Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lingual BDNF and NT‐3 mRNA expression patterns and their relation to innervation in the human tongue: Similarities and differences compared with rodents

Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin 3 (NT‐3) mRNAs are expressed in developing and adult rodent tongue and are important for the proper development of lingual gustatory and somatosensory innervation in rodents. Here, we wished to determine whether the findings in rodents apply to humans. By using in situ hybridization histochemistry, distinct, specific, and in some instances overlapping patterns of BDNF and NT‐3 mRNA expression were found in the developing and adult human tongue, gustatory papillae, and taste buds. BDNF mRNA was expressed in the superior surface epithelium of the developing fungiform papillae (i.e., developing taste buds), in the epithelium covering the circumvallate papillae, and in the subepithelial mesenchyme. Interestingly, BDNF mRNA was expressed in the lingual epithelium before nerve fibers reached the epithelium, indicating a prespecialization of the gustatory epithelium before the arrival of nerves. In the adult fungiform papillae, BDNF mRNA labeling was found in taste buds and in restricted areas in the non‐gustatory lingual epithelium. NT‐3 mRNA was found in the developing lingual epithelium and gustatory papillae. NT‐3 mRNA labeling was observed in the adult fungiform taste buds, overlapping with BDNF mRNA labeling, in contrast to what was seen in rodents. NT‐3 mRNA was additionally found in restricted areas in filiform papillae. Protein gene product 9.5 (PGP) antibodies were used to investigate a possible correlation between lingual innervation and sites of neurotrophin gene activity. Adult human tongue innervation differed from that of rodents, possibly in part due to a different neurotrophin expression pattern in the human tongue. Based on these findings, we suggest that BDNF and NT‐3 are important for the initiation and maintenance of the gustatory and somatosensory innervation also in humans. The broader and somewhat overlapping expression patterns of BDNF and NT‐3 mRNAs, compared with rodents, suggest additional and possibly somewhat overlapping roles for BDNF and NT‐3 in the human tongue and also indicate differences between species. It is important that interspecies differences be taken into consideration. J. Comp. Neurol. 417:133–152, 2000. ©2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Blocking Glutamate-Mediated Inferior Olivary Signals Abolishes Expression of Conditioned Eyeblinks But Does Not Prevent Their Acquisition

The inferior olive (IO) is considered a crucial component of the eyeblink conditioning network. The cerebellar learning hypothesis proposes that the IO provides the cerebellum with a teaching signal that is required for the acquisition and maintenance of conditioned eyeblinks. Supporting this concept, previous experiments showed that lesions or inactivation of the IO blocked CR acquisition. However, these studies were not conclusive. The drawback of the methods used by those studies is that they not only blocked task-related signals, but also completely shut down the spontaneous activity within the IO, which affects the rest of the eyeblink circuits in a nonspecific manner. We hypothesized that more selective blocking of task-related IO signals could be achieved by using injections of glutamate antagonists, which reduce, but do not eliminate, the spontaneous activity in the IO. We expected that if glutamate-mediated IO signals are required for learning, then blocking these signals during training sessions should prevent conditioned response (CR) acquisition. To test this prediction, rabbits were trained to acquire conditioned eyeblinks to a mild vibrissal airpuff as the conditioned stimulus while injections of the glutamate antagonist γ-d-glutamylglycine were administered to the IO. Remarkably, even though this treatment suppressed CRs during training sessions, the postacquisition retention test revealed that CR acquisition had not been abolished. The ability to acquire CRs with IO unconditioned stimulus signals that were blocked or severely suppressed suggests that mechanisms responsible for CR acquisition are extremely resilient and probably less dependent on IO-task-related signals than previously thought.
Oxaliplatin/5-fluorouracil in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: case report and single-center retrospective review.

