Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of δ‐opioid receptors in learning and memory underlying the development of addiction

Opioids are important endogenous ligands that exist in both invertebrates and vertebrates and signal by activation of opioid receptors to produce analgesia and reward or pleasure. The μ‐opioid receptor is the best known of the opioid receptors and mediates the acute analgesic effects of opiates, while the δ‐opioid receptor (DOR) has been less well studied and has been linked to effects that follow from chronic use of opiates such as stress, inflammation and anxiety. Recently, DORs have been shown to play an essential role in emotions and increasing evidence points to a role in learning actions and outcomes. The process of learning and memory in addiction has been proposed to involve strengthening of specific brain circuits when a drug is paired with a context or environment. The DOR is highly expressed in the hippocampus, amygdala, striatum and other basal ganglia structures known to participate in learning and memory. In this review, we will focus on the role of the DOR and its potential role in learning and memory underlying the development of addiction.
Clostridium difficile--more difficult than ever.

Because of mutations in this opportunistic pathogen, infections with C. difficile have become both more prevalent and more virulent. This article summarizes recent changes in the epidemiology of this infection and explains what is known about the changes in disease severity and the response to therapy. The authors discuss the use of new antibiotics, probiotics, immunotherapy, and even bacteriotherapy.
Physical activity in high school during ‘free-time’ periods

The purpose of this study was to examine youth physical activity (PA) in free-time periods during high school days and their contribution to total PA. Differences in terms of sex, age, body mass index and school level were assessed in a sample of Portuguese adolescents. Participants totalled 213 (135 girls), aged 14.6±1.7, from two different Portuguese schools, 69 attending an urban school and 144 attending a rural school. Activity levels of five free-time periods were assessed with an accelerometry-based activity monitor (ActiGraph). The results indicated that boys had significantly higher levels of PA (counts min−1) than girls for two of the five periods (afternoon recess and after-school time). Activity levels were higher among younger students during three periods (before school, morning recess and afternoon recess). Significant differences in activity levels (p < 0.001) between the two schools were also found. Despite being older the rural students were more active than urban. In conclusion, free-time periods in high school are a relevant context for PA promotion. In this study they contributed significantly for total daily PA in both sexes, with 37.7–42.7% for girls and 40.1–42.1% for boys.
Obstacle avoidance during walking in real and virtual environments

Immersive virtual environments are a promising research tool for the study of perception and action, on the assumption that visual--motor behavior in virtual and real environments is essentially similar. We investigated this issue for locomotor behavior and tested the generality of Fajen and Warren's [2003] steering dynamics model. Participants walked to a stationary goal while avoiding a stationary obstacle in matched physical and virtual environments. There were small, but reliable, differences in locomotor paths, with a larger maximum deviation (Δ = 0.16 m), larger obstacle clearance (Δ = 0.16 m), and slower walking speed (Δ = 0.13 m/s) in the virtual environment. Separate model fits closely captured the mean virtual and physical paths (R2 > 0.98). Simulations implied that the path differences are not because of walking speed or a 50% distance compression in virtual environments, but might be a result of greater uncertainty about the egocentric location of virtual obstacles. On the other hand, paths had similar shapes in the two environments with no difference in median curvature and could be modeled with a single set of parameter values (R2 > 0.95). Fajen and Warren's original parameters successfully generalized to new virtual and physical object configurations (R2 > 0.95). These results justify the use of virtual environments to study locomotor behavior.
Educational differences in fathers’ time with children in two parent families: Time diary evidence from the United States

This paper examines educational differences in fathers’ time spent in primary and secondary childcare activities using the American Time Use Survey (2003–2013). Compared to fathers with lower educational attainment, well-educated fathers spend more engaged time with their children, where a child is the main center of attention. Although highly educated fathers are not more accessible to their children than fathers with less education, they spend more time in developmental childcare activities associated with positive outcomes for children. The effect of fathers’ education on time spent in routine childcare is completely explained by spouse’s education, whereas father’s time in managerial or developmental childcare activities is hardly affected. Overall, the results indicate distinct fathering practices by educational attainment, some of which are explained by spouse’s education.
Syllabic lengthening as a word boundary cue

