Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A meta-analysis of psychoeduational programs for coronary heart disease patients.

In a meta-analysis of 37 studies, the effects of psychoeducational (health education and stress management) programs for coronary heart disease patients were examined. The results suggest that these programs yielded a 34% reduction in cardiac mortality; a 29% reduction in recurrence of myocardial infarction (MI); and significant (p < .025) positive effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, body weight, smoking behavior, physical exercise, and eating habits. No effects of psychoeducational programs were found in regard to coronary bypass surgery, anxiety, or depression. The results also suggest that cardiac rehabilitation programs that were successful on proximal targets (systolic blood pressure, smoking behavior, physical exercise, emotional distress) were more effective on distal targets (cardiac mortality and MI recurrences) than programs without success on proximal targets.
CD4 T-lymphocyte activation in asthma is accompanied by increased serum concentrations of interleukin-5. Effect of glucocorticoid therapy.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and serum were obtained, on two occasions, from 15 asthmatic patients who required oral glucocorticoid therapy for moderate to severe disease exacerbations. Samples were obtained immediately before commencement of oral glucocorticoids (Day 1) and again after 7 days of treatment (Day 7), when lung function had significantly improved. Samples were also isolated on two occasions 7 days apart from a group of seven untreated volunteers. Expression of CD25, human lymphocyte antigen (HLA-)DR, CD45RA, and CD45RO on CD4 and CD8 T lymphocytes was measured by flow cytometry, and serum concentrations of interleukin-5 (IL-5) were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. On Day 1 the asthmatic patients showed significantly higher percentages, as compared with the control subjects of CD4 T lymphocytes expressing the markers CD25, HLA-DR, and CD45RO and significantly lower percentages of CD4 T cells expressing CD45RA. After glucocorticoid therapy, the percentages of CD4 T cells expressing CD25, HLA-DR, and CD45RO were significantly reduced in the asthmatic patients, and the percentages of those expressing CD45RA significantly increased so that by Day 7 expression of all four markers was no longer significantly different from that of the control subjects. By contrast, the percentages of CD8 T cells expressing HLA-DR, CD45RA, and CD45RO in the PBMC of the asthmatic patients on Day 1 were not significantly different from those in control subjects, whereas the percentages of CD25 expressing CD8 T cells were only marginally elevated. Glucocorticoid therapy resulted in no significant change in the expression of all four markers on CD T cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Instruction Set Extensions for Enhancing the Performance of Symmetric-Key Cryptography

Instruction set extensions for a RISC processor are presented to improve the software performance of the Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple-DES, the International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA), and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithms. The most computationally intensive operations of each algorithm are off-loaded to a set of newly defined instructions. The additional hardware required to support these instructions is integrated into the processor's datapath. For each of the targeted algorithms, comparisons are presented between traditional software implementations and new implementations that take advantage of the extended instruction set architecture. Results show that utilization of the proposed instructions significantly reduces program code size and improves encryption and decryption throughput. Moreover, the additional hardware resources required to support the instruction set extensions increases the total area of the processor by less than 65%.
Inhibitory role of endothelium‐derived relaxing factor in rat and human pulmonary arteries

