Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elucidating the Nature and Mechanism of Tic Improvement in Tourette Syndrome: A Pilot Study

Background For unclear reasons, many Tourette syndrome (TS) children report near-complete tic remission by young adulthood. Immature maturation of brain networks, observed with resting-state functional MRI (rs-fc-MRI) in adolescents and adults with TS, might evolve to a mature pattern in adults who experience tic improvement or remission. We explored the feasibility of testing this hypothesis in our population of young adult TS males, each with prior clinical assessments completed during childhood as part of a separate TS Association Genetics Consortium study. Methods A total of 10 TS males (off tic suppressing drugs for at least 6 months) aged 19–32 years, mean follow-up interval 7.5 (2 to 13) years, and 11 neurologically normal controls were enrolled and underwent 3-Tesla structural and rs-fc-MRI sequences. Results The mean change in Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) was −31.5% (total) and −26.6% (YGTSS motor+vocal). Two subjects reported resolution of tic-related disability, with drops from mean 45 to 16.5 (YGTSS-total) and 25 to 11.5 (YGTSS motor+vocal.). Rs-fc-MRI revealed significantly increased connectivity between the ipsilateral anterior and mid cingulate cortex and striatum, increased connectivity between local connections, and decreased connectivity between more distant connections; representing an immature connectivity pattern. Discussion Similar to previous reports, we found immature patterns of functional connectivity in adult TS subjects. Despite a lack of complete tic remission, two subjects exhibited dramatic drops in tic severity that correlated with tic-related disability improvement. More work is needed to elucidate the mechanism of such dramatic improvement in TS.
Extraordinary solute-stress tolerance contributes to the environmental tenacity of mycobacteria.

Mycobacteria are associated with a number of well-characterized diseases, yet we know little about their stress biology in natural ecosystems. This study focuses on the isolation and characterization of strains from Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and Glacier National Park (GNP; USA), the majority of those identified were Mycobacterium parascrofulaceum, Mycobacterium avium (YNP) or Mycobacterium gordonae (GNP). Generally, their windows for growth spanned a temperature range of > 60 °C; selected isolates grew at super-saturated concentrations of hydrophobic stressors and at levels of osmotic stress and chaotropic activity (up to 13.4 kJ kg(-1) ) similar to, or exceeding, those for the xerophilic fungus Aspergillus wentii and solvent-tolerant bacterium Pseudomonas putida. For example, mycobacteria grew down to 0.800 water activity indicating that they are, with the sole exception of halophiles, more xerotolerant than other bacteria (or any Archaea). Furthermore, the fatty-acid composition of Mycobacterium cells grown over a range of salt concentrations changed less than that of other bacteria, indicating a high level of resilience, regardless of the stress load. Cells of M. parascrofulaceum, M. smegmatis and M. avium resisted the acute, potentially lethal challenges from extremes of pH (< 1; > 13), and saturated MgCl2 solutions (5 M; 212 kJ kg(-1) chaotropicity). Collectively, these findings challenge the paradigm that bacteria have solute tolerances inferior to those of eukaryotes.
1,4‐Bis[2‐(3,5‐dichloropyridyloxy)]benzene induces substantial hyperplasia in fibrotic mouse liver

The proliferative response of hepatocytes in vivo can be induced by two mechanisms: severe damage to hepatic tissue results in regenerative growth and so‐called primary hepatocyte mitogens can initiate liver cell proliferation without preceding loss of parenchyma. The regulation of the two responses is quite different. The decreased regenerative response of cirrhotic/fibrotic liver is well known, and is a severe obstacle to surgery of the diseased liver. In the present experiments we investigated the efficiency of a primary hepatocyte mitogen 1,4‐Bis[2‐(3,5‐dichloropyridyloxy)]benzene (TCPOBOB) on two different liver cirrhosis/fibrosis models in mice induced by chronic administration of CCl4 and thioacetamide respectively. BrdU incorporation and cyclin A expression established clearly that there is a reduced but still powerful mitogenic response of the fibrotic livers. Therefore, primary hepatocyte mitogens appear to be suitable to be used to rescue the regenerative response of cirrhotic livers.
Tumor Recurrence in a Glioblastoma Patient after Discontinuation of Prolonged Temozolomide Treatment

There is no consensus regarding the duration of temozolomide (TMZ) treatment for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). We report a 53-year-old woman who had a left frontal GBM. The tumor showed good response to TMZ treatment, which was discontinued after 5.5 years with recurrence of tumor at the posterior fossa 6 months later, although there was no definite tumor recurrence in the left frontal region. The tumor failed to respond to the reinstitution of TMZ therapy. Continuous TMZ treatment may be necessary in GBM patients on prolonged TMZ treatment despite improved neurological condition and imaging studies revealing marked tumor regression.
Effects of Lifestyle Measures, Antiobesity Agents, and Bariatric Surgery on Serological Markers of Inflammation in Obese Patients

