Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GABAB Receptor Antagonist CGP46381 Inhibits Form-Deprivation Myopia Development in Guinea Pigs

The aim was to investigate the effects of the GABAB receptor antagonist, CGP46381, on form-deprivation myopia (FDM) in guinea pigs. Twenty-four guinea pigs had monocular visual deprivation induced using a diffuser for 11 days (day 14 to 25). The deprived eyes were treated with daily subconjunctival injections (100 μl) of either 2% CGP46381, 0.2% CGP46381, or saline or received no injection. The fellow eyes were left untreated. Another six animals received no treatment. At the start and end of the treatment period, ocular refractions were measured using retinoscopy and vitreous chamber depth (VCD) and axial length (AL) using A-scan ultrasound. All of the deprived eyes developed relative myopia (treated versus untreated eyes, P < 0.05). The amount of myopia was significantly affected by the drug treatment (one-way ANOVA, P < 0.0001). The highest dose tested, 2% CGP46381, significantly inhibited myopia development compared to saline (2% CGP46381: −1.08 ± 0.40 D, saline: −4.33 ± 0.67 D, P < 0.01). The majority of these effects were due to less AL (2% CGP46381: 0.03 ± 0.01 mm, saline: 0.13 ± 0.02 mm, P < 0.01) and VCD (2% CGP46381: 0.02 ± 0.01 mm, saline: 0.08 ± 0.01 mm, P < 0.01) elongation. The lower dose tested, 0.2% CGP46381, did not significantly inhibit FDM (P > 0.05). Subconjunctival injections of CGP46381 inhibit FDM development in guinea pigs in a dose-dependent manner.
Asymptotic Optimality of Shortest Path Routing Algorithms* -2

Many communication networks use adaptive shortest path routing. By this we mean that each network link is periodically assigned a length that depends on its congestion level during the preceding period, and all traffic generated between length updates is routed along a shortest path corresponding to the latest link lengths. We show that in certain situations, typical of networks involving a large number of small users and utilizing virtual circuits, this routing method performs optimally in an asymptotic sense. In other cases shortest path routing can be far from optimal.
Low Intake of Vegetables and Fruits and Risk of Colorectal Cancer: The Japan Collaborative Cohort Study

Background The evidence for an association between low intake of vegetables and fruits and increased colorectal cancer risk is inconclusive. Evaluating the colorectal cancer risk associated with continued low intake is important. Methods We used data of 45 516 and 14 549 subjects aged 40–79 years obtained in the baseline and interim surveys, respectively, from the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk (JACC Study). The intake frequency of vegetables and fruits as assessed by a self-administered questionnaire was classified into tertiles of low, middle, and high groups, and the low group was subdivided into 2 equal groups (lower low and higher low groups). Colorectal cancer incidence determined from follow-up was used. Cox’s proportional hazard model was employed to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for covariates. Results During 598 605 person-years of subject follow-up after baseline, we identified 806 colorectal cancer cases. HRs for the lower low versus the middle and high intake frequencies of vegetables and fruits at baseline were 0.95 (95% CI 0.77–1.16) and 1.08 (95% CI 0.90–1.29), respectively. During 125 980 person-years of subject follow-up after the interim survey, 197 colorectal cancer cases were identified. HRs for the low versus middle and high intake frequencies of vegetables and fruits in both baseline and interim surveys were 0.91 (95% CI 0.61–1.37) and 0.87 (95% CI 0.59–1.27), respectively. Conclusions Our results suggest that low intake and continued low intake of vegetables and fruits are not strongly associated with colorectal cancer risk.
R&D and private investment: How to conserve indigenous fruit biodiversity of Southern Africa