Bisyllabic sequences which could be interpreted as one word or two were produced in sentence contexts by a trained speaker, and syllabic durations measured. Listeners judged whether the bisyllables, excised from context, were one word or two. The proportion of two-word choices correlated positively with measured duration, but only for bisyllables stressed on the second syllable. The results may suggest a limit for listener sensitivity to syllabic lengthening as a word boundary cue.
Primary Envelopment of Pseudorabies Virus at the Nuclear Membrane Requires the UL34 Gene Product

ABSTRACT Primary envelopment of several herpesviruses has been shown to occur by budding of intranuclear capsids through the inner nuclear membrane. By subsequent fusion of the primary envelope with the outer nuclear membrane, capsids are released into the cytoplasm and gain their final envelope by budding into vesicles in thetrans-Golgi area. We show here that the product of the UL34 gene of pseudorabies virus, an alphaherpesvirus of swine, is localized in transfected and infected cells in the nuclear membrane. It is also detected in the envelope of virions in the perinuclear space but is undetectable in intracytoplasmic and extracellular enveloped virus particles. Conversely, the tegument protein UL49 is present in mature virus particles and absent from perinuclear virions. In the absence of the UL34 protein, acquisition of the primary envelope is blocked and neither virus particles in the perinuclear space nor intracytoplasmic capsids or virions are observed. However, light particles which label with the anti-UL49 serum are formed in the cytoplasm. We conclude that the UL34 protein is required for primary envelopment, that the primary envelope is biochemically different from the final envelope in that it contains the UL34 protein, and that perinuclear virions lack the tegument protein UL49, which is present in mature virions. Thus, we provide additional evidence for a two-step envelopment process in herpesviruses.
Fatal Outcome in Acute Pancreatitis: Its Occurrence and Early Prediction

Background/Aims: This study aims to determine predictability of death in acute pancreatitis at a secondary-care hospital in Germany. Methods: This study is part of an ongoing study on the epidemiology of acute pancreatitis and covers 368 patients with a first attack of acute pancreatitis in Lüneburg county from 1988 to 1999. Early and late mortality were defined as ≤1 weeks and >1 week after admission. The following parameters were used to establish on admission likelihood of death: admission within 24 h or later with an acute attack, abdominal tenderness, signs of peritonitis, amylase and lipase in serum, leukocytes, hematocrit, potassium, sodium, calcium, creatinine after rehydration, blood glucose, bilirubin, serum glutamate-oxalacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum lactate dehydrogenase (SLDH), arterial pO2, APACHE II score, Ranson and Imrie scores. Results: Of the 368 patients 17 (5%) died, 7 early because of multiple organ failure and 10 late because of septic complications. Mortality rates in interstitial and necrotising pancreatitis were 3 and 17%, respectively. Only an elevated serum creatinine (>2.0 mg/dl) and a blood glucose >250 mg significantly correlated with mortality. Ranson and Imrie scores were also significantly correlated with mortality; however, they were not obtained on admission, but only after 48 h. In univariate analysis, APACHE II score ≧6 on admission and lipase >1,000 U/l on admission provided a high sensitivity and negative predictive value for early and late mortality patients. Conclusion: Approximately half of the deaths in acute pancreatitis occur because of multiple organ failure or septic complications. New approaches have to be found to counteract these severe complications. A fatal outcome may be predicted by simple laboratory parameters such as a high serum creatinine and blood glucose. An APACHE II score ≧6 and a lipase level on admission ≧1,000 U/l indicate severe pancreatitis.
One and half year prevalence study of respiratory acidosis in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders

