Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pimecrolimus – an anti‐inflammatory drug targeting the skin

Abstract: Pimecrolimus is the most recent member of calcineurin inhibitors available for the therapy for inflammatory skin diseases. It targets T‐cells and mast cells and inhibits the production and release of cytokines and other inflammatory mediators, as well as the expression of signals essential for the activation of inflammatory T‐lymphocytes. Pimecrolimus has a cell‐selective mode of action. In contrast to corticosteroids, it does not affect, e.g., Langerhans'cells/dendritic cells (LC/DC), as demonstrated in vitro with human monocyte‐derived DC and in vivo with epidermal LC in mice, nor human primary fibroblasts. As shown in vitro with human skin and by comparison of clinical pharmacokinetic data from patients with atopic dermatitis, pimecrolimus permeates less through skin than tacrolimus and much less than corticosteroids. It, thus, has a lower potential for transcutaneous resorption after topical administration, resulting in a lower risk of systemic effects. Pimecrolimus has high anti‐inflammatory activity in animal models of skin inflammation, including a model reflecting neurogenic inflammation, but a more favourable balance of anti‐inflammatory vs. immunosuppressive activity than tacrolimus. Pimecrolimus does not affect sensitization in a murine model of allergic contact dermatitis and has a lower potency in various models of immunosuppression after systemic administration, compared to tacrolimus. In conclusion, the results of preclinical studies show that pimecrolimus has a selective pharmacological profile, suited for effective and safe treatment for inflammatory skin diseases.
An MILP-based optimal energy flow of regional multiple energy network

In this paper, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) method is proposed for calculating the optimal energy flow in a regional multiple energy system. A basic model of a regional multiple energy network consisting of electrical distribution network, natural gas network, heat network, electrical boiler and combined heat and power units (CHP) is presented first. The nonlinear gas transmission constraints and mass flow transmission constraints of heat network make the optimal energy flow hard to solve, thus a piecewise linear approximation method is applied to manage the two transmission constraints. Meanwhile, a new variable heat quantity is introduced to combine the hydraulic and thermal calculation together to use the piecewise linear method. Finally, an 85 bus electricity-gas-heat combined energy network is served for demonstrating the proposed method.
Have Changes in ECMO Technology Impacted Outcomes in Adult Patients Developing Postcardiotomy Cardiogenic Shock?

Abstract Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) technology has undergone several advancements over the last decade. We sought to compare current ECMO technology to older ones to determine how these technological improvements have impacted outcomes in patients suffering from postcardiotomy cardiogenic shock (PCS). Between 2005 and 2010, 49 patients received ECMO as support for PCS following elective cardiac surgery. Patients were divided into three groups. Group 1 (Gp 1, n = 11) patients received a Biomedicus pump with an Affinity oxygenator, Group 2 (Gp 2, n = 11) patients received a Biomedicus pump with a Quadrox D oxygenator, and Group 3 (Gp 3, n = 27) patients received a Rotaflow pump with a Quadrox D oxygenator. Groups were compared with regards to adverse events and ability to wean. Adverse event analysis showed no statistically significant difference between groups in incidence of stroke (p = 0.08), renal failure (p = 0.88), or bleeding requiring reexploration (p = 0.10). Changes in technology did little to improve weaning rates from ECMO (Gp 1 = 63.6%, Gp 2 = 45.5%, and Gp 3 = 55.6%). Similar trends were detected in hospital survival (Gp 1 = 27.3%, Gp 2 = 27.3%, and Gp 3 = 33.3%). Technology did impact oxygenator durability with Gp 1 requiring seven (63.6%) oxygenator exchanges compared to zero (0.0%) in Gp 2 and two (7.4%) in Gp 1. While advancements in ECMO technology have resulted in improved oxygenator durability, outcomes in patients requiring such support for PCS continue to be poor.
Training-induced plasticity of the social brain in autism spectrum disorder

Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is linked to social brain activity and facial affect recognition (FAR). Aims To examine social brain plasticity in ASD. Method Using FAR tests and functional magnetic resonance imaging tasks for FAR, we compared 32 individuals with ASD and 25 controls. Subsequently, the participants with ASD were assigned to FAR computer-aided cognitive training or a control group. Results The ASD group performed more poorly than controls on explicit behavioural FAR tests. In the scanner, during implicit FAR, the amygdala, fusiform gyrus and other regions of the social brain were less activated bilaterally. The training group improved on behavioural FAR tests, and cerebral response to implicit affect processing tasks increased bilaterally post-training in the social brain. Conclusions Individuals with ASD show FAR impairments associated with hypoactivation of the social brain. Computer-based training improves explicit FAR and neuronal responses during implicit FAR, indicating neuroplasticity in the social brain in ASD.
The Potential Effectiveness of Social Skills Groups for Adults with Autism

