Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heightened brain response to pain anticipation in high‐functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked by both socio‐communicative difficulties and abnormalities in sensory processing. Much of the work on sensory deficits in ASD has focused on tactile sensations and the perceptual aspects of somatosensation, such as encoding of stimulus intensity and location. Although aberrant pain processing has often been noted in clinical observations of patients with ASD, it remains largely uninvestigated. Importantly, the neural mechanism underlying higher order cognitive aspects of pain processing such as pain anticipation also remains unknown. Here we examined both pain perception and anticipation in high‐functioning adults with ASD and matched healthy controls (HC) using an anticipatory pain paradigm in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and concurrent skin conductance response (SCR) recording. Participants were asked to choose a level of electrical stimulation that would feel moderately painful to them. Compared to HC group, ASD group chose a lower level of stimulation prior to fMRI. However, ASD participants showed greater activation in both rostral and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex during the anticipation of stimulation, but not during stimulation delivery. There was no significant group difference in insular activation during either pain anticipation or perception. However, activity in the left anterior insula correlated with SCR during pain anticipation. Taken together, these results suggest that ASD is marked with aberrantly higher level of sensitivity to upcoming aversive stimuli, which may reflect abnormal attentional orientation to nociceptive signals and a failure in interoceptive inference.
The Emergency Department Crash Cart: A systematic review and suggested contents.

BACKGROUND As the field of Emergency Medicine grows worldwide, the importance of an Emergency Department Crash Cart (EDCC) has long been recognized. Yet, there is paucity of relevant peer-reviewed literature specifically discussing EDCCs or proposing detailed features for an EDCC suitable for both adult and pediatric patients. METHODS The authors performed a systematic review of EDCC-specific literature indexed in Pubmed and Embase on December 20, 2016. In addition, the authors reviewed the 2015 American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care, the 2015 European Resuscitation Council (ERC) guidelines for resuscitation, and the 2013 American College of Surgeons (ACS) Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) 9th edition. RESULTS There were a total of 277 results, with 192 unique results and 85 duplicates. After careful review by two independent reviewers, all but four references were excluded. None of the four included articles described comprehensive contents of equipment and medications for both the adult and pediatric populations. This article describes in detail the final four articles specific to EDCC, and proposes a set of suggested contents for the EDCC. CONCLUSION Our systematic review shows the striking paucity of such a high impact indispensable item in the ED. We hope that our EDCC content suggestions help enhance the level of response of EDs in the resuscitation of adult and pediatric populations, and encourage the implementation of and adherence to the latest evidence-based resuscitation guidelines.
Anesthetics can alter subsequent in vitro assessment of contractility in slow and fast skeletal muscles of rat.

Anesthetic agents can interfere with measurement of skeletal muscle contractility in vivo or in situ. Data obtained in vitro are however believed to be unaffected by such drugs. Our objective was to compare in vitro contractile measurements of fast- and slow-twitch muscles dissected from rats anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium (PS, 50 mg/kg ip) or with a mixture of ketamine and xylazine (KX, 87.5:12.5 mg/kg ip). The soleus (Sol) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles were precisely dissected 10 and 20 min after induction of anesthesia and equilibrated for 20 min in vitro before measuring contractile properties. All data obtained from PS rats were comparable with published values obtained under similar conditions. In EDL, maximum tetanic tension (Po) in KX rats was significantly decreased at both times compared with that in PS muscles. In the Sol, only the muscles exposed for 20 min to KX showed a decreased Po. These results clearly emphasize the need for investigators assessing skeletal muscle contractility in vitro to take into account the type of anesthetics used and the time of in vivo exposition to the drug.
Long-Term Melatonin Therapy for Adolescents and Young Adults with Chronic Sleep Onset Insomnia and Late Melatonin Onset: Evaluation of Sleep Quality, Chronotype, and Lifestyle Factors Compared to Age-Related Randomly Selected Population Cohorts