Maintenance of acid-base homeostasis is a vital function of the living organism. Deviations of systemic acidity in either direction can impose adverse consequences and when severe can threaten life itself. The present study was done to assess the prevalence rate of the respiratory acidosis among the admitted patients of SMBT medical college and hospital, Ghoti, Nasik. One and half year prospective prevalence study was carried out at SMBT medical college, Ghoti, Nasik. Patients were identified with a respiratory diagnosis or symptoms from the hospital by the two expert researchers. Patients were of the age group of 40 to 75 years. Age, sex, date of admission, and the first arterial blood gas tension were recorded. The date of discharge, intensive care (ICU), use and in hospital mortality were obtained retrospectively from the hospital patient administration system and the ICU computer databases in combination with note retrieval. Statistical analysis was performed with the help of IBM SPSS statistics version 20. All patients admitted are assessed and the details were recorded. Total of 1001 patients were admitted for the complaint of COPD or asthma. Out of these 172 patients (17.18%) had developed respiratory acidosis. There is need to develop the various preventive strategies to control the development of the respiratory acidosis.
End-to-End Acknowledgement for Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks

A novel method to improve the reliability of data collection in wireless sensor networks is presented. The Disseminated ACKnowledgment protocol (DACK) builds on collection and dissemination protocolsto provide end-to-end acknowledgement of data samples. A DACK protocol implementation was tested using simulations and experiments on TelosB motes running TinyOS 2.1. Experiments were carried outon three floors of a building, with 14 motes transmittting data samples continuously until battery exhaustion. Results show that the DACK protocol recovers all data samples that would have been lostusing a collection protocol only. The benefit of increased data collection reliability comes at the costof increased communication. In one experiment with 14 motes, 719 data samples were dropped from a total of 749,904 data samples sent over six days; all these dropped sampleswere recovered using the DACK protocol. This experiment required an additional 720 collectionpackets to resend the dropped samples (in addition to the original 467,778 collection packets) plus 18,733 DACK packets. The extra energy required tosend these DACK packets was determined experimentally to be negligible. The DACK packet to original collection packet ratio of 0.04 in the experiment was observed to increase to 0.078 in a simulation of 16 motes in a much noisier 4 by 4 grid network.
Prospective study evaluating the relative sensitivity of 18F-NaF PET/CT for detecting skeletal metastases from renal cell carcinoma in comparison to multidetector CT and 99mTc-MDP bone scintigraphy, using an adaptive trial design

Current imaging techniques for detecting bone metastases in renal carcinoma are insensitive to small lesions. This prospective trial of 18F-NaF PET/CT shows it is more than twice as sensitive as CT and more than three times as sensitive as bone scintigraphy for these lesions. 18F-NaF PET/CT could alter management by identifying occult metastases in patients with negative standard-of-care imaging.
Integer pair representation for multiple-output logic

Integer pair representation for multiple-output (IPR-M), an efficient cube-based method for the representation and manipulation of multiple-output binary valued expressions is presented. The encoding scheme for IPR-M allows for a compact representation of logic functions and efficient manipulations through bitwise logical operations. The authors discussed the IPR-M format, as well as common function operators for multi-output manipulation. Applicability of the representation is illustrated in the implementation of a multiple-output minimizer IPR-MMin. Benchmark results using IPR-MMin are comparable to Espresso's, both in minimization percentages and execution time.
Implicit and explicit object recognition at very large visual eccentricities: No improvement after loss of central vision

Little is known about the ability of human observers to process objects in the far periphery of their visual field and nothing about its evolution in case of central vision loss. We investigated implicit and explicit recognition at two large visual eccentricities. Pictures of objects were centred at 30° or 50° eccentricity. Implicit recognition was tested through a priming paradigm. Participants (normally sighted observers and people with 10–20 years of central vision loss) categorized pictures as animal/transport both in a study phase (Block 1) and in a test phase (Block 2). In explicit recognition participants decided for each picture presented in Block 2 whether it had been displayed in Block 1 (“yes”/“no”). Both visual (identical) and conceptual/lexical (same-name) priming occurred at 30° and at 50°. Explicit recognition was observed only at 30°. In people with central vision loss testing was only performed at 50° eccentricity. The pattern of results was similar to that of normally sighted observers but global performance was lower. The results suggest that vision, at large eccentricity, is mainly based on nonconscious coarse representations. Moreover, after 10–20 years of central vision loss, no evidence was found for an increased ability to use peripheral information in object recognition.
Title: Compassion Meditation Enhances Empathic Accuracy and Related Neural Activity Author affiliation:

