Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental changes in consistency of autobiographical memories: adolescents’ and young adults’ repeated recall of recent and distance events

ABSTRACT Autobiographical memories contribute continuity and stability to one’s self yet they also are subject to change: they can be forgotten or be inconsistently remembered and reported. In the present research, we compared the consistency of two reports of recent and distant personal events in adolescents (12- to 14-year-olds) and young adults (18- to 23-year-olds). In line with expectations of greater mnemonic consistency among young adults relative to adolescents, adolescents reported the same events 80% of the time compared with 90% consistency among young adults; the significant difference disappeared after taking into consideration narrative characteristics of individual memories. Neither age group showed high levels of content consistency (30% vs. 36%); young adults were more consistent than adolescents even after controlling for other potential predictors of content consistency. Adolescents and young adults did not differ in consistency of estimating when their past experiences occurred. Multilevel modelling indicated that the level of thematic coherence of the initial memory report and ratings of event valence significantly predicted memory consistency at the level of the event. Thematic coherence was a significant negative predictor of content consistency. The findings suggest a developmental progression in the robustness and stability of personal memories between adolescence and young adulthood.
Stringent Response Factors PPX1 and PPK2 Play an Important Role in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Metabolism, Biofilm Formation, and Sensitivity to Isoniazid In Vivo

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a global health threat largely due to the lengthy duration of curative antibiotic treatment, contributing to medical nonadherence and the emergence of drug resistance. This prolonged therapy is likely due to the presence of M. tuberculosis persisters, which exhibit antibiotic tolerance. Inorganic polyphosphate [poly(P)] is a key regulatory molecule in the M. tuberculosis stringent response mediating antibiotic tolerance. The polyphosphate kinase PPK1 is responsible for poly(P) synthesis in M. tuberculosis, while the exopolyphosphatases PPX1 and PPX2 and the GTP synthase PPK2 are responsible for poly(P) hydrolysis. In the present study, we show by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry that poly(P)-accumulating M. tuberculosis mutant strains deficient in ppx1 or ppk2 had significantly lower intracellular levels of glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) and 1-deoxy-xylulose-5-phosphate. Real-time PCR revealed decreased expression of genes in the G3P synthesis pathway in each mutant. The ppx1-deficient mutant also showed a significant accumulation of metabolites in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, as well as altered arginine and NADH metabolism. Each poly(P)-accumulating strain showed defective biofilm formation, while deficiency of ppk2 was associated with increased sensitivity to plumbagin and meropenem and deficiency of ppx1 led to enhanced susceptibility to clofazimine. A DNA vaccine expressing ppx1 and ppk2, together with two other members of the M. tuberculosis stringent response, M. tuberculosis rel and sigE, did not show protective activity against aerosol challenge with M. tuberculosis, but vaccine-induced immunity enhanced the killing activity of isoniazid in a murine model of chronic tuberculosis. In summary, poly(P)-regulating factors of the M. tuberculosis stringent response play an important role in M. tuberculosis metabolism, biofilm formation, and antibiotic sensitivity in vivo.
Current practices of screening for incident hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among HIV-infected, HCV-uninfected individuals in primary care.

BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected, hepatitis C virus (HCV)-uninfected patients are at risk for incident HCV infection, but little is known about screening practices for incident HCV among HIV-infected individuals in HIV primary care clinics. METHODS We used data from the Center for AIDS Research Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS) to investigate historical trends in screening for incident HCV infection among HIV-infected patients who were HCV-uninfected at enrollment in care. We used descriptive measures and Poisson regression to identify factors associated with screening for HCV infection (using HCV antibody or RNA), performed temporal analyses to assess changes in screening over time, and investigated the frequency with which elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were followed by diagnostic HCV testing. RESULTS Among 17 090 patients registered at CNICS sites between 2000 and 2011, 14 534 (85%) received HCV antibody screening within 3 months of enrolling in care, and 9077 met all of the inclusion criteria. Only 55.6% ever received additional HCV screening. HCV screening increased over time, but not uniformly at all sites. Only 26.7% of first-time ALT elevations to >100 IU/L were followed up within 12 months by HCV antibody or RNA testing. CONCLUSIONS Although most HIV-infected patients were screened for prevalent HCV infection at enrollment in care, only half who were HCV uninfected were screened again. Screening varied between sites, even when controlling for demographics and risk behaviors. Patients with new ALT elevations to >100 IU/L were seldom assessed for incident HCV infection. Guidelines are needed to help HIV providers know whom to screen, how frequently to screen, and which screening test to use.
Pregnancy outcomes of single cleavage-stage embryo transfer in the ultra-short protocol