1 The inhibitory role of endothelium‐derived relaxing factor was studied in both rat and human pulmonary arteries in vitro by inhibiting its synthesis with the L‐arginine analogue NG‐monomethyl‐l‐arginine (l‐NMMA). 2 In rat pulmonary arteries, l‐NMMA pretreatment (10–300 μm) dose‐dependently inhibited acetylcholine‐induced relaxation (which is endothelium‐dependent). NG‐monomethyl‐d‐arginine (d‐NMMA, 100 μm) was without effect, l‐Arginine, but not d‐arginine, dose‐dependently reversed this inhibition. l‐NMMA had no effect on relaxation induced by sodium nitroprusside. 3 In human small pulmonary arteries l‐NMMA (100 μm) pretreatment similarly inhibited the acetylcholine‐induced relaxation but had no effect on the sodium nitroprusside‐induced relaxation. 4 In both rat and human pulmonary arteries, l‐NMMA, but not d‐NMMA, always caused contraction of preconstricted tissues whereas it had no effect on baseline tone. In the rat this contraction was completely prevented by prior treatment with l‐arginine. 5 l‐NMMA (100 μm) pretreatment mimicked the effect of endothelium removal on phenylephrine‐induced vasoconstriction, both resulting in an increase in tension development at each concentration of phenylephrine. This enhancement was greatest at low concentrations of phenylephrine but was still present even at the highest concentrations. Pretreatment with l‐NMMA (100 μm) also significantly increased the responses to single doses of phenylephrine. 6 These results suggest that endothelium‐derived relaxing factor from endothelial cells both mediates the relaxation response to acetylcholine and also acts as a physiological brake against vasoconstriction in pulmonary vessels.
Probing the Neutron‐Capture Nucleosynthesis History of Galactic Matter

The heavy elements formed by neutron‐capture processes have an interesting history from which we can extract useful clues to and constraints upon both the characteristics of the processes themselves and the star formation and nucleosynthesis history of Galactic matter. Of particular interest in this regard are the heavy‐element compositions of extremely metal deficient stars. At metallicities [Fe/H] ≤ −2.5, the elements in the mass region past barium (A≳130–140) have been found (in non–carbon‐rich stars) to be pure r‐process products. The identification of an environment provided by massive stars and associated Type II supernovae as an r‐process site seems compelling. Increasing levels of heavy s‐process (e.g., barium) enrichment with increasing metallicity, evident in the abundances of more metal rich halo stars and disk stars, reflect the delayed contributions from the low‐ and intermediate‐mass (M∼1–3 M⊙) stars that provide the site for the main s‐process nucleosynthesis component during the asymptotic giant branch phase of their evolution. New abundance data in the mass region 60≲A≲130 are providing insight into the identity of possible alternative r‐process sites. We review recent observational studies of heavy‐element abundances in both low‐metallicity halo stars and disk stars, discuss the observed trends in light of nucleosynthesis theory, and explore some implications of these results for Galactic chemical evolution, nucleosynthesis, and nucleocosmochronology.
Comment on “ Systematic identification and evolutionary features of rhesus monkey small nucleolar RNAs ”

In their article “Systematic identification and evolutionary features of rhesus monkey small nucleolar RNAs”, Zhang et al. [BMC Genomics, 11: 61 (2010)] report on the discovery of 117 rhesus monkey non-coding RNAs, of which eight remained unannotated. In this commentary, these sequences are revisited and annotations are derived for seven of the eight “unclassified ncRNA candidates”. Zhang et al. [1] surveyed intermediate-size (50500nt) non-coding RNAs from the rhesus monkey. They identified 117 ncRNAs, of which 80 were snoRNAs and 29 additional sequences were identified as homologs of well-known housekeeping RNAs. Eight sequences were designated “unclassified ncRNA candidate” and remained unannotated. These sequences are abbreviated unc-1 through unc-8 in the following. Mapping the candidate sequences to the mitochondrial genome of Macaca mulatta using blastn yields nearly exact matches for unc-1, unc-3, unc-4, and unc-5. A comparison with the existing annotation [2] of this and other primate mitogenomes unambiguously identifies the sequences as full or partial mitochondrial tRNAs, Fig. 1 top left. Each of these four query sequences exhibits a few mismatches relative to the mitogenomic reference sequence. Mapping the sequences to the rhesus genome shows that they also have multiple approximate matches in the current assembly (MMUL 1.0) of the nuclear genome. These correspond to retro(pseudo)genes of the mitochondrial tRNA. Based on the existing data it is not possible to decide conclusively whether the RNAs are expressed nuclear loci or whether the sequences derive from mitochondrial tRNAs. In the latter case, the mismatches to the mitogenomic sequence might be associated with the post-transcriptional modifications of these tRNAs, see e.g. [3]. The sequence unc-2 is identical to the 3’ half of the selenocystein tRNA gene, which is vertually identically conserved among eutherian mammals [4]. Three of the five tRNA-related sequences (unc-1,
Treatment of amblyopia in the adult: insights from a new rodent model of visual perceptual learning