The extent of continuance of melatonin therapy initiated in pre-pubertal children with chronic sleep onset insomnia (CSOI) was investigated in young adult life. Sleep timing, sleep quality, adverse events, reasons for cessation of therapy, and patient characteristics with regard to therapy regimen, chronotype and lifestyle factors possibly influencing sleeping behavior were assessed. With an online survey using questionnaires (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Insomnia Severity Index, Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire, and Munich Chronotype Questionnaire), outcomes were measured and compared with age-related controls. These controls were extracted from published epidemiological research programs applying the same questionnaires. At the moment of the survey, melatonin was still continued by 27.3% of the patients, with a mean treatment duration of 10.8 years. The overall average treatment duration was 7.1 years. Sleep quality of both discontinued and persistent melatonin users did not deviate from controls. Sleep timing and chronotype scores indicated evening type preference in all responders. Adverse events were scarce but the perceived timing of pubertal development suggested a tendency towards delayed puberty in former and current users of melatonin. This study may underestimate the number of children that are able to stop using melatonin due to the response rate (47.8%) and appeal for continuing users. Sleep timing parameters were based on self-reported estimates. Control populations were predominantly students and were of varying nationalities. The statistical power of this study is low due to the limited sample size. Melatonin therapy sustained for 7.1 years does not result in substantial deviations of sleep quality as compared to controls and appears to be safe. The evening type preference suggests a causal relation with CSOI. This study shows that ten years after initiation of treatment with melatonin for CSOI, approximately 75% of the patients will have normal sleep quality without medication.
Silicon sensitisation using light harvesting layers

Abstract Langmuir–Blodgett monolayers of a cyanine dye mixed with stearic acid were deposited on glass and silicon substrates with spacer layers of pure stearic acid monolayers or silicon dioxide films deposited by PECVD. By using the time correlated single photon counting technique, time resolved emission spectra (TRES) and decay curves were measured to characterise the dependence of energy transfer rate on the separation between the dye monolayer and the silicon surface and also for the dye concentrations in the monolayers. We observe interlayer energy transfer between monomers, dimers and higher aggregates present in the monolayer deposited on glass but also competing directly with energy transfer to silicon at close distances. We find that the fluorescence lifetime of the dye monolayer is significantly shortened when deposited close to the silicon surface signifying efficient energy transfer. The dissipation of the excitation energy near silicon is explained using the classical theory developed for metals and a deviation is observed for monolayers deposited at distances close to the silicon surface.
Benchmark Validation of Statistical Models: Application to Mediation Analysis of Imagery and Memory

This article describes benchmark validation, an approach to validating a statistical model. According to benchmark validation, a valid model generates estimates and research conclusions consistent with a known substantive effect. Three types of benchmark validation—(a) benchmark value, (b) benchmark estimate, and (c) benchmark effect—are described and illustrated with examples. Benchmark validation methods are especially useful for statistical models with assumptions that are untestable or very difficult to test. Benchmark effect validation methods were applied to evaluate statistical mediation analysis in eight studies using the established effect that increasing mental imagery improves recall of words. Statistical mediation analysis led to conclusions about mediation that were consistent with established theory that increased imagery leads to increased word recall. Benchmark validation based on established substantive theory is discussed as a general way to investigate characteristics of statistical models and a complement to mathematical proof and statistical simulation.
l-Arginine prevents lung neutrophil accumulation and preserves pulmonary endothelial function after endotoxin.