The aim of this study was to assess the pregnancy outcomes with only single cleavage-stage embryo transfer (SET) in Day 3 and investigate the factors resulted in only one cleavage-stage embryo transfer. Methods: The patients were categorized into three study groups depending on different grade of embryo transferred. We observed that the pregnancy (32.43% and 23.81% and 24.27%; P=0.921) and abortion (16.67% and 13.30% and 8.00%; P=0.191) rate showed no significant difference in SET groups with different embryo grades. The total clinical pregnancy rate in SET group was significantly lower compared with double cleavage-stage embryo transfer (DET) group (25.62% and 39.14%; P=0.001). Between the two groups, there was no significant difference in female’s age, total gonadotrophin dose, mean length of stimulation, basal serum FSH, endometrial thickness or infertile time (P>0.05). The number of retrieved oocytes (4.23 and 6.03, P=0.002) and normal fertilization (48.36% and 65.01%, P<0.001) rate were significantly lower in SET group than in DET group. When only single embryo transferred, the normal fertilization rate (48.36% and 47.74%, P=0.860) exhibited no significant difference between IVF (in vitro fertilization) and ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) group. The clinical pregnancy rate (25.62% and 10.14%, P=0.007) was significantly lower in ICSI group than in IVF group. These results suggest that the patients with single cleavage-stage embryo transfer have a lower clinical pregnancy probability. If not pregnant, in next cycles, increasing oocyte retrieval and normal fertilization rate needed to be a prior consideration rather than replacing IVF to ICSI.
ouchscreen performance and knowledge transfer in the red-footed ortoise ( Chelonoidis carbonaria ) ulia

In recent years red-footed tortoises have been shown to be proficient in a number of spatial cognition tasks that involve movement of the animal through space (e.g., the radial maze). The present study investigated the ability of the tortoise to learn a spatial task in which the response required was simply to touch a stimulus presented in a given position on a touchscreen. We also investigated the relation between this task and performance in a different spatial task (an arena, in which whole-body movement was required). Four red-footed tortoises learned to operate the touchscreen apparatus, and two learned the simple spatial discrimination. The side-preference trained with the touchscreen was maintained when behaviour was tested in a physical arena. When the contingencies in the arena were then reversed, the tortoises learned the reversal but in a subsequent test did not transfer it to the touchscreen. Rather
Outlooks on Wearable Technology Products

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Wearable technology, also known as wearables, fashion electronics or smart clothing, refers to the techniques in developing novel functional products that can be incorporated into cloth worn on the body or even in the body as implants [1]. The design principle builds on the interactions between user’s body and the devices, as an extension of users’ body and brain, and is hence entirely customer experience oriented.
The PAS domains of the major sporulation kinase in Bacillus subtilis play a role in tetramer formation that is essential for the autokinase activity

