the use of health‐care resources. The clinical presentation of the disease varies greatly from the prodrome through end stage; instruments used to quantify the severity of each aspect of the disease have been developed and are described along with their use in clinical drug trials. Drug treatments for AD are usually developed by first showing a positive effect on the cognitive deficit, with later studies investigating drug effects on other clinical aspects of the disease.
Encoding Domain Transitions for Constraint-Based Planning

We describe a constraint-based automated planner named Transition Constraints for Parallel Planning (TCPP). TCPP constructs its constraint model from a redefined version of the domain transition graphs (DTG) of a given planning problem. TCPP encodes state transitions in the redefined DTGs by using table constraints with cells containing don't cares or wild cards. TCPP uses Minion the constraint solver to solve the constraint model and returns a parallel plan. We empirically compare TCPP with the other state-of-the-art constraint-based parallel planner PaP2. PaP2 encodes action successions in the finite state automata (FSA) as table constraints with cells containing sets of values. PaP2 uses SICStus Prolog as its constraint solver. We also improve PaP2 by using dont cares and mutex constraints. Our experiments on a number of standard classical planning benchmark domains demonstrate TCPP's efficiency over the original PaP2 running on SICStus Prolog and our reconstructed and enhanced versions of PaP2 running on Minion.
Reduced cognitive inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

On a semantic negative priming task designed to investigate putative inhibitory mechanisms of selective attention, obsessive-compulsive disordered (OCD) subjects were distinguished from all other sub-categories of anxiety disorder (OAD). OCD subjects failed to show any priming effects in the repetition priming condition and exhibited facilitation in the semantic priming condition (i.e. shorter reaction times to previously ignored stimuli). OAD subjects demonstrated negative priming (i.e. longer reaction times to previously ignored stimuli) in both experimental conditions. These results are interpreted in terms of reduced cognitive inhibition in OCD and the implications of this hypothesis are discussed. Parallels are also drawn with previous studies regarding the results of high schizotypes and schizophrenic subjects using negative priming tasks.
LIFE EVENTS AND PSYCHIATRIC IMPAIRMENT

This is a report on relationships between life crises and psychiatric impairment in a community sample of 938 adults in New Haven, Connecticut.It is part of a longitudinal study of the population of a community mental health center catchment area. The theoretical framework for the paper finds its roots in two bodies of socio-medical literature, namely, stress research and epidemiological field studies of mental illness. The specific research question is to determine whether or not there is a relationship between the occurrence of life events, the patterning of such events and the degree of psychological impairment. As in other field studies, we discovered a significant amount of psychiatric impairment in the community. Eighteen per cent of the adults interviewed were classified as having a high symptom level (very impaired), 47 per cent as a medium symptom level (moderately impaired), and 35 per cent as a low symptom level (unimpaired). More important, we found significant relationships between these scores and the occurrence of life events in the year previous to our interview. First, the greater the degree of impairment the more likely is the individual to have experienced at least one of 62 life events for which we gathered information. Equally important, there is a very strong association between the number of events experienced and the individual's mental status: the greater the number of events reported by respondents, the greater the proportional difference between the percentage of unimpaired and the percentage of very impaired who experienced that number of events. When events are categorized according to type of social activity, changes in the respondent's social field and degree of desirability impairment are strongly and positively related to the experiencing of life crises. Finally, similar patterns are found for each of the individual life events with the exception of several biopsychosocial situations associated with the family developmental cycle.Certain cultural and social factors, particularly role expectations and values, are discussed as possible factors helping to account for the relationshipsfound above between life crises and psychiatric impairment.
Development and organization of a nitric‐ oxide‐sensitive peripheral neural plexus in larvae of the moth, Manduca sexta