l-Arginine supplementation has been shown to restore endothelium-derived nitric oxide production in several pathological states. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of administration of exogenousl-arginine on the endotoxin-induced lung neutrophil accumulation and impairment of endothelium-dependent guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP)-mediated pulmonary vasorelaxation in rats. Endothelium-dependent relaxation was tested by receptor-dependent [acetylcholine (ACh)] and receptor-independent (A-23187) pathways. Endothelium-independent relaxation was tested with sodium nitroprusside (SNP). In isolated pulmonary arterial rings, concentration-response curves were generated with ACh, A-23187, and SNP (10-9 to 10-6 M) 4 h after endotoxin (500 μg/kg ip) with and without prior administration ofl-arginine (300 mg/kg ip). Lung neutrophil accumulation was determined by myeloperoxidase (MPO) assay. After endotoxin, lung neutrophil accumulation was significantly increased (MPO activity, 3.8 ± 0.4 vs. 0.8 ± 0.1 units/g lung weight in control cells; P < 0.05), which was prevented byl-arginine treatment (MPO activity, 1.3 ± 0.3 units/g lung weight; P < 0.05 vs. endotoxin). Endotoxin produced a significant impairment of endothelium-dependent cGMP-mediated pulmonary vasorelaxation by receptor-dependent (ACh) and -independent (A-23187) pathways as well as of endothelium-independent relaxation (SNP). Prior treatment withl-arginine, but not withd-arginine, preserved endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation. Neitherl- nord-arginine influenced endotoxin-induced impairment of endothelium-independent, cGMP-mediated pulmonary vasorelaxation. We conclude that administration of exogenousl-arginine prevents endotoxin-induced lung neutrophil accumulation and attenuates its associated impairment of endothelium-dependent, cGMP-mediated pulmonary vasorelaxation.
CD117/c-kit in Cancer Stem Cell-Mediated Progression and Therapeutic Resistance

Metastasis is the primary cause of cancer patient morbidity and mortality, but due to persisting gaps in our knowledge, it remains untreatable. Metastases often occur as patient tumors progress or recur after initial therapy. Tumor recurrence at the primary site may be driven by a cancer stem-like cell or tumor progenitor cell, while recurrence at a secondary site is driven by metastatic cancer stem cells or metastasis-initiating cells. Ongoing efforts are aimed at identifying and characterizing these stem-like cells driving recurrence and metastasis. One potential marker for the cancer stem-like cell subpopulation is CD117/c-kit, a tyrosine kinase receptor associated with cancer progression and normal stem cell maintenance. Further, activation of CD117 by its ligand stem cell factor (SCF; kit ligand) in the progenitor cell niche stimulates several signaling pathways driving proliferation, survival, and migration. This review examines evidence that the SCF/CD117 signaling axis may contribute to the control of cancer progression through the regulation of stemness and resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Co-Clustering Tags and Social Data Sources

Under social tagging systems, a typical Web 2.0 application, users label digital data sources by using freely chosen textual descriptions (tags). Poor retrieval in the aforementioned systems remains a major problem mostly due to questionable tag validity and tag ambiguity. Earlier clustering techniques have shown limited improvements, since they were based mostly on tag co-occurrences. In this paper, a co-clustering approach is employed, that exploits joint groups of related tags and social data sources, in which both social and semantic aspects of tags are considered simultaneously. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and the beneficial outcome of the proposed approach in correlating relevant tags and resources.
Sepiapterin Enhances Tumor Radio- and Chemosensitivities by Promoting Vascular Normalization

Previously, we demonstrated that nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS) is uncoupled in a wide range of solid tumors and that restoring NOS coupling with the tetrahydrobiopterin precursor sepiapterin (SP) inhibits tumor progression. Endothelial dysfunction characterizes the poorly functional vasculature of solid tumors, and since NO is critical for regulation of endothelial function we asked whether SP, by recoupling NOS, improves tumor vasculature structure and function-enhancing chemotherapeutic delivery and response to radiotherapy. MMTV-neu mice with spontaneous breast tumors were treated with SP by oral gavage and evaluated by multispectral optoacoustic tomographic analysis of tumor HbO2 and by tissue staining for markers of hypoxia, blood perfusion, and markers of endothelial and smooth muscle proteins. Recoupling tumor NOS activity results in vascular normalization observed as reduced tumor hypoxia, improved tumor percentage of HbO2 and perfusion, as well as increased pericyte coverage of tumor blood vessels. The normalized vasculature and improved tumor oxygenation led to a greater than 2-fold increase in radiation-induced apoptosis compared with radiation or SP alone. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis of tumor doxorubicin levels showed a greater than 50% increase in doxorubicin uptake and a synergistic effect on tumor cell apoptosis. This study highlights for the first time the importance of NOS uncoupling and endothelial dysfunction in the development of tumor vasculature and presents a new approach for improving the tumoricidal efficacies of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Long-term measurement of arterial blood pressure in conscious mice.