Sporulation in Bacillus subtilis is induced upon starvation. In a widely accepted model, an N‐terminal “sensor” domain of the major sporulation kinase KinA recognizes a hypothetical starvation signal(s) and autophosphorylates a histidine residue to activate the master regulator Spo0A via a multicomponent phosphorelay. However, to date no confirmed signal has been found. Here, we demonstrated that PAS‐A, the most N‐terminal of the three PAS domains (PAS‐ABC), is dispensable for the activity, contrary to a previous report. Our data indicated that the autokinase activity is dependent on the formation of a functional tetramer, which is mediated by, at least, PAS‐B and PAS‐C. Additionally, we ruled out the previously proposed notion that NAD+/NADH ratio controls KinA activity through the PAS‐A domain by demonstrating that the cofactors show no effects on the kinase activity in vitro. In support of these data, we found that the cofactors exist in approximately 1000‐fold excess of KinA in the cell and the cofactors’ ratio does not change significantly during growth and sporulation, suggesting that changes in the cofactor ratio might not play a role in controlling KinA activity. These data may refute the widely‐held belief that the activity of KinA is regulated in response to an unknown starvation signal(s).
Analysis and Design of Ultra-Wideband Low-Noise Amplifier With Input/Output Bandwidth Optimization and Single-Ended/Differential-Input Reconfigurability

A CMOS low-noise amplifier (LNA) for ultrawideband universal radio is presented. Based on capacitive cross-coupled dual-gm-enhancement topology, the circuit topology could be reconfigured as different versions for single-ended or differential inputs. One possible input/output resonant scheme is analyzed and may help the LNA to exhibit input matching, low noise, and flat gain in an ultra-wide frequency band with relatively low power consumption. Both a differential-input-differential-output and a single-ended-input-differential-output version are fabricated in 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The differential-input version achieves an 11-14 dB S21, ≤ -9 dBS11 within 1.4-11.4 GHz, and a minimum noise figure of 3.9 dB; the single-ended-input version achieves a 5-8 dB S21, ≤ -10 dBS11 among 2.4-11.7 GHz, and a minimum noise figure of 6.3 dB.
The Effects of Intimate Partner Violence and Probable Traumatic Brain Injury on Central Nervous System Symptoms.

INTRODUCTION Abused women often report a wide range of physical and psychological symptoms that present challenges to providers. Specifically, injuries to the head or strangulation, may initiate neurological changes that contribute to central nervous system (CNS) symptoms. These symptoms are often attributed to mental health diagnoses in this population. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the prevalence of and associations between reported probable traumatic brain injury (TBI) and CNS symptoms in a sample of women of African descent. METHODS A convenience sample of 901 women of African descent from Baltimore, MD and the US Virgin Islands, aged 18-55, was used to examine relationships among self-reported intimate partner violence (IPV), TBI, and CNS symptoms. Data were collected via Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interview. RESULTS Abused women who experienced a probable TBI were more likely to report CNS symptoms than those who did not. When controlling for demographics, IPV, and mental health symptoms, probable TBI was associated with a two point increase in CNS symptom frequency score (95% confidence interval: 1.55-2.93, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Women who reported both probable TBI and IPV were more likely than their abused counterparts who reported no TBI to report CNS symptoms. This relationship held true even when controlling for symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Clinicians working with women should be aware of TBI as a possible etiology for symptoms in abused women. Appropriate screening and treatment protocols should be designed and implemented across medical settings to improve outcomes for women who have experienced IPV and TBI.
Computer Vision for Food Cost Classification

This project aims to use various computer vision methods for the novel task of restaurant cost prediction based on food images. It uses the Yelp dataset, a dataset of 200,000 images tagged by business, which is significantly pared down to near 15,000 relevant images tagged as food, and labeled by the cost rating of the business they come from. These food images are partitioned into training and testing datasets, and the test dataset has a uniform sample distribution over the classes: cheap ($-$$ on Yelp), and expensive ($$$-$$$$ on Yelp). Once the dataset is defined, several techniques are trained and applied to make class predictions on the test dataset. The prediction model is broken into feature extraction and classification, and significant exploration was done to come up with optimal features and classifiers for the specific task. The primary goal of this project was to achieve the highest possible classification accuracy on the reserved test dataset. The four main feature extractors used were: simple preprocessing (crop and resize images to uniform dimensions), color histograms (a normalized distribution of color intensity at all pixels), SIFT bag of words (using normalized distributions of SURF feature common descriptors over each image), and deep neural network features (using the trained Alexnet to extract image features). Each feature extractor was tested with each of the following classification methods: K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naive Bayes, and a custom neural network with softmax loss. The best results were achieved from the combination of Alexnet features and color histograms, independently compressed using PCA, and classified with a shallow neural network, which acheived 70% accuracy on the test set while most other methods achieved from 50% 78% accuracy.
Allatotropin: An Ancestral Myotropic Neuropeptide Involved in Feeding