Overweight and obesity are highly prevalent in developed countries and are also becoming more frequent in the developing world. Overweight and obese patients have elevated levels of several inflammatory markers and this inflammatory state might contribute to their increased vascular risk. We summarize the effects of lifestyle changes, antiobesity agents, and bariatric surgery on serological inflammatory markers in overweight and obese patients. Most studies showed a decrease in inflammation with all 3 interventions. However, it remains to be established whether the decrease in inflammatory markers induced by lifestyle changes or (where indicated) with antiobesity agents or bariatric surgery will translate into reduced vascular morbidity and mortality in overweight and obese patients.
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology Pathophysiology of Cell Phone Radiation: Oxidative Stress and Carcinogenesis with Focus on Male Reproductive System

Hazardous health effects stemming from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic waves (RF-EMW) emitted from cell phones have been reported in the literature. However, the cellular target of RF-EMW is still controversial. This review identifies the plasma membrane as a target of RF-EMW. In addition, the effects of RF-EMW on plasma membrane structures (i.e. NADH oxidase, phosphatidylserine, ornithine decarboxylase) and voltage-gated calcium channels are discussed. We explore the disturbance in reactive oxygen species (ROS) metabolism caused by RF-EMW and delineate NADH oxidase mediated ROS formation as playing a central role in oxidative stress (OS) due to cell phone radiation (with a focus on the male reproductive system). This review also addresses: 1) the controversial effects of RF-EMW on mammalian cells and sperm DNA as well as its effect on apoptosis, 2) epidemiological, in vivo animal and in vitro studies on the effect of RF-EMW on male reproductive system, and 3) finally, exposure assessment and dosimetry by computational biomodeling.
Support for the parents of adolescents: a review.

This paper reviews the literature on parent-adolescent relationships, with a particular focus on strategies to offer support to this group of parents. Policy-makers and professionals in many countries are now debating how support can most effectively be offered to the parents of adolescents, and this review aims to summarize the information currently available. The review covers three main areas: (1) approaches to parenting, including an examination of parenting style; (2) models of parent support; and (3) examples of parent support programmes, including group-based parenting courses, projects focusing on adolescents involved in offending or drug abuse, and the use of newsletters and advice lines.
Comparison of TMS-induced Arm Activation and Upper Limb Functional Tests in Hemiparetic Stroke

Stroke has a major impact in the total cost of healthcare in the Western world as stroke is the most common cause of long-term disability [1]. In attempts to enhance motor recovery after stroke effective treatment strategies have been developed in recent years. Appropriate evaluation of the intervention programs requires comprehensive and accurate assessment of the residual abnormal function. In the present study we compare two well-known clinical functional scoring tests developed for the assessment of hemiparetic upper limb function due to stroke and navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS), which measures involuntary target muscle response to cortical stimulation. The aim is to investigate the equivalence of these methods and thus add objective evidence of the limb function to strengthen evidence-based practice. In addition to functional tests, four muscles of both arms were studied in twenty chronic stroke patients. Those patients without motor evoked potentials (MEP) to nTMS in the affected upper limb had significantly lower total score in Action Research Arm Test and Wolf Motor Function Test and longer performance time than those patients with MEP. Patients, in whom MEP in each of the four target muscles was elicitable, had better than average scores in clinical functional tests while patients, in whom no MEP was elicitable in any target muscle, had worse than average scores. Transcranial magnetic stimulation adds crucial information when clinical assessment based on voluntary activation by command is challenging, e.g. in patients suffering from cognitive deficits.
The α—β transition in the cristobalite phases of SiO2 and AIPO4 I. X-ray studies

Abstract The α—β transition in the cristobalite phases of SiO2 and AlPO4 has been studied using X-ray powder diffraction. The transitions show marked hysteresis but also occur over a range of about 20°C in which the α and β phases coexist. The lattice parameters show a smooth and slow variation with temperature for each phase and a discrete difference between phases corresponding to volume differences of about 4%, showing that the transitions are of first order. The hysteresis has been studied and it is concluded that the phase coexistence in the bulk sample occurs because different crystallites undergo the transition at different temperatures. The structural aspects of the transformations are discussed and it is shown that the phase change involves a small movement of the atoms around four fold screw axes together with a disordering of oxygen atom positions
Morphological and immunohistochemical identification of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in clinical prostate cancer