Each hemisegment of the Manduca sexta larva is supplied with a subepidermal plexus of approximately 350 multidendritic neurons. An initial set of neurons, the primary plexus neurons, arise at 35–45% of embryogenesis. These neurons comprise 12–16 uniquely identifiable neurons per hemisegment that have homologues in other insect larvae. Each spreads processes across a characteristic portion of the body wall and has an axon that projects into the central nervous system. Secondary plexus neurons are born in two waves: the first between 70% and 80% of embryogenesis and the second during the molt to the second larval stage. The secondary plexus neurons are multidendritic, spread uniformly across the body wall, and appear to make contacts with the primary plexus neurons. Each secondary plexus cell arises as part of a five‐cell cluster; the other cells produce a sensory bristle and socket along with the bristle sensory neuron and a glial cell. Application of nitric oxide (NO) donors induces plexus neurons to produce cyclic 3′,5′ guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), suggesting the presence of soluble guanylate cyclase. With few exceptions, plexus neurons become sensitive to NO stimulation approximately 10 hours after their birth and remain so throughout larval life. Cyclic GMP is detected primarily in the cytoplasm of plexus neurons and extends into the finest peripheral dendrites. Our results suggest that cGMP participates in the development and/or physiology of this peripheral neural plexus. J. Comp. Neurol. 404:127–141, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Maintenance of internet-based prevention: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE Excessive weight or shape concerns and dieting are among the most important and well-established risk factors for the development of symptoms of disordered eating or full-syndrome eating disorders. Prevention programs should therefore target these factors in order to reduce the likelihood of developing an eating disorder. The aims of this study were to determine the short-term and maintenance effects of an internet-based prevention program for eating disorders. METHOD One hundred female students at two German universities were randomly assigned to either an 8-week intervention or a waiting-list control condition and assessed at preintervention, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up. RESULTS Compared with the control group, the intervention produced significant and sustained effects for high-risk women. CONCLUSION Internet-based prevention is effective and can be successfully adapted to a different culture.
Über die Verankerung von Spundwänden

Die Anregung zu der vorliegenden Abhandlung erhielt ich aus der Grundbaupraxis bei Entwurfarbeiten fur verankerte Spundwandkajen. Insbesondere war es die Tatsache, dass sich nach dem bisher allgemein ublichen Verfahren zur Bestimmung der erforderlichen Ankerlange - mittels aktiver und in der Erdoberflache ansetzender passiver Gleitlinie - bei grosser Tiefenlage des Ankers oder bei Boschungsmauern unverhaltnismassig grosse Ankerlangen ergeben. Nach vergeblichem Suchen in der einschlagigen Grundbauliteratur nach geeigneten Berechnungsmethoden fur kurz verankerte Spundwande gelang es mir, ein neues Berechnungsverfahren fur die Bestimmung der erforderlichen Ankerlange zu finden und Formeln fur die Berechnung der moglichen Ruckhaltekraft bei kurzer Verankerung aufzustellen. Gleichzeitig wird hiermit der Nachweis erbracht, dass in fast allen praktisch vorkommenden Fallen eine ausreichende Spundwandverankerung mit kurzer Ankerlange moglich ist, dass also gegenuber dem bisher ublichen Konstruktionsverfahren an Ankerlange gespart werden kann. (original publication date December 1939)
Utilization of the Ability to Induce Activation of the Nuclear Factor (Erythroid-derived 2)-like Factor 2 (Nrf2) to Assess Potential Cancer Chemopreventive Activity of Liquorice Samples.

INTRODUCTION Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like factor 2 (Nrf2) is a transcription factor that regulates expression of many detoxification enzymes. Nrf2-antioxidant responsive element (Nrf2-ARE) signalling pathway can be a target for cancer chemoprevention. Glycyrrhiza glabra, common name, 'liquorice', is used as a sweetening and flavouring agent, and traditionally, to treat various ailments, and implicated to chemoprevention. However, its chemopreventive property has not yet been scientifically substantiated. OBJECTIVE To assess the ability of liquorice root samples to induce Nrf2 activation correlating to their potential chemopreventive property. METHODS The ability of nine methanolic extracts of liquorice root samples, collected from various geographical origins, to induce Nrf2 activation was determined by the luciferase reporter assay using the ARE-reporter cell line, AREc32. The antioxidant properties were determined by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl (DPPH) and the ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. RESULTS All extracts exhibited free-radical-scavenging property (RC50 = 136.39-635.66 µg/mL). The reducing capacity of ferrous ion was 214.46-465.59 μM Fe(II)/g. Nrf2 activation indicated that all extracts induced expression of ARE-driven luciferase activity with a maximum induction of 2.3 fold relative to control. These activities varied for samples from one geographical location to another. CONCLUSIONS The present findings add to the existing knowledge of cancer chemoprevention by plant-derived extracts or purified phytochemicals, particularly the potential use of liquorice for this purpose. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Heart Failure Following Creation of an Arteriovenous Fistula for Hemodialysis