Indigenous fruits contribute widely to rural incomes in Southern Africa but their availability is declining. A domestication program aims to increase farm-household income and conserve biodiversity through farmer-led tree planting. Planting domesticated indigenous fruit trees is an uncertain, irreversible but flexible investment. Our analysis applies the real option approach using contingent claims analysis, which allows solving the discounting problem. The article analyses (1) to what level fruit collection cost and/or (2) the necessary technical change, i.e. breeding progress, have to rise in order to render tree planting economical, using data from income portfolios of rural households in Zimbabwe. Results currently show that collecting indigenous fruits is more profitable than planting the trees. A combination of technical change and decrease in resource abundance can provide incentives for farmer-led planting of domesticated trees and biodiversity conservation. However, breeding progress must be significant for investment in tree planting to be economically attractive.
i Botulinum Toxin A for Upper and Lower Limb Spasticity : A Systematic Review Technology Report

A upper and lower limb spasticity: a systematic review [Technology report no 51]. Ottawa: Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment; 2005. Reproduction of this document for non-commercial purposes is permitted provided appropriate credit is given to CCOHTA. CCOHTA is a non-profit organization funded by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. i Reviewers These individuals kindly provided comments on this report. This report is a review of existing public literature, studies, materials and other information and documentation (collectively the " source documentation ") which are available to CCOHTA. The accuracy of the contents of the source documentation on which this report is based is not warranted, assured or represented in any way by CCOHTA and CCOHTA does not assume responsibility for the quality, propriety, inaccuracies or reasonableness of any statements, information or conclusions contained in the source documentation. CCOHTA takes sole responsibility for the final form and content of this report. The statements and conclusions in this report are those of CCOHTA and not of its Panel members or reviewers. Authorship All authors participated in the planning of the project. Kirsten Garces developed the protocol, contributed to designing the literature search strategy; reviewed abstracts and selected articles for inclusion; assessed trial quality; abstracted and analyzed data; and prepared drafts and the final version of this report. ii Anna McCormick assisted with protocol development; provided clinical expertise; and reviewed and assisted with writing drafts of this report. Lynda McGahan assisted with developing the protocol and designing the literature search strategy; reviewed the abstracts and selected articles for inclusion; assessed trial quality; abstracted and analyzed data; wrote the results section regarding spasticity in various disorders; and assisted with revising and writing drafts of the report. Becky Skidmore designed and executed the literature search strategies and updates; wrote the methods section and associated appendix on literature searching; wrote the glossary section; and verified and formatted bibliographic references. Anna McCormick received an unrestricted education grant from Allergan for a research project regarding the use of Botox in adults with cerebral palsy. She maintains rights to all data and publication. She received honoraria and travel assistance for presentations. No other conflicts were declared. Spasticity is a symptom that can cause disability in affected patients. It is characterized by increased muscle tone. Because it may interfere with voluntary movements, it can affect the activities of daily living. Spasticity is treated in an effort to decrease muscle …
Mechanism of Selenium-Induced Inhibition of Arsenic-Enhanced UVR Carcinogenesis in Mice

Background Hairless mice that ingested arsenite in drinking water exhibited more than a 5-fold enhancement of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) carcinogenesis, whereas arsenite alone was carcinogenically inactive. Dietary organoselenium blocked the cancer enhancement effect of arsenic but not cancer induction by UVR. Objective In this study we sought to explain selenium blockage of As enhancement by establishing the extent that As and Se tissue distributions are coincident or divergent. Methods We used the X-ray fluorescence microprobe at the Advanced Photon Source (Argonne National Laboratory) to probe sections of skin and liver from hairless mice exposed to a) UVR, b) UVR + As, c) UVR + organoselenium, or d) UVR + As + organoselenium. Results We found elevated levels of As in the skin epithelium (hair follicles and epidermis) and diffusely in the liver of mice exposed to UVR + As. Arsenic was entirely absent in skin in mice exposed to UVR + As + organoselenium, but a diffuse low level was seen in the liver. As and Se locations were consistently divergent in skin; As was more diffusely distributed, whereas Se was strongly associated with membranes. X-ray absorption near-edge spectra are consistent with the presence of the seleno-bis(S-glutathionyl) arsinium ion in the liver. Conclusions Supplemental Se was uncommonly effective at preventing even a trace of As in skin at 14 or 196 days of continuous exposure to As in drinking water. Traces of the seleno-bis(S-glutathionyl) arsinium ion in the liver suggested that formation of this compound was more likely to be responsible for the As-blocking effect of Se than was a mechanism based on antioxidation.
Pneumococcal Meningitis in the PCV 13 Era : A Cluster of Cases With Increased Morbidity and Mortality