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process known to be associated with aggressive tumor behavior, metastasis and treatment resistance. It is characterized by coincidental upregulation of mesenchymal markers such as vimentin, fibronectin and N-cadherin concurrent with E-cadherin downregulation. Studies on EMT are generally performed in cell lines and mouse models, while the histopathological and phenotypical properties in clinical prostate cancer (PCa) are still unclear. The objective of this study was to identify EMT in PCa patients. We demonstrated that N-cadherin, vimentin and fibronectin were generally not co-expressed in corresponding tumor regions. Immunofluorescent double stainings confirmed that co-expression of mesenchymal markers was uncommon, as we found no prostate cancer cells that co-expressed N-cadherin with fibronectin and only rare (<1%) cells that co-expressed N-cadherin with vimentin. Downregulation of E-cadherin was demonstrated in all N-cadherin positive tumor cells, but not in vimentin or fibronectin positive tumor cells. We further analyzed N-cadherin expression in morphologically distinct PCa growth patterns in a radical prostatectomy cohort (n = 77) and found that N-cadherin is preferentially expressed in ill-defined Gleason grade 4 PCa. In conclusion, we demonstrate that N-cadherin is the most reliable marker for EMT in clinical PCa and is preferentially expressed in ill-defined Gleason grade 4 growth pattern.
Reduced Heart Rate Variability and Mortalit Risk in an Elderly Cohort: The Framingham Heart Study

BackgroundThe prognostic implications of alterations in heart rate variability have not been studied in a large community- based population. Methods and ResultsThe first 2 hours of ambulatory ECG recordings obtained on original subjects of the Framingham Heart Study attending the 18th biennial examination were reprocessed to assess heart rate variability. Subjects with transient or persistent nonsinus rhythm, premature beats >10% of total beats, <1 hour of recording time, processed time <50% of recorded time, and those taking antiarrhythmic medications were excluded. The associations between heart rate variability measures and all-cause mortality during 4 years of follow-up were assessed. There were 736 eligible subjects with a mean age (±SD) of 72±6 years. The following five frequency domain measures and three time domain measures were obtained: very-low-frequency power (0.01 to 0.04 Hz), low-frequency power (0.04 to 0.15 Hz), high-frequency power (0.15 to 0.40 Hz), total power (0.01 to 0.40 Hz), the ratio of low-frequency to high-frequency power, the standard deviation of total normal RR intervals, the percentage of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals that are >50 milliseconds, and the square root of the mean of the squared differences between adjacent normal RR intervals. During follow-up, 74 subjects died. In separate proportional hazards regression analyses that adjusted for relevant risk factors, very-low-frequency power (P<.0001), low-frequency power (P<.0001), high-frequency power (P=.0014), total power (P<.0001), and the standard deviation of total normal RR intervals (P=.0019) were significantly associated with all-cause mortality. When all eight heart rate variability measures were assessed in a stepwise analysis that included other risk factors, low-frequency power entered the model first (P<.0001); there-after, none of the other measures of heart rate variability significantly contributed to the prediction of all-cause mortality. A 1 SD decrement in low-frequency power (natural log transformed) was associated with 1.70 times greater hazard for all-cause mortality (95% confidence interval of 1.37 to 2.09). ConclusionsThe estimation of heart rate variability by ambulatory monitoring offers prognostic information beyond that provided by the evaluation of traditional risk factors.
The effect of Tier 2 intervention for phonemic awareness in a response-to-intervention model in low-income preschool classrooms.

PURPOSE This study assessed the effectiveness of a Tier 2 intervention that was designed to increase the phonemic awareness skills of low-income preschoolers who were enrolled in Early Reading First classrooms. METHOD Thirty-four preschoolers participated in a multiple baseline across participants treatment design. Tier 2 intervention for beginning sound awareness was provided twice weekly in small groups over 6 weeks by trained teachers and speech-language pathologists (SLPs). RESULTS The intervention was successful for 71% of the children, as indicated by medium to large effect sizes. Comparisons between children who did and did not qualify for intervention suggest that Tier 2 intervention helped narrow the gap in beginning sound awareness that had begun to emerge before treatment. Although children receiving special education and those learning English as a second language were enrolled in the classrooms, they were not overrepresented in the group qualifying for Tier 2 intervention, and most who did qualify demonstrated a positive response to intervention. CONCLUSION In a relatively short period of time, preschoolers' phonemic awareness skills were increased through small-group Tier 2 intervention provided by teachers and SLPs. Findings indicate the potential of Tier 2 interventions to positively impact the future reading skills of children who are at risk for later reading difficulties.
High-dose antioxidant supplements and cognitive function in community-dwelling elderly women.

