Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of a Vitamin/Nutriceutical Formulation for Early-stage Alzheimer's Disease: A 1-year, Open-label Pilot Study With an 16-Month Caregiver Extension

We examined the efficacy of a vitamin/nutriceutical formulation (folate, vitamin B6, alpha-tocopherol, S-adenosyl methionine, N-acetyl cysteine, and acetyl-L-carnitine) in a 12-month, open-label trial with 14 community-dwelling individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Participants improved in the Dementia Rating Scale and Clock-drawing tests (Clox 1 and 2). Family caregivers reported improvement in multiple domains of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and maintenance of performance in the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study—Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Sustained performance was reported by caregivers for those participants who continued in an 16-month extension. Performance on the NPI was equivalent to published findings at 3 to 6 months for donepezil and exceeded that of galantamine and their historical placebos. Participants demonstrated superior performance for more than 12 months in NPI and ADL versus those receiving naproxen and rofecoxib or their placebo group. This formulation holds promise for treatment of early-stage Alzheimer's disease prior to and/or as a supplement for pharmacological approaches. A larger, placebo-controlled trial is warranted.
Going for Goals

We report on an effectiveness trial of a short, social—emotional intervention called ‘Going for Goals’, developed as part of the primary social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) programme in England. Our aim was to investigate the impact of Going for Goals on childrens’ social and emotional skills, behaviour and emotional well-being. The sample comprised 182 children (aged 6—11) attending 22 primary schools across England. Data were collected using child self-report, and parent- and teacher-informant report questionnaires in a pre-test—post-test control group design at the beginning of the intervention, at the end of the intervention, and at eight-week follow-up. One hundred and two children took part in the intervention, and 80 acted as a comparison group. Those who took part in the intervention attended weekly 45 minute small group sessions for eight weeks. Child self-report and teacher informant report data indicated that the intervention had a positive impact on the social and emotional skills of children selected for extra support. Teacher informant report data also indicated that the intervention was successful in reducing the behavioural and emotional difficulties of these children. Analysis of follow-up data suggested that the positive impacts had been sustained following the end of the intervention. Parental informant report data yielded null results. Our findings suggest that Going for Goals is successful in promoting social and emotional skills and reducing behavioural and emotional difficulties of children in need of extra support. However, future iterations may need to consider activities beyond the school setting in order to produce changes that are salient to parents.
Cálculo de la energía generada por un sistema fotovoltaico conectado a red:aplicación docente

Se presentan una serie de conclusiones sobre la experiencia adquirida en la fabricacion de circuitos impresos, en el Laboratorio de Fabricacion de Prototipos y Sistemas Electronicos del IUMA. Se describen los equipos y servicios disponibles y se realiza un analisis de la problematica de la fabricacion y montaje de circuitos complejos multicapa que incorporan componentes SMD de paso fino y BGA. Todo desde el punto de vista de su utilizacion en practicas docentes, PFC y proyectos de investigacion.
Comparison of cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses against pancreatic cancer induced by dendritic cells transfected with total tumor RNA and fusion hybrided with tumor cell

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a deadly human malignancy. Dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy with whole tumor antigens demonstrates potential efficiency in cancer treatment. Tumor RNA and tumor fusion hybrid cells are sources of whole tumor antigens for preparing DC tumor vaccines. However, the efficacy of these sources in eliciting immune responses against PC has not yet to be directly compared. In the present study, patient-derived PC cells and DCs were fused (DC–tumor hybrids) and primary cultured PC cell-derived total RNA was electroporated into autologous DCs (DC–tumor RNA). The antitumor immune responses induced by DC–tumor hybrids and DC–tumor RNA were compared directly. The results showed that both RNA and hybrid methodologies could induce tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses, but pulsing DCs with total tumor RNA could induce a higher frequency of activated CTLs and T-helper cells than fusing DCs with autologous tumor cells. In addition, DC–tumor RNA triggered stronger autologous tumor cell lysis than DC–tumor hybrids. It could be concluded that DCs pulsed with whole tumor RNA are superior to those fused with tumor cells in priming anti-PC CTL responses. Electroporation with total tumor RNA may be more suitable for DC-based PC vaccination.
Will Medical Solutions to Sexual Problems Make Sexological Care and Science Obsolete?