Pneumococcal meningitis is a rare but serious disease in infants and young children. In 2010, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended the use of PCV13 (13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) in place of PCV7 for routine use in children. This occurred after a rise in invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), including meningitis, caused by nonvaccine serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae. It was predicted that the inclusion of an additional 6 serotypes would decrease the incidence of IPD including meningitis in both immunized and underimmunized children as it did after PCV7. In the state of Wisconsin, rates of pneumococcal meningitis have been consistently low since 2003 with 1 to 5 reported cases per year (personal communication: Jeffrey Davis, MD; Chief Medical Officer and State Epidemiologist). Our children’s hospital, which serves a large geographic area of both rural and urban patients in Wisconsin and northern Illinois, had infrequent admissions of children with pneumococcal meningitis over the past ten years. However, we observed a cluster of cases within a 17-month period during 2013 and 2014 with a severe degree of morbidity and 2 fatalities. The purpose of this case series is to alert health care providers who care for children to the ongoing and perhaps increasing need for a high degree of clinical suspicion for pneumococcal meningitis in infants and young children due to serotype replacement.
Adenosine in the central nervous system: release mechanisms and extracellular concentrations

Adenosine has several functions within the CNS that involve an inhibitory tone of neurotransmission and neuroprotective actions in pathological conditions. The understanding of adenosine production and release in the brain is therefore of fundamental importance and has been extensively studied. Conflicting results are often obtained regarding the cellular source of adenosine, the stimulus that induces release and the mechanism for release, in relation to different experimental approaches used to study adenosine production and release. A neuronal origin of adenosine has been demonstrated through electrophysiological approaches showing that neurones can release significant quantities of adenosine, sufficient to activate adenosine receptors and to modulate synaptic functions. Specific actions of adenosine are mediated by different receptor subtypes (A1, A2A, A2B and A3), which are activated by various ranges of adenosine concentrations. Another important issue is the measurement of adenosine concentrations in the extracellular fluid under different conditions in order to know the degree of receptor stimulation and understand adenosine central actions. For this purpose, several experimental approaches have been used both in vivo and in vitro, which provide an estimation of basal adenosine levels in the range of 50–200 nm. The purpose of this review is to describe pathways of adenosine production and metabolism, and to summarize characteristics of adenosine release in the brain in response to different stimuli. Finally, studies performed to evaluate adenosine concentrations under physiological and hypoxic/ischemic conditions will be described to evaluate the degree of adenosine receptor activation.
Modulation of Thalamic Nociceptive Processing after Spinal Cord Injury through Remote Activation of Thalamic Microglia by Cysteine–Cysteine Chemokine Ligand 21