This study describes a technique for the direct daily measurement of arterial blood pressure, sampling of arterial blood, and continuous intravenous infusion in free-moving, conscious, Swiss-Webster mice. Catheters were chronically implanted in the femoral artery and vein, tunneled subcutaneously, exteriorized at the back of the neck in a lightweight tethering spring, and attached to a swivel device at the top of the cage. Time-control experiments ( n = 8) demonstrated stable values of mean arterial pressure (MAP, 116 ± 1 mmHg) and heart rate (HR, 627 ± 21 beats/min) for up to 35 days after catheter implantation. It was further observed that restraining mice ( n = 7) increased MAP by 10 ± 3 mmHg and HR by 78 ± 8 beats/min from the values observed under free-moving conditions. To demonstrate the chronic use of the venous catheter, intravenous infusion of N G-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME, 8.6 mg ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ day-1, n = 6) for 5 days significantly increased MAP from 117 ± 4 to 131 ± 4 mmHg without altering HR. In a final group of mice ( n = 5), orall-arginine (2% in drinking water) increased plasma arginine concentration from 90 ± 7 to 131 ± 17 μM and preventedl-NAME hypertension. These experiments illustrate the feasibility of long-term intravenous infusion, direct arterial blood pressure measurements, and arterial blood sampling in conscious mice.
CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated efficient targeted mutagenesis in grape in the first generation

Summary The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats‐associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system is a powerful tool for editing plant genomes. Efficient genome editing of grape (Vitis vinifera) suspension cells using the type II CRISPR/Cas9 system has been demonstrated; however, it has not been established whether this system can be applied to get biallelic mutations in the first generation of grape. In this current study, we designed four guide RNAs for the VvWRKY52 transcription factor gene for using with the CRISPR/Cas9 system, and obtained transgenic plants via Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation, using somatic embryos of the Thompson Seedless cultivar. Analysis of the first‐generation transgenic plants verified 22 mutant plants of the 72 T‐DNA‐inserted plants. Of these, 15 lines carried biallelic mutations and seven were heterozygous. A range of RNA‐guided editing events, including large deletions, were found in the mutant plants, while smaller deletions comprised the majority of the detected mutations. Sequencing of potential off‐target sites for all four targets revealed no off‐target events. In addition, knockout of VvWRKY52 in grape increased the resistance to Botrytis cinerea. We conclude that the CRISPR/Cas9 system allows precise genome editing in the first generation of grape and represents a useful tool for gene functional analysis and grape molecular breeding.
Immunophenotypic, cytogenetic, and mutational characterization of cell lines derived from myelodysplastic syndrome patients after progression to acute myeloid leukemia

Leukemia cell lines have been widely used in the hematology field to unravel mechanistic insights and to test new therapeutic strategies. Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) comprise a heterogeneous group of diseases that are characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis and frequent progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A few cell lines have been established from MDS patients after progression to AML but their characterization is incomplete. Here we provide a detailed description of the immunophenotypic profile of the MDS‐derived cell lines SKK‐1, SKM‐1, F‐36P; and MOLM‐13. Specifically, we analyzed a comprehensive panel of markers that are currently applied in the diagnostic routine for myeloid disorders. To provide high‐resolution genetic data comprising copy number alterations and losses of heterozygosity we performed whole genome single nucleotide polymorphism‐based arrays and included the cell line OHN‐GM that harbors the frequent chromosome arm 5q deletion. Furthermore, we assessed the mutational status of 83 disease‐relevant genes. Our results provide a resource to the MDS and AML field that allows researchers to choose the best‐matching cell line for their functional studies. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
SALSA: A Novel Dataset for Multimodal Group Behavior Analysis