Developments in the field of sexology indicate a trend toward the medicalization of sexual issues which is likely to continue over the next decades. With the introduction of new pharmacological treatments, the resulting shift from the biopsychosocial model to the disease model will become increasingly accepted and solidified over the next decade. Some of this shift may be beneficial in that the healthcare needs of the patient/client may at times be better served through this route. However, concern arises when such shifts are likely to limit the meaningful choices presented to the patient and to dampen support for basic psycho-behavioral and neurophysiological sexological investigation. Such developments challenge sexologists and sex therapists to define their treatment outcomes more clearly and, relying on stronger evidence-based studies, define the critical role of the therapist in achieving these outcomes.
ACL injuries in men's professional football: a 15-year prospective study on time trends and return-to-play rates reveals only 65% of players still play at the top level 3 years after ACL rupture

Background Studies investigating the development of ACL injuries over time in football are scarce and more data on what happens before and after return to play (RTP) are needed. Aim To investigate (1) time trends in ACL injury rates, (2) complication rates before return to match play following ACL reconstruction, and (3) the influence of ACL injury on the subsequent playing career in male professional football players. Methods 78 clubs were followed between 2001 and 2015. Time trend in ACL injury rate was analysed using linear regression. ACL-injured players were monitored until RTP and tracked for 3 years after RTP. Results We recorded 157 ACL injuries, 140 total and 17 partial ruptures, with a non-significant average annual increase in the ACL injury rate by 6% (R2=0.13, b=0.059, 95% CI −0.04 to 0.15, p=0.20). The match ACL injury rate was 20-fold higher than the training injury rate (0.340 vs 0.017 per 1000 h). 138 players (98.6%) with a total rupture underwent ACL reconstruction; all 134 players with RTP data (4 players still under rehabilitation) were able to return to training, but 9 of them (6.7%) suffered complications before their first match appearance (5 reruptures and 4 other knee surgeries). The median layoff after ACL reconstruction was 6.6 months to training and 7.4 months to match play. We report 3-year follow-up data for 106 players in total; 91 players (85.8%) were still playing football and 60 of 93 players (65%) with ACL reconstruction for a total rupture played at the same level. Conclusions The ACL injury rate has not declined during the 2000s and the rerupture rate before return to match play was 4%. The RTP rate within a year after ACL reconstruction was very high, but only two-thirds competed at the highest level 3 years later.
Intensive blood pressure reduction in acute intracerebral hemorrhage

Objective: The aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intensive blood pressure (BP) reduction in patients with acute-onset intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) using data from randomized controlled trials. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines of all available randomized controlled trials that randomized patients with acute ICH to either intensive or guideline BP-reduction protocols. Results: We identified 4 eligible studies, including a total of 3,315 patients (mean age 63.4 ± 1.4 years, 64% men). Death rates were similar between patients randomized to intensive BP-lowering treatment and those receiving guideline BP-lowering treatment (odds ratio = 1.01, 95% confidence interval: 0.83–1.23; p = 0.914). Intensive BP-lowering treatment tended to be associated with lower 3-month death or dependency (modified Rankin Scale grades 3–6) compared with guideline treatment (odds ratio = 0.87, 95% confidence interval: 0.76–1.01; p = 0.062). No evidence of heterogeneity between estimates (I2 = 0%; p = 0.723), or publication bias in the funnel plots (p = 0.993, Egger statistical test), was detected. Intensive BP reduction was also associated with a greater attenuation of absolute hematoma growth at 24 hours (standardized mean difference ± SE: −0.110 ± 0.053; p = 0.038). Conclusions: Our findings indicate that intensive BP management in patients with acute ICH is safe. Fewer intensively treated patients had unfavorable 3-month functional outcome although this finding did not reach significance. Moreover, intensive BP reduction appears to be associated with a greater attenuation of absolute hematoma growth at 24 hours.
Elsevier Editorial System(tm) for Journal of Neuroscience Methods Manuscript Draft Manuscript Number: JNEUMETH-D-07-00538R1 Title: Effective electromagnetic noise cancellation with beamformers and synthetic gradiometry in shielded and partly-shielded environments

The major challenge of MEG, the inverse problem, is to estimate the very weak primary neuronal currents from the measurements of extracranial magnetic fields. The non-uniqueness of this inverse solution is compounded by the fact that MEG signals contain large environmental and physiological noise that further complicates the problem. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of magnetic noise cancellation by synthetic gradiometers and the beamformer analysis method of Synthetic Aperture Magnetometry (SAM) for source localisation in the presence of large stimulus-generated noise. We demonstrate that activation of primary somatosensory cortex can be accurately identified using SAM despite the presence of significant stimulus-related magnetic interference. This interference was generated by a contact heat evoked potential stimulator (CHEPS), recently developed for thermal pain research, but which to date has not been used in a MEG environment. We also show that in a reduced shielding environment the use of higher order synthetic gradiometry is sufficient to obtain signal-to-noise ratios that allow for accurate localisation of cortical sensory function. Suggested Reviewers:
Enhancing NoSQL datastores with fine-grained context-aware access control: a preliminary study on MongoDB