Amblyopia is the most common form of impairment of visual function affecting one eye, with a prevalence of about 1–5% of the total world population. Amblyopia usually derives from conditions of early functional imbalance between the two eyes, owing to anisometropia, strabismus, or congenital cataract, and results in a pronounced reduction of visual acuity and severe deficits in contrast sensitivity and stereopsis. It is widely accepted that, due to a lack of sufficient plasticity in the adult brain, amblyopia becomes untreatable after the closure of the critical period in the primary visual cortex. However, recent results obtained both in animal models and in clinical trials have challenged this view, unmasking a previously unsuspected potential for promoting recovery even in adulthood. In this context, non invasive procedures based on visual perceptual learning, i.e., the improvement in visual performance on a variety of simple visual tasks following practice, emerge as particularly promising to rescue discrimination abilities in adult amblyopic subjects. This review will survey recent work regarding the impact of visual perceptual learning on amblyopia, with a special focus on a new experimental model of perceptual learning in the amblyopic rat.
The Sharing of Macroeconomic Risk: Who Loses (and Gains) from Macroeconomic Shocks

This paper addresses the often neglected question of how macroeconomic risk is shared across and within economies, and identifies reforms that could contribute towards achieving more desirable risksharing outcomes. For risk-sharing across countries, the paper discusses possibilities for international insurance as well as shock-spreading and risk-mitigating policies. Within countries, it assesses the possibilities for individuals to protect their wealth, labour and capital income against various forms of macroeconomic risk and discusses the desirable boundaries between private and government-sponsored risk-sharing institutions. The paper then presents new empirical and model-based evidence about how the short-term impact of selected macroeconomic shocks (including financial crises) is shared across different groups of agents, and analyses how such distributional effects are shaped by differences in institutions. For example, individuals on low incomes, and especially young people, seem in general to lose most from adverse macroeconomic shocks. Also, it appears that across countries two broad types of institutions can be identified that facilitate risk sharing between high and low income earners, namely “social protection” and “reallocation-facilitating” institutions. Based on countries’ reliance on these types of institutions, four broad “models” of risk sharing are identified across the OECD and the BRIICS. Le partage du risque macroeconomique : Les perdants (et gagnants) des chocs macroeconomiques L’article analyse comment les risques macroeconomiques sont repartis au niveau international et individuel. Il propose des reformes qui pourraient contribuer a une meilleure redistribution de ces risques. Premierement, au niveau international, le papier analyse l’opportunite des dispositifs d’assurance ainsi que des politiques de partage et de reduction des risques macroeconomiques. Deuxiemement, au niveau individuel, l’article evalue comment les individus peuvent proteger leurs patrimoines et revenus du travail et du capital a l’encontre de differents chocs macroeconomiques. Il analyse les limites et roles souhaitables des dispositifs prives et publics de repartition des risques. Enfin, l’article modelise les effets de court terme de certains chocs macroeconomiques – dont les crises financieres – sur differents groupes d’individus et propose une nouvelle analyse empirique de l’impact des institutions sur la repartition des risques macroeconomiques. Les bas revenus, et en particulier les jeunes, semblent les groupes les plus affectes par les chocs macroeconomiques. Les institutions de protection sociale et elles favorisant les transitions apparaissent contribuer a la redistribution des risques entre niveau de revenus. Cette analyse permet d’identifier quatre grands modeles de repartition des risques parmi les pays de l’OCDE et du BRIICS.
Empathy, Shame, Guilt, and Narratives of Interpersonal Conflicts: Guilt‐Prone People Are Better at Perspective Taking