Background Cell-cell interactions are a basic principle for the organization of tissues and organs allowing them to perform integrated functions and to organize themselves spatially and temporally. Peptidic molecules secreted by neurons and epithelial cells play fundamental roles in cell-cell interactions, acting as local neuromodulators, neurohormones, as well as endocrine and paracrine messengers. Allatotropin (AT) is a neuropeptide originally described as a regulator of Juvenile Hormone synthesis, which plays multiple neural, endocrine and myoactive roles in insects and other organisms. Methods A combination of immunohistochemistry using AT-antibodies and AT-Qdot nanocrystal conjugates was used to identify immunoreactive nerve cells containing the peptide and epithelial-muscular cells targeted by AT in Hydra plagiodesmica. Physiological assays using AT and AT- antibodies revealed that while AT stimulated the extrusion of the hypostome in a dose-response fashion in starved hydroids, the activity of hypostome in hydroids challenged with food was blocked by treatments with different doses of AT-antibodies. Conclusions AT antibodies immunolabeled nerve cells in the stalk, pedal disc, tentacles and hypostome. AT-Qdot conjugates recognized epithelial-muscular cell in the same tissues, suggesting the existence of anatomical and functional relationships between these two cell populations. Physiological assays indicated that the AT-like peptide is facilitating food ingestion. Significance Immunochemical, physiological and bioinformatics evidence advocates that AT is an ancestral neuropeptide involved in myoregulatory activities associated with meal ingestion and digestion.
In Situ TEM for Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion Systems

Advances in the lifetime and performance of batteries and fuel cells are required before they are cost effective for electric vehicles or as a way to level the supply of power from intermittent, renewable energy sources. Because both the materials and processes in these energy storage and conversion systems are inhomogeneous on the nanoscale, in situ (scanning) transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is well suited to provide dynamic, nanometer scale information [1]. Here we discuss platinum catalysts on carbon supports for fuel cell applications, observing the carbon flex during cycling. Finally, we present work observing the lithiation of a battery cathode material using in situ spectroscopy. We find that the mechanism of lithiation is different for different particles in the same aggregate. The morphology of the support structure for catalysts in fuel cells is important in determining their degradation and transport behavior. We observe morphological changes in catalyst supports at varying potentials in a Protochips electrochemical cell in a 200 keV Tecnai F20. Figure 1 shows platinum nanoparticles on high surface area carbon (HSC) in 0.1 M H 2 SO 4 . During cyclic voltammetry, the carbon aggregates swell at low potential and relax at high potential (Fig 1a-c). The carbon branch that is highlighted reversibly oscillates tens of nanometers with the voltage (Fig 1d). At low potential, the branch moves away from its neighbor, and then relaxes at high potential. We suspect that the dynamics of the HSC are of capacitive origin, attracting and possibly intercalating protons at negative potentials. The lower mobility and larger size of the sulfate anions inhibits similar behavior at high potentials. If the carbon oscillation occurs in a fuel cell, it may degrade gas diffusion pathways or lead to Pt coalescence. In a separate experiment, we observed carbon support degradation at
Effects of Ekman Transport on the NAO Response to a Tropical Atlantic SST Anomaly