AIMS Sorafenib is the only standard therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, but has a low response rate. Leucovorin and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) has a superior response rate versus doxorubicin among Asian sorafenib-naive patients. We aimed to retrospectively review the outcome of 20 consecutive patients treated with FOLFOX at a single European center. MATERIALS & METHODS Patients had symptomatic disease burdens unlikely to regress with sorafenib or had no proven treatment options (sorafenib-refractory or recurrence post liver transplantation). RESULTS One sorafenib-refractory patient had a complete response and two liver transplant patients experienced partial responses. Median overall survival was 6.3 months. There was one chemotherapy death due to neutropenic sepsis. CONCLUSION In advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, FOLFOX can induce clinically relevant responses, but needs prospective validation.
Selectively Personalizing Query Auto-Completion

Query auto-completion (QAC) is being used by many of today's search engines. It helps searchers formulate queries by providing a list of query completions after entering an initial prefix of a query. To cater for a user's specific information needs, personalized QAC strategies use a searcher's search history and their profile. Is personalization consistently effective in different search contexts? We study the QAC problem by selectively personalizing the query completion list. Based on a lenient personalized QAC strategy that encodes the ranking signal as a trade-off between query popularity and search context, we propose a model for selectively personalizing query auto-completion (SP-QAC) to study this trade-off. We predict effective trade-offs based on a regression model, where the typed query prefix, clicked documents and preceding queries in the same session are used to weigh personalization in QAC. Experiments on the AOL query log show the SP-QAC model can significantly outperform a state-of-the-art personalized QAC approach.
Constraining movement reveals motor capability in chronic stroke: an initial study

Objective: To determine if persons with chronic stroke and decreased hip and knee flexion during swing can walk with improved swing-phase kinematics when the task demands constrained gait to the sagittal plane. Design: A one-day, within-subject design comparing gait kinematics under two conditions: Unconstrained treadmill walking and a constrained condition in which the treadmill walking space is reduced to limit limb advancement to occur in the sagittal plane. Setting: Outpatient physical therapy clinic. Subjects: Eight individuals (mean age, 64.1 ±9.3, 2 F) with mild-moderate paresis were enrolled. Main measures: Spatiotemporal gait characteristics and swing-phase hip and knee range of motion during unconstrained and constrained treadmill walking were compared using paired t-test and Cohen’s d (d) to determine effect size. Results: There was a significant, moderate-to-large effect of the constraint on hip flexion (p < 0.001, d = –1.1) during initial swing, and hip (p < 0.05, d = –0.8) and knee (p < 0.001, d = –1.1) flexion during midswing. There was a moderate effect of constraint on terminal swing knee flexion (p = 0.238, d = –0.6). Immediate and significant changes in step width (p < 0.05, d = 0.9) and paretic step length (p < 0.05, d = –0.5) were noted in the constrained condition compared with unconstrained. Conclusion: Constraining the treadmill walking path altered the gait patterns among the study’s participants. The immediate change during constrained walking suggests that patients with chronic stroke may have underlying movement capability that they do not preferentially utilize.
The Young Child's Explanations of Communication Failure: A Re-Interpretation of Results

Two dolls were made to play a game in which one, the speaker, described one of a set of drawings so that the other, the listener, could pick the matching one from an identical set. The dolls took turns as speaker and listener. The children sat by one doll. When communication failed, the child was asked to ascribe blame to the listener and/or speaker and to say why. All ten children who blamed the listener when communication failed because the message applied to more than one card, located the fault with the speaker when the message referred uniquely to a card other than that selected by the speaker. Their failure to locate blame with the speaker under the other condition cannot therefore be attributed to a total lack of understanding of the role of the message in communication failure.
The Pathway Program: How a Collaborative, Distributed Learning Program Showed Us the Future of Social Work Education

This paper describes a three-campus collaborative, distributed learning program that delivers social work education to remote rural and desert communities in California via distance learning modalities. This “Pathway Program” provides accredited social work education for a career ladder beginning with advising and developing an academic plan and leading to BSW and MSW degrees. The paper offers assessment data on the Pathway Program and also suggests the potential for major changes in social work education. Questions about the nature of the university, the role of the faculty member, and the future of social work students in the twenty-first century are discussed.
Performance predictors of brain–computer interfaces in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Objective. Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may benefit from brain–computer interfaces (BCI), but the utility of such devices likely will have to account for the functional, cognitive, and behavioral heterogeneity of this neurodegenerative disorder. Approach. In this study, a heterogeneous group of patients with ALS participated in a study on BCI based on the P300 event related potential and motor-imagery. Results. The presence of cognitive impairment in these patients significantly reduced the quality of the control signals required to use these communication systems, subsequently impairing performance, regardless of progression of physical symptoms. Loss in performance among the cognitively impaired was accompanied by a decrease in the signal-to-noise ratio of task-relevant EEG band power. There was also evidence that behavioral dysfunction negatively affects P300 speller performance. Finally, older participants achieved better performance on the P300 system than the motor-imagery system, indicating a preference of BCI paradigm with age. Significance. These findings highlight the importance of considering the heterogeneity of disease when designing BCI augmentative and alternative communication devices for clinical applications.
GACS QUANTUM COMPLEXITY AND QUANTUM ENTROPY