Careful analysis of the Doppler profile, performance of maneuvers during image acquisition, and comparison of data with prior studies are basic tools that allow us to provide useful clinical information and improved diagnostic accuracy. Here, we discuss a patient in whom a thorough evaluation of the Doppler pattern at rest and during maneuvers and the identification of temporal changes in cardiac hemodynamics helped establish a diagnosis.
How to bring orphan genes into functional families

In the framework of the B1 Consortium of the EUROFAN‐1 project, we set up a series of simple phenotypic tests that can be performed on a large number of strains at a time. This methodological approach was intended to help assign functions of putative genes coding for unknown proteins to several specific aspects of cell biology. The tests were chosen to study phenotypes which should be affected by numerous genes. In this report, we examined the sensitivity/resistance or the adaptation of the cell to physical or chemical stresses (thermotolerance, osmotolerance and ethanol sensitivity), the effects of the alteration of the level of protein phosphorylation (sensitivity or resistance to compounds affecting the activity of protein kinases or phosphatases) and the effects of compounds interfering with synthesis of nucleic acids or proteins. Deletions in 66 genes of unknown function have been tested in 21 different conditions. In many deletant strains, phenotypes were observed and, for the most promising candidates, tetrad analysis was performed in order to verify co‐segregation of the deletion marker with the phenotype. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Abruptio placentae - relationship with other placental dysfunction related conditions

Objective: To investigate newborns’ sizes associated with abruptio placentae (AP) and to assess the association of a history of pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) and low birth weight with the occurrence of AP and vice versa. Design: A cohort study based on the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Results: AP in the first birth was associated with higher rates of AP, small for gestational age (SGA), and PIH in the second pregnancy. This was particularly evident for early onset preeclampsia (unadjusted odds ratio: 5.9; 95% confidence interval: 3.0–11.5). PIH in the first pregnancy was associated with higher rates of AP in the second. In women who delivered a newborn with weight below the 5th birth weight percentile, AP was 2–3 times more likely to occur than with birth weight percentiles 10–89.9. The occurrence of AP in the second pregnancy also increased with decreasing size at birth in the previous. Conclusions: A pregnancy subsequent to AP must be considered a risk pregnancy in terms of recurrent AP and excess risk of fetal growth restriction and PIH. In sibships with PIH, fetal growth restriction, or PA among siblings, the risk of AP is increased. This suggests a shared recurrent etiologic factor involving an abnormal feto-maternal relationship in AP, PIH, and fetal growth restriction.
Single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging to detect cardiac allograft vasculopathy.

AIMS Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in cardiac transplant recipients. This study evaluates the usefulness of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and various SPECT-derived diastolic variables to detect CAV in heart transplant patients. METHODS AND RESULTS A retrospective review of 141 SPECT studies with corresponding coronary angiograms within 12 months was performed on 99 transplant recipients. Diastolic function was assessed using computer-derived measures of peak filling rate (PFR), time to peak filling rate (TPFR), and mean first one-third filling rate (MFR/3). Angiography identified CAV in 53 of the 141 studies (38%). Of the 53, SPECT identified 7 with reversible myocardial defects (sensitivity 13%) and stress-induced electrocardiographic evidence of ischaemia was seen in one patient (sensitivity 2%). SPECT imaging was negative in 86 of the 88 negative coronary angiograms (specificity 98%). The positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 78 and 65%, respectively. If a more stringent definition of CAV was used (≥70% stenosis), the sensitivity and specificity were unchanged (14 and 98%, respectively). There was no statistical difference in diastolic variables between patients with or without angiographic evidence of CAV in regard to PFR (3.57 ± 1.14 vs. 3.18 ± 1.21 EDV/s, P = 0.90), TPFR (149 ± 32 vs. 153 ± 43 ms, P = 0.33), or MFR/3 (1.37 ± 0.43 vs. 1.27 ± 0.42 EDV/s, P = 0.94). CONCLUSION Adenosine stress/rest technetium-99m tetrofosmin-gated SPECT is not a sensitive test for detection of CAV in heart transplant recipients. Diastolic dysfunction, as assessed by SPECT, was not shown to be associated with development of CAV.
Human activity recognition using thigh angle derived from single thigh mounted IMU data