Both guilt and empathic perspective taking have been linked to prosocial, relationship-enhancing effects. Study 1 found that shame was linked to personal distress, whereas guilt was linked to perspective taking. In Studies 2 and 3, subjects were asked to describe a recent experience of interpersonal conflict, once from their own perspective, and once from the perspective of the other person. Guilt-prone people and guilt-dominated stories were linked to better perspective taking (measured by changes between the two versions of the story) than others. Shame had no effect. Guilt improved relationship outcomes but shame harmed them. Path analysis suggested that trait guilt-proneness leads to perspective taking, which leads to actual guilt feelings, which produces beneficial relationship outcomes. Guilt feelings may mediate the relationship-enhancing effects of empathy.
Rhabdom structure and receptor potentials in single crayfish retinular cells.

The effects of continuous darkness and abnormal ionic ratios (excess Ca+ +, Mg+ +, K+, and absence of Na+) on the fine structure of the rhabdoms and on the intracellular retinal receptor potentials were studied in crayfish compound eyes. The normal rhabdom has its constituent microvilli regularly arranged in a characteristic cross-banded pattern. The normal retinular cell response consists of an initial transient peak and a sustained plateau. After the crayfish were kept for three months in the dark, the regular arrangement of rhabdom microvilli was markedly upset, and receptor potentials of retinular cells in the eye consisted only of the slow phase. The initial phase of the intracellular retinal receptor potential is more labile than the sustained phase (plateau) and was easily abolished if the rhabdom was so strongly affected by continuous darkness, excess Ca+ +, and excess K+ that the fine structural arrangements of microtubules were destroyed. Since receptor potentials were recorded from compound eyes in which rhabdoms were deranged and almost all their microvilli torn off from the retinular cells, transmission of visual excitation from rhabdom to retinular cell soma must be possible without direct membranous connection between them.
Ultrasound and fetal diagnosis

Purpose of review The purpose of this review is to highlight publications from the last year that have advanced the use of ultrasound in obstetrics. Recent findings Anatomic examination of the fetus in the first trimester has been emphasized because it allows for early diagnosis of many conditions. The prevalence of absent nasal bone, a marker for trisomy 21, in euploid fetuses depends on ethnicity. Nasal bone hypoplasia is another marker for Down syndrome. Studies on genetic screening in the first trimester have involved various serum analytes, adjustments in timing and calculations, use in multiple gestations, and the association of extreme measurements with adverse outcomes. A first-trimester integrated screening approach, which incorporates nuchal translucency, nasal bone, crown–rump length, pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A, and free β-human chorionic gonadotropin, has the potential to maximize detection rates of Down syndrome and trisomy 18 and minimizes the screen-positive rate. The value of combining first and second-trimester results in sequential, contingent, or integrated screening protocols has been assessed. Isolated mild ventriculomegaly (10–12 mm) may prove to be a normal variant, and the role of ‘soft’ ultrasound markers in genetic counseling continues to be debated. Anomaly or high-risk status detection in the second trimester has been enhanced by the use of Doppler, 3D/4D ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging. Summary Imaging techniques have been critical in the development of screening methods for Down syndrome or trisomy 18 and for euploid fetuses at high risk for adverse outcomes.
Towards Temperature Dependent Coarse-grained Potential of Side-chain Interactions for Protein Folding Simulations