NoSQL datastores are getting increasing attention by companies and organisation for the ease and efficiency of handling high volumes of heterogeneous and unstructured data. Nowadays, as majority of these systems are available as cloud based services, this potentially favours their use even among small companies that could not afford the management of server farms for local cluster based solutions. However, besides all their benefits in terms of performance, availability and scalability as well as support for advanced analysis forms, NoSQL datastores also have some weaknesses, such as poor natively provided support for data protection. Recent surveys show that several companies consider the poor support for security features of NoSQL databases as a valid reason not to use them (Intel Co., 2013). In this paper, we do a first step to overcome these weaknesses by first proposing a roadmap to enhance the data protection functionalities of NoSQL datastores. Then, we illustrate our preliminary experience of desi.
Users ’ Perceived Difficulties and Corresponding Reformulation Strategies in Google Voice Search

In this article, we report users’ perceptions of query input errors and query reformulation strategies in voice search using data collected through a laboratory user study. Our results reveal that: 1) users’ perceived obstacles during a voice search can be related to speech recognition errors and topic complexity; 2) users naturally develop different strategies to deal with various types of words (e.g., acronyms, single-worded queries, non-English words) with high error rates in speech recognition; and 3) users can have various emotional reactions when encounter voice input errors and they develop preferred usage occasions for voice search.
Multiphase pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (MP‐PCASL) for robust quantification of cerebral blood flow

Pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (PCASL) has been demonstrated to provide the sensitivity of the continuous arterial spin labeling method while overcoming many of the limitations of that method. Because the specification of the phases in the radiofrequency pulse train in PCASL defines the tag and control conditions of the flowing arterial blood, its tagging efficiency is sensitive to factors, such as off‐resonance fields, that induce phase mismatches between the radiofrequency pulses and the flowing spins. As a result, the quantitative estimation of cerebral blood flow with PCASL can exhibit a significant amount of error when these factors are not taken into account. In this paper, the sources of the tagging efficiency loss are characterized and a novel PCASL method that utilizes multiple phase offsets is proposed to reduce the tagging efficiency loss in PCASL. Simulations are performed to evaluate the feasibility and the performance of the proposed method. Quantitative estimates of cerebral blood flow obtained with multiple phase offset PCASL are compared to estimates obtained with conventional PCASL and pulsed arterial spin labeling. Our results show that multiple phase offset PCASL provides robust cerebral blood flow quantification while retaining much of the sensitivity advantage of PCASL. Magn Reson Med, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Bioinformatic profiling identifies an immune-related risk signature for glioblastoma

Objective: To investigate the local immune status and its prognostic value in glioma. Methods: A cohort of 297 glioma samples with whole genome microarray expression data from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas database were included for discovery. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used for validation. Principal components analysis and gene set enrichment analysis were used to explore the bioinformatic implication. Results: Distinct local immune status was identified according to histologic grade. Glioblastoma (GBM) exhibited an enhanced immune phenotype compared to lower grade glioma. We profiled the immune-related gene set and identified 8 genes (FOXO3, IL6, IL10, ZBTB16, CCL18, AIMP1, FCGR2B, and MMP9) with the greatest prognostic value in GBM. A local immune-related risk signature was developed from the genes to distinguish cases as high or low risk of unfavorable prognosis, which could be validated in TCGA database. High-risk patients conferred an enhanced intensity of local immune response compared to low-risk ones. Additionally, the signature exhibited different distribution based on molecular features. The signature had prognostic significance in the stratified cohorts and was identified as an independent prognostic factor for GBM. Conclusions: We profiled the immune status in glioma and established a local immune signature for GBM, which could independently identify patients with a high risk of reduced survival, indicating the relationship between prognosis and local immune response.
Chaperone Function of Calreticulin When Expressed in the Endoplasmic Reticulum as the Membrane-anchored and Soluble Forms (*)