Accurate human activity recognition is a challenging topic of research in many areas. A common approach to activity recognition is to use accelerometers and/or gyroscopes to detect trunk or leg movement. This paper present a novel approach to detect human activities based on thigh angle computed using data from a single thigh mounted Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). As this work forms a component of a system under development to assist the vision impaired in indoor navigation, activities common in indoor pedestrian tracking such as sitting, standing and walking were considered in the development of the algorithm. This algorithm uses simple signal processing techniques including peak detection, zero crossing detection and timers to identify the activity based on the thigh angle computed by fusing accelerometer and gyroscope. This allows implantation of the algorithm in a general purpose low end microcontroller. To reduce the number of input parameters to the algorithm, it was assumed that accelerometer y-axis is aligned with the thigh such that gyroscopic x-data represents angular velocity of the forward and backward movement of the thigh. The algorithm has shown above 78% accuracy in detecting standing, above 92% accuracy for walking and no measured errors for sitting, in a test conducted with a limited number of samples with ideal testing conditions. These results indicate that this less computationally intense algorithm gives promising results in activity detection in indoor pedestrian navigation applications.
c-Myc Is Required for Proper Coronary Vascular Formation via Cell- and Gene-Specific Signaling

Objective—Although significant research has detailed angiogenesis during development and cancer, little is known about cardiac angiogenesis, yet it is critical for survival following pathological insult. The transcription factor c-Myc is a target of anticancer therapies because of its mitogenic and proangiogenic induction. In the current study, we investigate its role in cardiac angiogenesis in a cell-dependent and gene-specific context. Methods and Results—Angiogenesis assays using c-Myc-deficient cardiac endothelial cells and fibroblasts demonstrate that c-Myc is essential to vessel formation, and fibroblast-mediated vessel formation is dependent on c-Myc expression in fibroblasts. Gene analyses revealed that c-Myc–mediated gene expression is unique in cardiac angiogenesis and varies in a cell-dependent manner. In vitro 3-dimensional cultures demonstrated c-Myc’s role in the expression of secreted angiogenic factors, while also providing evidence for c-Myc–mediated cell–cell interactions. Additional in vivo vascular analyses support c-Myc’s critical role in capillary formation and vessel patterning during development and also in response to a pathological stimulus where its expression in myocytes is required for angiogenic remodeling. Conclusion—These data demonstrate that proper c-Myc expression in cardiac fibroblasts and myocytes is essential to cardiac angiogenesis. These results have the potential for novel therapeutic applications involving the angiogenic response during cardiac remodeling.
An Analysis of Library Rollbacks: A Case Study of Java Libraries

To take full advantage of third-party library functionality, developers of a software are encouraged to constantly migrate their library dependencies. When developers migrate a library, a library rollback may occur during a migration. The library rollback is a process of restoring the software to the previously defined library state, typically to recover because a library that could not integrate with that software based on any reasons. To ensure a quick successful migration of a new library or version, developers should avoid the time and resource costs of such rollbacks. In this paper, we investigate factors leading to a rollback during library migration. We propose an empirical method to detect rollbacks and apply it to 9,357 projects from GitHub that have been adopted by around 50 Maven libraries. The results indicate that dependencies with shorter release cycles are more likely to have a rollback.Furthermore, a project that responds more quickly to a newer library is more likely to have a rollback. We recommend that developers consider project version type, latency time and the release cycle of a library during library migration.