A recent survey of clinical services for individuals with autism (Howlin, 1998) indicated that a number of services were considering, or were actually in the process of, setting up groups for more able adolescents or adults with autism. However, there have been very few reports of the clients and strategies involved in such groups, of the practical problems associated with their organization, or of their general effectiveness. If professionals are to benefit from existing expertise in this area, systematic data are clearly required on the intervention strategies employed; the therapists involved; the group composition (age, ability and number of participants); and the frequency and number of sessions offered. In order to encourage more widespread sharing of information on how and for whom such groups can be made optimally effective, we begin with a report of a social skills group held at the Maudsley Hospital in London over the course of a year.
Use and Safety of Antipsychotics in Behavioral Disorders in Elderly People With Dementia

Abstract In recent years, the use of antipsychotics has been widely debated for reasons concerning their safety in elderly patients affected with dementia. To update the use of antipsychotics in elderly demented people, a MEDLINE search was conducted using the following terms: elderly, conventional and atypical antipsychotics, adverse events, dementia, and behavioral and psychotic symptoms in dementia (BPSD). Owing to the large amounts of studies on antipsychotics, we mostly restricted the field of research to the last 10 years. Conventional antipsychotics have been widely used for BPSD; some studies showed they have an efficacy superior to placebo only at high doses, but they are associated with several and severe adverse effects. Atypical antipsychotics showed an efficacy superior to placebo in randomized studies in BPSD treatment, with a better tolerability profile versus conventional drugs. However, in 2002, trials with risperidone and olanzapine in elderly patients affected with dementia-related psychoses suggested the possible increase in cerebrovascular adverse events. Drug regulatory agencies issued specific recommendations for underlining that treatment of BPSD with atypical antipsychotics is “off-label. ” Conventional antipsychotics showed the same likelihood to increase the risk of death in the elderly as atypical agents, and they should not replace the atypical agents discontinued by Food and Drug Administration warnings. Before prescribing an antipsychotic drug, the following are factors to be seriously considered: the presence of cardiovascular diseases, QTc interval on electrocardiogram, electrolytic imbalances, familiar history for torsades des pointes, concomitant treatments, and use of drugs able to lengthen QTc. Use of antipsychotics in dementia needs a careful case-by-case assessment, together with the possible drug-drug, drug-disease, and drug-food interactions.
From Tones in Tinnitus to Sensed Social Interaction in Schizophrenia: How Understanding Cortical Organization Can Inform the Study of Hallucinations and Psychosis

The content, modality, and perceptual attributes of hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms may be related to neural representation at a single cell and population level in the cerebral cortex. A brief survey of some principles and examples of cortical representation and organization will be presented together with evidence for a correspondence between the neurobiology of brain areas activated at the time of a hallucination and the content of the corresponding hallucinatory and psychotic experiences. Contrasting the hallucinations of schizophrenia with other conditions, we highlight phenomenological aspects of hallucinations that are ignored in clinical practice but carry potentially important information about the brain regions and dysfunctions underlying them. Knowledge of cortical representation and organization are being used to develop animal models of hallucination and to test treatments that are now beginning to translate to the clinical domain.
New Retail Capital and Neighborhood Change: Boutiques and Gentrification in New York City

Since the 1970s, certain types of upscale restaurants, cafés, and stores have emerged as highly visible signs of gentrification in cities all over the world. Taking Harlem and Williamsburg as field sites, we explore the role of these new stores and services (“boutiques”) as agents of change in New York City through data on changing composition of retail and services, interviews with new store owners, and discursive analysis of print media. Since the 1990s, the share of boutiques, including those owned by small local chains, has dramatically increased, while the share of corporate capital (large chain stores) has increased somewhat, and the share of traditional local stores and services has greatly declined. the media, state, and quasi–public organizations all value boutiques, which they see as symbols and agents of revitalization. Meanwhile, new retail investors—many, in Harlem, from the new black middle class—are actively changing the social class and ethnic character of the neighborhoods. Despite owners’ responsiveness to community identity and racial solidarity, “boutiquing” calls attention to displacement of local retail stores and services on which long–term, lower class residents rely and to the state's failure to take responsibility for their retention, especially in a time of economic crisis.
Pushed or Pulled? Women's Entry into Self‐Employment and Small Business Ownership