The ability to accurately infer others’ mental states from facial expressions is important for optimal social functioning and is fundamentally impaired in social cognitive disorders such as autism. While pharmacologic interventions have shown promise for enhancing empathic accuracy, little is known about the effects of behavioral interventions on empathic accuracy and related brain activity. This study employed a randomized, controlled and longitudinal design to investigate the effect of a secularized analytical compassion meditation program, Cognitively Based Compassion Training (CBCT), on empathic accuracy. Twenty-one healthy participants received functional MRI (fMRI) scans while completing an empathic accuracy task, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), both prior to and after completion of either CBCT or a health discussion control group. Upon completion of the study interventions, participants randomized to CBCT, were significantly more likely than control subjects to have increased scores on the RMET and increased neural activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsomedial PFC (dmPFC). Moreover, changes in dmPFC and IFG activity from baseline to the post-intervention assessment were associated with changes in empathic accuracy. These results suggest that CBCT may hold promise as a behavioral intervention for enhancing empathic accuracy and the neurobiology supporting it.
Application of theory of planned behaviour on Batswana men’s psychological help-seeking behaviours

To investigate the suggestions that men tend to seek psychological help at lower rates than women, the present study applied Ajzen’s theory of planned b ehaviour (TPB) to investigate predictors of men’s intentions to seek psychological help among a population of university students in Botswana ( N = 236). Participants completed four measures consisting of Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPH), Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (SSOSH), Social-Stigma for Receiving Psychological Help Scale (SSRPH) and Intentions of Seeking Counselling Inventory (ISCI). Multiple regression analysis revealed that attitudes towards seeking psychological help, self-stigma of seeking psychological help and social-stigma of receiving psychological help significantly predicted the intentions to seek psychological help. Generally, these findings supported the applicability of the TPB in explaining help-seeking intentions amongst Batswana male students. Accordingly, it is recommended that interve ntions targeted at improving male students’ help seeking intentions should address their norms, behaviours, attitudes and help seeking patterns.
Detection of Charge Density Wave Ground State in Granular Thin Films of Blue Bronze K0.3MoO3 by femtosecond spectroscopy

During the last years, femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy (fsTRS) has become an important new tool to investigate low energy excitations in strongly correlated systems. By studying energy relaxation pathways linking various degrees of freedom (e.g., electrons, spin, or lattice), the interaction strengths between different subsystems can be deduced. Here we report on yet another application of fsTRS, where the technique is used to unambiguously determine the nature of the ground state in granular thin films of a prototype charge density wave system blue bronze, K0.3MoO3. These, potassium blue bronze, films, obtained for the first time ever, have been prepared by pulsed laser deposition and investigated by various standard characterization methods. While the results of all used methods indicate that the thin films consist of nanometer grains of K0.3MoO3, it is only the non-destructive fsTRS that demonstrates the charge density wave nature of the ground state. Furthermore, the comparison of the fsTRS dat.
An Integrated 1.8V to 3.3V Regulated Voltage Doubler Using Active Diodes and Dual-Loop Voltage Follower for Switch-Capacitive Load

An integrated 1.8V to 3.3V regulated voltage doubler is presented. Active diodes realized by MOS transistors only are employed to prevent reverse charge transfer. The switching low dropout regulator consists of a dual-loop voltage follower that could drive a large switch-capacitive load and achieves a fast load transient of less than 5mus for a 140mA current step. The regulated doubler was fabricated in a 0.35mum CMOS process occupying an area of 0.74mm2
Metastatic extramammary Paget's disease responding to weekly paclitaxel