Based on the results of our recent work on the determination of the potentials of mean force of pairs of models of amino-acid side chains in water, in this work we make an attempt at introducing temperature-dependent side chain – side chain interaction potentials in our coarse-grained UNRES energy function. For hydrophobic pairs as well as oppositely-charged pairs, two functional forms are introduced, one of which implies a linear dependence of the free energy of interactions on temperature and the other one a hyperbolic-tangent dependence. The free energy of the interactions of other pairs is assumed to be independent of temperature. With the example of the N-terminal part of the B-domain of staphylococcal protein A, we demonstrate that, with this temperature dependence, the radius of gyration and the root-mean-square deviation from the native structure grow less steeply with temperature and the heat-capacity peak is lower than that obtained with temperature-independent side chain – side chain potentials. This demonstrates that ignoring the increase of the strength of hydrophobic interactions with increasing temperature in coarse-grained force fields is likely to result in grossly wrong predictions of the thermodynamics of folding and of the process of thermal unfolding made with such force fields.
An Efficient Routing Protocol on Adhoc Wireless Mobile Networks

Efficient routing protocols can provide significant benefits to mobile ad hoc networks in terms of both performance and reliability. Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is an infrastructure less and decentralized network which need a robust dynamic routing protocol In ad hoc network networks, in order to make them reliable and secure one need to analyze the routing mechanisms which are called as the MANET routing protocols and also transport protocols also required. In the research work, we have to do the investigation of mobile ad hoc network protocols like ad hoc on demand routing protocol AODV, DSDV and DSR protocol using the different TCP types like TCP Reno, TCP New Reno, TCP Vegas and our Analysis of the variants of TCP is based on these performance metrics: TCP Throughput, Average End-to-End delay, Packet Delivery Fraction and Energy Cost. This analysis will be useful in determining the better variant among TCP Protocols to ensure better data transfer, speed, and reliability and congestion control.
Phase-Amplitude Coupling Is Elevated in Deep Sleep and in the Onset Zone of Focal Epileptic Seizures

The interactions between different EEG frequency bands have been widely investigated in normal and pathologic brain activity. Phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) is one of the important forms of this interaction where the amplitude of higher frequency oscillations is modulated by the phase of lower frequency activity. Here, we studied the dynamic variations of PAC of high (gamma and ripple) and low (delta, theta, alpha, and beta) frequency bands in patients with focal epilepsy in different sleep stages during the interictal period, in an attempt to see if coupling is different in more or less epileptogenic regions. Sharp activities were excluded to avoid their effect on the PAC. The results revealed that the coupling intensity was generally the highest in stage N3 of sleep and the lowest in rapid eye movement sleep. We also compared the coupling strength in different regions [seizure onset zone (SOZ), exclusively irritative zone, and normal zone]. PAC between high and low frequency rhythms was found to be significantly stronger in the SOZ compared to normal regions. Also, the coupling was generally more elevated in spiking channels outside the SOZ than in normal regions. We also examined how the power in the delta band correlates to the PAC, and found a mild but statistically significant correlation between slower background activity in epileptic channels and the elevated coupling in these channels. The results suggest that an elevated PAC may reflect some fundamental abnormality, even after exclusion of sharp activities and even in the interictal period. PAC may therefore contribute to understanding the underlying dynamics of epileptogenic brain regions.
Hydrogen Sulfide Offers Neuroprotection on Traumatic Brain Injury in Parallel with Reduced Apoptosis and Autophagy in Mice

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a novel gaseous mediator, has been recognized as an important neuromodulator and neuroprotective agent in the central nervous system. The present study was undertaken to study the effects of exogenous H2S on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the underlying mechanisms. The effects of exogenous H2S on TBI were examined by using measurement of brain edema, behavior assessment, propidium iodide (PI) staining, and Western blotting, respectively. Compared to TBI groups, H2S pretreatment had reduced brain edema, improved motor performance and ameliorated performance in Morris water maze test after TBI. Immunoblotting results showed that H2S pretreatment reversed TBI-induced cleavage of caspase-3 and decline of Bcl-2, suppressed LC3-II, Beclin-1 and Vps34 activation and maintained p62 level in injured cortex and hippocampus post TBI. The results suggest a protective effect and therapeutic potential of H2S in the treatment of brain injury and the protective effect against TBI may be associated with regulating apoptosis and autophagy.