Over the past two decades the economies of Canada and many other industrialized countries have seen significant restructuring, bringing with it steadily rising levels of self-employment and small business ownership. Women have been at the forefront of this change. Of the many questions raised by women's entrance into self-employment, a central one concerns the factors fuelling its growth. While some argue that women have been pulled into self-employment by the promise of independence, flexibility and the opportunity to escape barriers in paid employment, others argue that women have been pushed into it as restructuring and downsizing has eroded the availability of once secure jobs in the public and private sector. To date, existing research on the ‘push–pull’ debate has not fully answered; these questions, with survey and labour force data suggesting only general and sometimes contradictory, trends. This article examines this issue in greater detail, drawing on in-depth interviews with 61 self-employed women in Canada. Overall their experiences shed further light on the expansion of women's self-employment in the 1990s, suggesting push factors have been underestimated and challenging the current contours of the ‘push–pull’ debate.
A gain-flatness optimization solution for feedback technology of wideband low noise amplifiers

The S parameter expression of high-frequency models of the high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with basic feedback structure, especially the transmission gain S21, is presented and analyzed. In addition, an improved feedback structure and its theory are proposed and demonstrated, in order to obtain a better gain-flatness through the mutual interaction between the series inductor and the parallel capacitor in the feedback loop. The optimization solution for the feedback amplifier can eliminate the negative impacts on transmission gain S21 caused by things such as resonance peaks. Furthermore, our theory covers the shortage of conventional feedback amplifiers, to some extent. A wideband low-noise amplifier (LNA) with the improved feedback technology is designed based on HEMT. The transmission gain is about 20 dB with the gain variation of 1.2 dB from 100 MHz to 6 GHz. The noise figure is lower than 2.8 dB in the whole band and the amplifier is unconditionally stable.
The Present Role of Liver Biopsy in Kidney Transplant Candidates in the Management of Hepatitis B and C Patients

This chapter will deal with the present role of Liver Biopsy in determining liver disease prognosis in hepatitis B and C patients on haemodialysis and its role in establishing treatment strategies and in the decision-making process prior to kidney transplant. In recent years, progress has been made in determining the natural history of this disease in renal patients (Espinosa et al., 2004; Jadoul et al., 2004). Chronic hepatitis due to HCV is frequent in renal transplant recipients and in dialysis patients and has a significant impact on their survival (Hanafusa et al., 1998; Orloff et al., 1995; Pouteil-Noble et al., 1995). Mathurin et al., (1999) demonstrated in a case-control study that anti-HCV and HBsAg positive were independently associated with patient and graft survival. This was the first time that a 10 year follow-up was carried out; previous publications are based on shorter follow-ups and fewer patients. It is known that the prevalence of chronic infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in patients with chronic kidney disease is higher than in the general population (Lavanchy, 2009). The estimated prevalence of chronic infection in haemodialysis patients is 13%, ranging from 10 to 65 %, depending on the geographical zone (Hmaied et al., 2006; Huraib et al., 1995; Santos & Souto, 2007; Shamshiraz et al., 2004). When considering patients candidates to kidney transplantation we have to take into account that immunosuppressive therapy after renal transplantation predisposes a reactivation of chronic viral hepatitis B or C, which is usually a mild disease for patients remaining under haemodialysis. It should be noted that HBV and HCV may induce de novo glomerulonephritis and chronic allograft nephropathy which can lead to graft failure (Aouifi & Garcia, 2001). In such cases, patients have to undergo dialysis again and therefore it is beneficial to eradicate HCV RNA before transplantation and to control and maintain HBV DNA negative (Huskey & Wiseman, 2011). A routine liver histological analysis could improve a patient’s chance of being selected for renal transplantation. Liver biopsy has been considered the “gold standard” for many years, because it provides us with information that was otherwise unobtainable (Ghany et al., 2010). Nowadays however, due to progress in non-invasive methods, liver biopsy is only
Not afraid to trust you: Trustworthiness moderates gaze cueing but not in highly anxious participants

Gaze cueing (i.e., the shifting of person B's attention by following person A's gaze) is closely linked with human interaction and learning. To make the most of this connection, researchers need to investigate possible moderators enhancing or reducing the extent of this attentional shifting. In this study we used a gaze cueing paradigm to demonstrate that the perceived trustworthiness of a cueing person constitutes such a moderator for female participants. Our results show a significant interaction between perceived trustworthiness and the response time trade-off between valid and invalid gaze cues [gaze cueing effect (GCE)], as manifested in greater following of a person's gaze if this person was trustworthy as opposed to the following of an untrustworthy person's gaze. An additional exploratory analysis showed potentially moderating influences of trait-anxiety on this interaction (p = .057). The affective background of the experiment (i.e., using positive or negative target stimuli) had no influence.
Universal School-Based Eating Disorder Prevention: Benefits to Both High- and Low-Risk Participants on the Core Cognitive Feature of Eating Disorders.