BACKGROUND Experimental data suggest that oxygen free radicals are probably involved in the deterioration of cognitive processes. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to investigate the relation of high-dose antioxidant supplements to cognition. DESIGN Information on the use of specific supplements containing vitamins E and C was collected biennially via mailed questionnaires beginning in 1980 from 14 968 community-dwelling women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study. From 1995 to 2000, telephone tests of cognitive function [Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status (TICS), delayed recall of the TICS 10-word list, immediate and delayed recall of a short paragraph, a test of verbal fluency, and a digit span backwards test] were administered to the women, who were 70-79 y of age at that time. We used linear and logistic regression models to calculate multivariate-adjusted mean differences in test scores and relative risks of a low score for specific supplement users compared with nonusers. RESULTS Long-term, current users of vitamin E with vitamin C had significantly better mean performance, as judged by a global score that combined individual test scores, than did women who had never used vitamin E or C (P = 0.03); there was a trend for increasingly higher mean scores with increasing durations of use (P = 0.04). These associations were strongest among women with low dietary intakes of alpha-tocopherol. Benefits were less consistent for women taking vitamin E alone, with no evidence of higher scores with longer durations of use. Use of specific vitamin C supplements alone had little relation to performance on our cognitive tests. CONCLUSION The use of specific vitamin E supplements, but not specific vitamin C supplements, may be related to modest cognitive benefits in older women.
Quality Attributes and Preferences on the Synthesis of Reactive Systems

Given a model of the environment's behaviour, a set of system goals, and a set of controllable actions, the controller synthesis problem is to automatically generate a controller that only restricts controllable actions. Qualitative controller synthesis techniques yield controllers that guarantee achieving a given goal in the presence of an adversarial environment. However, synthesis produces one out of many possible solutions and no support for expressing preference over them is provided. Quantitative synthesis techniques are a natural way of optimising control with respect to preferences, however, they require quantitative modelling, which in many cases is not available, possible, or desired, and incur in high computational complexity. In this work, we aim to develop a qualitative preference framework for control problems.
Could Machine Learning Shed Light on Natural Language Complexity?

In this paper, we propose to use a subfield of machine learning –grammatical inference– to measure linguistic complexity from a developmental point of view. We focus on relative complexity by considering a child learner in the process of first language acquisition. The relevance of grammatical inference models for measuring linguistic complexity from a developmental point of view is based on the fact that algorithms proposed in this area can be considered computational models for studying first language acquisition. Even though it will be possible to use different techniques from the field of machine learning as computational models for dealing with linguistic complexity -since in any model we have algorithms that can learn from data-, we claim that grammatical inference models offer some advantages over other tools.
Thermal degradation modeling of flexural strength of wood after exposure to elevated temperatures

Abstract Wood is being used heavily in single-family residential dwellings. Therefore, it is important to categorize their response when exposed to elevated temperatures for a sustained period of time. An important aspect of structural fire design is to assess postfire residual strength of existing structures. This study addresses this issue by developing models to predict strength degradation of wood after exposure to elevated temperature. The objectives were to (a) study the effect of exposure time on bending strength [Modulus of Rupture (MOR)] of wood at elevated temperatures, (b) interpret any relationships between different temperature and time of exposure using kinetics and a statistical approach, and (c) compare the two approaches. Two hundred thirty-two samples in total were tested in flexure as a function of exposure time and several temperatures. MOR of wood decreased as a function of temperature and exposure time. Rate of degradation was higher at higher temperatures. These results were fit to a simple kinetics model, based on the assumption of degradation kinetics following an Arrhenius activation energy model with apparent activation energy of 37.4 kJ/mol. A regression-based statistical model was also developed. The kinetics-based model fit the data better with one less parameter and predictions consistently matched the observed values, making the model preferred over the regression approach.
Model reduction for DC solution of large nonlinear circuits

A new algorithm based on model reduction using the Krylov subspace technique is proposed to compute the DC solution of large nonlinear circuits. The proposed method combines continuation methods with model reduction techniques. Thus it enables the application of the continuation methods to an equivalent reduced-order set of nonlinear equations instead of the original system. This results in a significant reduction in the computational expense as the size of the reduced equations is much less than that of the original system. The reduced order system is obtained by projecting the set of nonlinear equations, whose solution represents the DC operating point, into a subspace of a much lower dimension. It is also shown that both the reduced-order system and the original system share the first q derivatives w.r. t. the circuit variable used to parameterize the family of the solution trajectories generated by the continuation method.
Natural scene feature extraction using singular value decomposition

This study developed texture extraction techniques for classifying natural background scenes using singular values features. Singular values (obtained using singular value decomposition) were used to produce a reduced one-dimensional feature space of texture attributes of natural scene regions. Scenes with tree, grass, and water regions were taken from FLIR imagery. Classification error was determined using a Bayes error estimate and Bhattacharyya distance was used to quantify separation of features between regions. Although there were variations within regional texture samples, good classification results were obtained using the singular value features.