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in the generation and amplification of pain caused in part by injury-induced changes in neuronal excitability at multiple levels along the sensory neuraxis. We have previously shown that activated microglia, through an ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase)-regulated PGE2 (prostaglandin E2) signaling mechanism, maintain neuronal hyperexcitability in the lumbar dorsal horn. Here, we examined whether microglial cells in the thalamus contribute to the modulation of chronic pain after SCI, and whether microglial activation is governed by spinally mediated increases in the microglial activator cysteine–cysteine chemokine ligand 21 (CCL21). We report that CCL21 is upregulated in dorsal horn neurons, that tissue levels are increased in the dorsal horn and ventral posterolateral (VPL) nucleus of the thalamus 4 weeks after SCI, and that the increase can be differentially reduced by spinal blockade at T1 or L1. In intact animals, electrical stimulation of the spinothalamic tract induces increases in thalamic CCL21 levels. Recombinant CCL21 injected into the VPL of intact animals transiently activates microglia and induces pain-related behaviors, effects that could be blocked with minocycline. After SCI, intra-VPL antibody-mediated neutralization of CCL21 decreases microglial activation and evoked hyperexcitability of VPL neurons, and restores nociceptive thresholds to near-normal levels. These data identify a novel pathway by which SCI triggers upregulation of the neuroimmune modulator CCL21 in the thalamus, which induces microglial activation in association with pain phenomena.
Retention in HIV Care and Predictors of Attrition from Care among HIV-Infected Adults Receiving Combination Anti-Retroviral Therapy in Addis Ababa

Background Patient retention in chronic HIV care is a major challenge following the rapid expansion of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in Ethiopia. Objective To describe the proportion of patients who are retained in HIV care and characterize predictors of attrition among HIV-infected adults receiving cART in Addis Ababa. Method A retrospective analysis was conducted among 836 treatment naïve patients, who started cART between May 2009 and April 2012. Patients were randomly selected from ten health-care facilities, and their current status in HIV care was determined based on routinely available data in the medical records. Patients lost to follow-up (LTFU) were traced by telephone. Kaplan-Meier technique was used to estimate survival probabilities of retention and Cox proportional hazards regression was performed to identify the predictors of attrition. Results Based on individual patient data from the medical records, nearly 80% (95%CI: 76.7, 82.1) of the patients were retained in care in the first 3 and half years of antiretroviral therapy. After successfully tracing more than half of the LTFU patients, the updated one year retention in care estimate became 86% (95% CI: 83.41%, 88.17%). In the multivariate Cox regression analyses, severe immune deficiency at enrolment in care/or at cART initiation and ‘bed-ridden’ or ‘ambulatory’ functional status at the start of cART predicted attrition. Conclusion Retention in HIV care in Addis Ababa is comparable with or even better than previous findings from other resource-limited as well as EU/USA settings. However, measures to detect and enroll patients in HIV care as early as possible are still necessary.
Detection of carbon stock change in agricultural soils using spectroscopic techniques

Soil organic carbon (SOC) represents one of the major pools in the global C cycle. Therefore, even small changes in SOC stocks cause important CO, fluxes between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. However, SOC stocks are difficult to quantify accurately due to their high spatial variability. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the potential of Imaging Spectroscopy (IS) using the Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI; 405-950 nm) and field spectroscopy with an Analytical Spectral Devices spectrometer (ASD; 350-2500 nm) to measure SOC content in heterogeneous agricultural soils. We used both stepwise and partial least square (PLS) regression analysis to relate spectral measurements to SOC contents. Standard Error of Prediction (SEP) for the ASD ranged from 2.4 to 3.3 g C kg(-1) depending on soil moisture content of the surface layer. Imaging spectroscopy performed poorly, mainly due to the narrow spectral range of the CASI. Tests using both the CASI and the Shortwave infrared Airborne Spectrographic Imager (SASI; 900-2500 nm) showed better results. The variation in soil texture and soil moisture content degrades the spectral response to SOC contents. Currently, SEP allows to detect a SOC stock change of 7.2-9.9 Mg C ha(-1) in the upper 30 cm of the soil, and is therefore still somewhat high in comparison with changes in SOC stocks as a result of management or land conversion (0.34.9 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1)). A detailed SOC maps produced by IS reflected the patterns in SOC contents due to the recent conversion from grassland to cropland.
Intelligent Machinery : A Heretical View ’ Universal Turing Machine

Scalable archetypes and RAID have garnered tremendous interest from both scholars and theorists in the last several years. After years of confusing research into courseware, we verify the deployment of the memory bus. We construct new wireless information (ROBING), disproving that cache coherence can be made robust, perfect, and relational.
Observational studies of Cepheid amplitudes. I. Period-amplitude relationships for Galactic Cepheids