Metastatic extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) is a rare cancer with no validated systemic treatment. Regimens including FECOM 5-fluorouracil (5-FU, epirubicin, carboplatin, vincristine and mitomycin C), 5-FU/cisplatin and single agent docetaxel exhibited varying levels of efficacy in case reports. A 58-year-old man with EMPD diffusely metastatic to bone presented with worsening shortness of breath, significant pancytopenia and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). He was started on low-dose heparin for the DIC and weekly paclitaxel. Initially requiring almost daily transfusions, his shortness of breath improved after two doses of paclitaxel, and he became transfusion-independent after only three doses. Correlating with his disease course, the patient's prepaclitaxel carcinoembryonic antigen level of 62.1 ng/mL decreased to 7.4 ng/mL on 3-month follow-up, and he showed no progression of disease on imaging. With no validated chemotherapy regimen currently, this case can help guide consideration of paclitaxel in future treatment of metastatic EMPD.
Molecular analysis of the asense gene, a member of the achaete‐scute complex of Drosophila melanogaster, and its novel role in optic lobe development.

The achaete‐scute complex (AS‐C) comprises five genetic regions: achaete, scute (sc) alpha, lethal of sc, sc beta and sc gamma. Each region promotes the determination and positional specification of different, but partially overlapping, subsets of neural elements of Drosophila. In this work, we report a molecular characterization of the sc gamma region. It comprises 22 kb of DNA and contains two transcription units, only one of which, named asense (ase), seems involved in neurogenesis. ase encodes a protein that shares with other three AS‐C proteins a domain containing a helix‐‐loop‐‐helix motif characteristic of a group of DNA‐binding proteins. In the embryo, ase is expressed in neural precursor cells, a pattern consistent with the known requirement of sc gamma for the development of the larval nervous system. In late third‐instar larvae, the gene is expressed in developing structures of the central nervous system (CNS), namely the anlagen of the optic lobes and in many cells, including neuroblasts, of the central brain and ventral ganglia. Its removal leads to anatomical defects in the adult optic lobes. This is the first demonstration of a role for the AS‐C in the development of the adult CNS.
Concealed conduction effects in the atrium

Here, we present new results obtained from a 1-D model of the atrium, with both the sinoatrial (SA) and atrioventricular (AV) nodes included. This model is able to reproduce forward and backward propagation between the SA and AV node. These nodes were approximated by a 1-D chain of diffusively coupled, modified relaxation oscillators. The atrial muscle was modeled using a chain of modified FitzHugh-Nagumo (FHN) equations. The FHN model captures the key features of excitable media and is widely used as a simple model of cardiac muscle electrical activity. The complete model consists of three segments: the SA node (15 elements), the atrial muscle (90 elements), and the AV node (15 elements) coupled diffusively at the interfaces and was solved numerically using the Euler method. The model is dimensionless, but the parameters were set in such a way that the period of the oscillations was numerically of the order of the length of RR intervals in human heart rate variability recordings. The model is able to reproduce the low-pass filtering properties of the SA node. The interspike intervals (ISIs) of the calculated action potentials of the AV node of our model were compared, with RR intervals obtained from two selected 24-h Holter recordings of patients of the Institute of Cardiology at Warszawa: one recorded in a 11-year-old girl with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and a second one recorded in a patient with a possible SA block and no ventricular arrhythmia.
Reinvestigation of 16-QAM BI-STCM-ID labellings: point-wise distance spectrum approach

This paper contributes a new method to unveil properties of BI-STCM-ID (Bit-Interleaved Space-Time Coded Modulation with Iterative Decoding) labellings. It consists in computation of point-wise distance spectrum. Thanks to the proposed approach, it is shown that several labelling maps, found here by means of the genetic algorithm, are equivalent to each other and to the optimal ones, known from the literature. Although the optimal labellings of BI-STCM-ID appear to be completely random, the point-wise spectrum shows that they are quite even. Prior to demonstration of the proposed method in action, the most important facts about BI-STCM-ID are reviewed.