The development of quantum information theory motivated the extension to the quantum realm of notions from algorithmic complexity theory. Because of the structure of quantum mechanics, several inequivalent generalizations are possible. The same phenomenon characterizes the extension of the dynamical entropy of Kolmogorov and Sinai. In the following, we shall examine the relations between the quantum complexity introduced by Gacs and the quantum dynamical entropy proposed by Alicki and Fannes.
Gene Expression Analysis for Prostate Cancer Management Effective : May 1 , 2017

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Possible glutaminergic interaction between the capsule and neurite of Pacinian corpuscles

The role of the capsule encasing the Pacinian corpuscle's (PC's) neurite, where mechanotransduction occurs, may be more than mechanical. The inner core of the PC's capsule consists of lamellar cells that are of Schwann-cell origin. Previously, we found both voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels in these inner-core lamellae. Research on astrocytes and Schwann cells shows bidirectional signaling between glia and neurons, a major component of which is glutamate. Furthermore, Merkel cells show positive immunoreactivity for glutamate receptor mGluR5, and the glutamate-receptor antagonist kynurenate greatly decreases the static activity of the slowly adapting neurons of Merkel cell–neurite complexes. To investigate the possibility of glutaminergic interaction in PCs, we applied antibodies to glutamate, glutamate receptors, glutamate transporters, and SNARE proteins to cat mesenteric PC sections. Positive labeling was seen in the inner-core lamellae, at inter-lamellar connections, where the lamellae contact the membrane of the neurite and at the lamellar tips. The presence of these proteins on the lamellae and neurite membranes, demonstrated both with immunofluorescent light microscopy as well as immunogold electron microscopy, suggests a chemical, possibly bidirectional, interaction between the lamellar cells and the neurite. Thus, the capsule of the PC, apart from having a mechanical filtering function, may also provide an environment for lamellar–neurite interaction, perhaps acting as a neuro-modulator of the initiation, and/or continuation, of the mechanical–electrical transduction process. At the very least, the presence of the aforementioned proteins suggest some sort of “synaptic-like” activity in these mechanoreceptors, which up until now has not been considered possible.
A molecular dynamics simulation of liquid-vapour-solid system near triple-phase contact line of flow boiling in a microchannel

In this paper, the liquid-vapour-solid system near triple-phase contact line in a microchannel heat sink is studied numerically. Molecular dynamics (MD) method is employed aiming to get a microscopic insight into the complex liquid-vapour-solid system. In the present model, the Lennard-Jones potential is applied to mono-atomic molecules of argon as liquid and vapour, and platinum as solid substrates, to perform a simulation of non-equilibrium molecular dynamics. The results of numerical simulation suggest that for a complete wetting system, such as argon on a platinum substrate, there is a non-evaporating liquid film with thickness in nanometres existing on the heating solid surface. The minimum film thickness near the triplephase contact line under different conditions of the substrate temperature is predicted. The thickness of such an ultra-thin liquid film varies only slightly with the number of argon molecules but decreases with the increase of heating substrate temperature. The decrease in potential energy toward the region near the heating wall is considerably large indicating that the interactions of solid and liquid molecules are very strong.
Prime Indicants: A Synthesis Method for Indicating Combinational Logic Blocks