A unique type of chaperone that requires glucose trimming of the target proteins has been shown to be important for their maturation in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Calnexin, an ER membrane chaperone, is the first example of such a class. Here, we focus on calreticulin, a major ER luminal protein, which shares with calnexin two sets of characteristic sequence repeat. We evaluated the chaperone function of calreticulin by expressing it on the ER luminal membrane surface. We constructed a membrane-anchored calreticulin chimera by fusing truncated calreticulin to the membrane-anchoring tagged segment of calnexin. When expressed in HepG2 cells, the calreticulin chimera transiently interacted with a set of nascent secretory proteins in a castanospermine-sensitive manner. The spectrum of proteins recognized by the membrane-anchored calreticulin was remarkably similar to that observed with calnexin. Next, we tested if such a chaperone function of calreticulin is expressed at its physiological location. Luminally expressed calreticulin preferentially bound to nascent transferrin and released it upon chase. Association with other calnexin ligands was observed, however, at low efficiencies. Interactions were abrogated by castanospermine treatment. We conclude that calreticulin per se is another chaperone with apparently the same characteristics as calnexin and selectively interacts with nascent transferrin in the lumen, suggesting that calreticulin may cover the diversity of maturations.
Linkage of vat(E) and erm(B) in Streptogramin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium Isolates from Europe

Quinupristin-dalfopristin is a streptogramin and has recently been approved for human treatment (7). Streptogramins have been considered valuable antimicrobial drugs for treatment of infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and multiresistant enterococci (8). Low frequencies of streptogramin resistance have been detected among Enterococcus faecium strains of human origin in Europe and the United States (8, 11), whereas streptogramin resistance has been detected frequently among E. faecium strains of animal origin (2, 12, 14), especially among poultry isolates (2, 14). The streptogramin virginiamycin has been used as a growth promoter in both Europe and the United States. Streptogramins consist of two compounds: streptogramin A and streptogramin B (4). Several genes encoding resistance to streptogramins in E. faecium have been described (10). Two genes encoding resistance to streptogramin A in E. faecium have been identified. These are vat(D) (formerly called satA [9]) and vat(E) (formerly called satG [15]). For streptogramin B resistance, the erm genes are known to encode macrolide, lincosamide, and streptogramin B resistance (MLSB) (13). Another gene encoding streptogramin B resistance in enterococci is vgb (1).
Data mining and life sciences applications on the grid

Data mining (DM) is increasingly used in the analysis of data generated in life sciences, including biological data produced in several disciplines such as genomics and proteomics, medical data produced in clinical practice, and administrative data produced in health care. The difficulty in mining such data is twofold. First of all, data in life sciences are inherently heterogeneous, spanning from molecular level data to clinical and administrative data. Second, data in life sciences are produced at an increasing rate and data repositories are becoming very large. Thus, the management and analysis of such data is becoming a main bottleneck in biomedical research. The main goal of this paper is to review the main methodologies to mine life sciences data and the ways they are coupled to high‐performance infrastructures and systems that result in an efficient analysis. This paper recalls basic concepts of DM, grids, and distributed DM on grids, and reviews main approaches to mine biomedical data on high‐performance infrastructures with special focus on the analysis of genomics, proteomics, and interactomics data, and the exploration of magnetic resonance images in neurosciences. The paper can be of interest both to bioinformaticians, who can learn how to exploit high performance infrastructures to mine life sciences data, and to computer scientists, who can address the heterogeneity and the high volumes of life sciences data at the data management, algorithm, and user interface layers. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The effects of long-term metformin treatment on adrenal and ovarian steroidogenesis in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate adrenal and ovarian steroidogenesis before and after long-term treatment with metformin in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). DESIGN AND METHODS Twenty-four women with PCOS were evaluated before and after treatment (27+/-4 weeks) with metformin (1000 mg/day) using adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH), GnRH analogue and oral glucose tolerance (oGTT) tests. For statistical evaluation, ANOVA and Wilcoxon's test were used. RESULTS In 58% of the women a significant improvement in menstrual cyclicity was observed. No significant change in basal steroid levels was found. After ACTH stimulation, a significant decrease in the activity of 3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in C(21) steroids (P<0.05) and in 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (P<0.01) was observed, as was an increase in the activity of C17,20-lyase in the Delta(4) pathway (P<0.01). A significant growth in the dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)/DHEA-sulfate ratio (P<0.05) was detected. With regard to ovarian steroidogenesis, a significant decrease in the stimulated levels of testosterone (P<0.05), index of free testosterone (P<0.01), LH (P<0.05) and oestradiol (P<0.01), and an increase in the levels of 17-hydroxypregnenolone (P<0.05) were detected. In the indices of ovarian enzyme activities, we observed a significant decrease in 3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in C21 steroids (P<0.01), in C17,20-lyase in the Delta 5 pathway (P<0.01), in 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (P<0.05) and in aromatase. In glucose metabolism, a tendency towards reduction in the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA)-R (for insulin resistance) and HOMA-F (for beta cell function) was detected. In addition, an increase in the levels of C peptide during oGTT was observed (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Long-term metformin treatment reduced various steroid enzymatic activities both in the ovary and the adrenal glands, without apparent changes in basal steroid levels and in insulin sensitivity.