Abstract A recent study showed that a tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly induces a significant coupled response in late winter [February–April (FMA)] in a coupled model, in which an atmospheric general circulation model is coupled to a slab mixed layer ocean model (AGCM_ML). The coupled response comprises a dipole in the geopotential height, like the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and a North Atlantic tripole in the SST. The simulated NAO response developed 1 or 2 months later in the model than in observations. To determine the possible effects of Ekman heat transport on the development of the coupled response to the tropical forcing, an extended coupled model (AGCM_EML), including Ekman transport in the slab mixed layer ocean, is now used. Large ensembles of AGCM_EML experiments are performed, parallel to the previous AGCM_ML experiments, with the model forced by the same tropical Atlantic SST anomaly over the boreal winter months (September–April). The inclusion of Ekman heat tra.
Cost of atopic dermatitis and eczema in the United States.

BACKGROUND Atopic dermatitis/eczema (AD/E) is a common disease. Few studies have attempted to quantify the cost to third-party payers. OBJECTIVE Our purpose was to identify the annual cost of medical services and prescription drugs for the treatment of AD/E to private insurance and Medicaid payers in the United States. METHODS We used a retrospective study design employing claims data from 1997 and 1998 from a private insurer and a state Medicaid program to analyze costs incurred. Beneficiaries were considered to have AD/E if they had at least one claim in 1997 with a primary or secondary listing of 1 of 3 diagnosis codes: 691.8, other atopic dermatitis and related conditions; 692.9, contact dermatitis and other eczema when no cause is specified; or 373.3, noninfectious dermatoses of eyelid. Patients who did not meet the diagnosis criteria served as a control group in each payer for comparisons of expenditures with the AD/E group. RESULTS Disease prevalence was 2.4% (private insurer) to 2.6% (Medicaid) of all eligible beneficiaries, and 3.5% to 4.1% of patients submitted at least one health care claim during the study period. Medicaid-insured patients used outpatient hospital visits and hospitalizations at a greater rate than did privately insured patients; neither used emergency departments extensively. The third-party payer cost of illness for AD/E ranged from $0.9 billion to $3.8 billion when projected across the total number of persons younger than 65 years insured by private insurers and Medicaid in the United States. More than one fourth of all health care costs for patients with AD/E may be attributed to AD/E and co-morbid conditions. CONCLUSIONS Annual costs of AD/E are similar to those of other diseases such as emphysema, psoriasis, and epilepsy. Patients incur significant costs associated with AD/E and co-morbid conditions.
Identification of protective postexposure mycobacterial vaccine antigens using an immunosuppression-based reactivation model in the zebrafish

ABSTRACT Roughly one third of the human population carries a latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, with a 5-10% lifetime risk of reactivation to active tuberculosis and further spreading the disease. The mechanisms leading to the reactivation of a latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection are insufficiently understood. Here, we used a natural fish pathogen, Mycobacterium marinum, to model the reactivation of a mycobacterial infection in the adult zebrafish (Danio rerio). A low-dose intraperitoneal injection (∼40 colony-forming units) led to a latent infection, with mycobacteria found in well-organized granulomas surrounded by a thick layer of fibrous tissue. A latent infection could be reactivated by oral dexamethasone treatment, which led to disruption of the granuloma structures and dissemination of bacteria. This was associated with the depletion of lymphocytes, especially CD4+ T cells. Using this model, we verified that ethambutol is effective against an active disease but not a latent infection. In addition, we screened 15 mycobacterial antigens as postexposure DNA vaccines, of which RpfB and MMAR_4207 reduced bacterial burdens upon reactivation, as did the Ag85-ESAT-6 combination. In conclusion, the adult zebrafish-M. marinum infection model provides a feasible tool for examining the mechanisms of reactivation in mycobacterial infections, and for screening vaccine and drug candidates. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper. Summary: We characterize the reactivation of a latent mycobacterial infection and identify DNA-based vaccine candidates against the reactivation of tuberculosis using the adult zebrafish Mycobacterium marinum infection model.