Abstract The objective of this study was to explore two aspects not investigated in a 2.5-year controlled evaluation of an 8-lesson media literacy program. First, the impact of the program on over-evaluation of shape and weight. Second, an examination of the program effects by participant baseline risk of developing an eating disorder. Grade 8 students (N = 540, mean age = 13.62 years) were assessed at baseline, post-program, 6-month, and 2.5-year follow-up. Controlling for baseline observations, linear mixed model analyses revealed a main effect for group, favouring media literacy, and a group × risk interaction, where high-risk media literacy participants had significantly lower over-evaluation scores than high-risk control participants. Both high-risk media literacy girls and boys, and low-risk media literacy girls scored significantly lower at 2.5-year follow-up than controls. Media literacy can have a lasting, beneficial impact in reducing the core cognitive component of eating disorders in both high.
Acoustic Descriptions of Dysarthric Speech: Perceptual Correlates and Physiological Inferences

The writing of this paper was supported by NIH Award #NS 13274, "Neurogenic Speech Disol-ders. " Reprint requests: Dr. Weismer, Speech Motor Cor~trul Laboratories, Waisman Center, University of firisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705. The acoustic output of the speech mechanism is a physical link between the events associated with the production and perception of linguistically meaningful sounds. Various vibratory patterns of the vocal folds, as well as vocal tract shapes and changes in those shapes over time, are represented acoustically in some fairly wellunderstood ways. Similarly, careful experimentation has led to a good understanding of the acoustic characteristics that must be present for accurate perception of speech sounds, intonation, speaking rate, voice quality, and so forth. Because the acoustic speech "signal" sits in the middle of the communication process, it carries more information about communication as a whole than other "signals" one could measure. These other signals, such as the electrical activity associated with muscle contraction (production) or with the reception of acoustic information by the central nervous system (CNS) (perception), provide valuable data on particular aspects of communication. Only by examining the acoustic output of the speech mechanism, however, can a clinician gain information about both the production events that generated that signal and the impact of that signal on a listener. This unique characteristic of the speech-acoustic signal, that of providing a simultaneous interface to speech production and perception, is of particular interest in gaining a better understanding of dysarthria. By definition, dysarthria is a movement disorder having a neuropathological origin (Darley, Aronson, and Brown, 19'75). In cases in which the transformation between movements of the speech mechanism and the speech-acoustic signal is well understood, acoustic analyses of dysarthric speech can yield insight to the nature of the disordered movements. On the perceptual side, dysarthria is unique in the field of speech pathology by virtue of a documented ability of experienced clinicians to associate particular perceptual labels with different forms of dysarthria (Darley et a]., 1969a, b). Careful examination of the 293
Prospective study of surgical treatment of acromegaly: effects on ghrelin, weight, adiposity, and markers of CV risk.

CONTEXT Although epidemiological studies have found that GH and IGF-1 normalization reduce the excess mortality of active acromegaly to expected rates, cross-sectional data report some cardiovascular (CV) risk markers to be less favorable in remission than active acromegaly. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that remission of acromegaly after surgical therapy increases weight and adiposity and some CV risk markers and these changes are paralleled by a rise in ghrelin. DESIGN Forty-two adults with untreated, active acromegaly were studied prospectively. Changes in outcome measures from before to after surgery were assessed in 26 subjects achieving remission (normal IGF-1) and 16 with persistent active acromegaly (elevated IGF-1) after surgery. SETTING The study was conducted at tertiary referral centers for pituitary tumors. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Endocrine, metabolic, and CV risk parameters, anthropometrics, and body composition by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry were measured. RESULTS Remission increased total ghrelin, body weight, waist circumference, C-reactive protein, homocysteine, high-density lipoprotein, and leptin and reduced systolic blood pressure, homeostasis model assessment score, triglycerides, and lipoprotein (a) by 6 months and for 32 ± 4 months after surgery. The ghrelin rise correlated with the fall in the levels of GH, IGF-1, and insulin and insulin resistance. Weight, waist circumference, and ghrelin did not increase significantly in the persistent active acromegaly group. Total body fat, trunk fat, and perentage total body fat increased by 1 year after surgery in 15 remission subjects: the increase in body fat correlated with the rise in total ghrelin. CONCLUSIONS Although most markers of CV risk improve with acromegaly remission after surgery, some markers and adiposity increase and are paralleled by a rise in total ghrelin, suggesting that these changes may be related. Understanding the mechanisms and long-term implications of the changes that accompany treatment of acromegaly is important to optimizing management because some aspects of the postoperative profile associate with the increased metabolic and CV risk in other populations.