Studying free-standing conversational groups (FCGs) in unstructured social settings (e.g., cocktail party) is gratifying due to the wealth of information available at the group (mining social networks) and individual (recognizing native behavioral and personality traits) levels. However, analyzing social scenes involving FCGs is also highly challenging due to the difficulty in extracting behavioral cues such as target locations, their speaking activity and head/body pose due to crowdedness and presence of extreme occlusions. To this end, we propose SALSA, a novel dataset facilitating multimodal and Synergetic sociAL Scene Analysis, and make two main contributions to research on automated social interaction analysis: (1) SALSA records social interactions among 18 participants in a natural, indoor environment for over 60 minutes, under the poster presentation and cocktail party contexts presenting difficulties in the form of low-resolution images, lighting variations, numerous occlusions, reverberations and interfering sound sources; (2) To alleviate these problems we facilitate multimodal analysis by recording the social interplay using four static surveillance cameras and sociometric badges worn by each participant, comprising the microphone, accelerometer, bluetooth and infrared sensors. In addition to raw data, we also provide annotations concerning individuals' personality as well as their position, head, body orientation and F-formation information over the entire event duration. Through extensive experiments with state-of-the-art approaches, we show (a) the limitations of current methods and (b) how the recorded multiple cues synergetically aid automatic analysis of social interactions. SALSA is available at http://tev.fbk. eu/salsa.
An equivalent lumped circuit model for on-chip helical transformers

: This paper presents a compact equivalent lumped circuit model for on-chip helical transformers. From fundamental model, a simple coupled RL loop is added to account for the skin and proximity e ﬀ ect, and a series RLC branch is added to account for the parasitic coupling e ﬀ ects between inductors. Several helical transformers with various design con ﬁ gurations were fabricated using a standard 0.18 µm 1P6M CMOS process. It ’ s dem-onstrated that the proposed model shows good accuracy over two times self-resonance frequency, which is essential for the design of high-speed and radio-frequency circuit.
Cytotoxicity assessment of polyhydroxybutyrate/chitosan/nano- bioglass nanofiber scaffolds by stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth stem cells from dental pulp of exfoliated deciduous tooth

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the cytotoxicity and the biocompatibility of three different nanofibers scaffolds after seeding of stem cells harvested from human deciduous dental pulp. Given the importance of scaffold and its features in tissue engineering, this study demonstrated the construction of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)/chitosan/nano-bioglass (nBG) nanocomposite scaffold using electrospinning method. Materials and Methods: This experimental study was conducted on normal exfoliated deciduous incisors obtained from 6-year-old to 11-year-old healthy children. The dental pulp was extracted from primary incisor teeth which are falling aseptically. After digesting the tissue with 4 mg/ml of type I collagenase, the cells were cultured in medium solution. Identification of stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth was performed by flowcytometry using CD19, CD14, CD146, and CD90 markers. Then, 1 × 104 stem cells were seeded on the scaffold with a diameter of 10 mm × 0.3 mm. Cell viability was evaluated on days 3, 5, and 7 through methyl thiazol tetrazolium techniques (P < 0.05) on different groups that they are groups included (1) PHB scaffold (G1), (2) PHB/chitosan scaffold (G2), (3) the optimal PHB/chitosan/nBG scaffold (G3), (4) mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA), and (5) the G3 + MTA scaffold (G3 + MTA). Data were analyzed with two-way ANOVA at significance level of P < 0.05. Results: The results indicated that the PHB/chitosan/nBG scaffold and PHB/chitosan/nBG scaffold + MTA groups showed significant difference compared with the PHB/chitosan scaffold and PHB scaffold groups on the 7th day (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Thus, it can be concluded that the scaffold with nBG nanoparticles is more biocompatible than the other scaffolds and can be considered as a suitable scaffold for growth and proliferation of stem cells.