Context. The dependence of amplitude on the pulsation period differs from other Cepheid-related relationships. Aims. We attempt to revise the period-amplitude (P-A) relationship of Galactic Cepheids based on multi-colour photometric and radial velocity data. Reliable P-A graphs for Galactic Cepheids constructed for the U, B, V, RC ,a ndIC photometric bands and pulsational radial velocity variations facilitate investigations of previously poorly studied interrelations between observable amplitudes. The effects of both binarity and metallicity on the observed amplitude, and the dichotomy between short- and long-period Cepheids can both be studied. Methods. A homogeneous data set was created that contains basic physical and phenomenological properties of 369 Galactic Cepheids. Pulsation periods were revised and amplitudes were determined by the Fourier method. P-A graphs were constructed and an upper envelope to the data points was determined in each graph. Correlations between various amplitudes and amplitude-related parameters were searched for, using Cepheids without known companions. Results. Large amplitude Cepheids with companions exhibit smaller photometric amplitudes on average than solitary ones, as expected, while s-Cepheids pulsate with an arbitrary (although small) amplitude. The ratio of the observed radial velocity to blue photometric amplitudes, AVRAD /AB, is not as good an indicator of the pulsation mode as predicted theoretically. This may be caused by an incorrect mode assignment to a number of small amplitude Cepheids, which are not necessarily first overtone pulsators. The dependence of the pulsation amplitudes on wavelength is used to identify duplicity of Cepheids. More than twenty stars previously classified as solitary Cepheids are now suspected to have a companion. The ratio of photometric amplitudes observed in various bands confirms the existence of a dichotomy among normal amplitude Cepheids. The limiting period separating short- and long-period Cepheids is 10.47 days. Conclusions. Interdependences of pulsational amplitudes, the period dependence of the amplitude parameters, and the dichotomy have to be taken into account as constraints in modelling the structure and pulsation of Cepheids. Studies of the P-L relationship must comply with the break at 10. d 47 instead of the currently used “convenient” value of 10 days.
Appendix 2 : List of the countries

The factors explaining the happiness level at large scale are still unclear and debated. In this paper, we discuss a potential causal relationship between wealth and life satisfaction at the national level. Using the Gallup Global Well-Being Poll data on self-reported life satisfaction and the World Bank database, we study the extent to which wealth, measured by GDP per capita, influences the average level of happiness in 146 countries. In our first model, the simple regression highlights a significant relationship between GDP per capita and self-reported index for happiness. Second, we try to challenge the causal relationship by assessing whether GDP per capita would not actually be a proxy for other factors. However, our results show that GDP per capita remains a significant determinant of happiness when controlling for natural risks, education (measured by the literacy rate), and access to health care (measured by life expectancy), all of which are statistically significant in explaining the level of well-being.
Positron emission tomographic scan investigations of Huntington's disease: Cerebral metabolic correlates of cognitive function

Fifteen drug‐free patients with early to mid‐stage Huntington's disease (HD) were evaluated with positron emission tomographic (PET) scans of 18F‐2‐fluro‐2‐deoxy‐D‐glucose uptake and quantitative measures of neurological function, learning, memory, and general intelligence. In comparison with a group of normal volunteers, the HD patients showed lower metabolism in both caudate (p < 0.001) and putamen (p < 0.001) on PET scans. A significant and positive relationship was found between neuropsychological measures of verbal learning and memory and caudate metabolism in the patient group but not in the normal group. Visual‐spatial learning did not reflect a similar pattern, but performance intelligence quotient was positively related to both caudate and putamen metabolism in the HD group. Vocabulary level was unrelated to either brain structure. Discussion focuses on these and other observed brain‐behaviour relationships and on the implications of these findings for general behaviors such as those involved in coping and adaptation.