elf-timed circuits present an attractive solution to the problem of process variation. However, implementing self-timed combinational logic is complex and expensive. This paper presents a novel method for synthesising indicating implementations of arbitrary encoded function blocks. The synthesis method reduces the cost of the implementations by distributing indication between the individual outputs of a function block. Covers are constructed by determining the minimal cost set of Prime Indicants which are required to indicate all of the input transitions of the function block. The results of the procedure are demonstrated on a wide range of combinational logic blocks and show a reduction in literal count of between 38-99%.
Arcuate Fasciculus Abnormalities and Their Relationship with Psychotic Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Disruption of fronto-temporal connections involving the arcuate fasciculus (AF) may underlie language processing anomalies and psychotic features such as auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia. No study to date has specifically investigated abnormalities of white matter integrity at particular loci along the AF as well as its regional lateralization in schizophrenia. We examined white matter changes (fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (AD), asymmetry indices) along the whole extent of the AF and their relationship with psychotic symptoms in 32 males with schizophrenia and 44 healthy males. Large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping and Fiber Assignment Continuous Tracking were employed to characterize FA and AD along the geometric curve of the AF. Our results showed that patients with schizophrenia had lower FA in the frontal aspects of the left AF compared with healthy controls. Greater left FA and AD lateralization in the temporal segment of AF were associated with more severe positive psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia. Disruption of white matter integrity of the left frontal AF and accentuation of normal left greater than right asymmetry of FA/AD in the temporal AF further support the notion of aberrant fronto-temporal connectivity in schizophrenia. AF pathology can affect corollary discharge of neural signals from frontal speech/motor initiation areas to suppress activity of auditory cortex that may influence psychotic phenomena such as auditory hallucinations and facilitate elaboration of delusional content.
Susceptibility of Children to Environmental Pollutants

Children are more vulnerable to adverse environmental exposures. The unique ways in which they interact with their environment and their dynamic developmental physiology mean that they generally receive a higher dose of toxicant for a given level of environmental exposure. In addition, children are frequently more likely to suffer adverse health outcomes from exposures. The developmental stage of the child during which the exposure occurs has a major influence on the consequences of the exposure. For example, exposures during organogenesis may result in permanent structural changes, whereas exposures once organogenesis is complete are more likely to result in functional consequences. The immune, respiratory, and central nervous systems are immature at birth and have a prolonged period of postnatal maturation. Thus, these organ systems are vulnerable to postnatal exposures.
Ethics, Neuroimaging and Disorders of Consciousness: What Is the Question?

Antoine de Saint-Exupery once wrote that “the machine” plunges man deeply into the great problems of nature. While he was reflecting over the technology of flight, in this issue of AJOB Neuroscience, two contributions focus on the extent to which brain imaging technologies are plunging us deeply into the study of mental life after severe brain injury, and the ethical implications of this newly found knowledge. In the past decade and a half, neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) have contributed enormously to shaping our understanding of conditions such as the Vegetative State (VS) and the Minimally Conscious State (MCS). Collectively, the contribution of brain imaging technology to our understanding of these conditions has been at least three-fold. First, neuroimaging studies have clearly shown that the vegetative state is not an apallic syndrome (i.e., without a pallium, or cortex), despite the fact that that the two terms were often used interchangeably. Rather, extensive and relatively complex cortical processing can still take place in response to noxious stimulation, sounds, speech and nonspeech sequences, as well as visual stimuli (see Monti 2012, for a comprehensive review). Of course, in the absence of a state of consciousness, this cortical processing is understood to be insufficient to give rise to the subjective feeling of perception. So unconscious, yes, but not just vegetative. The second main contribution of brain imaging to this field was the demonstration, by Owen and colleagues (2006), that operationalizing consciousness as the presence of voluntary, interactive, behavior—as done in standard bedside clinical assessments—is prone to false negatives. For, while the presence of non-reflexive behavior is sufficient to allow inferring the presence of a state of consciousness, inferring the absence of consciousness from the absence of non-reflexive behavior is a logical fallacy. In other words, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence (an issue that, in this context, had already been raised in the 1994 guidelines by the Multi-Society Task Force on PVS). Thus, the case of a patient who appeared non-responsive during bedside examinations but could nonetheless voluntarily engage in specific mental activities (e.g., imagining playing tennis), as
Pharmacotherapy for obesity: novel agents and paradigms

Public health initiatives focused on obesity prevention and lifestyle intervention programmes for patients with obesity have struggled to contain the obesity epidemic to date. In recent years, antiobesity drug therapies have had a limited role in clinical treatment algorithms for patients with obesity. Indeed, a number of high-profile antiobesity drug suspensions have markedly impacted upon the landscape of obesity pharmacotherapy. In this review, we discuss the advent of an increasing array of pharmacotherapeutic agents, which are effective both in inducing weight loss and in maintaining weight loss achieved by lifestyle measures. The development of these drugs as antiobesity agents has followed varying paths, ranging from lorcaserin, a selective serotonin agent, exploiting the beneficial central actions of fenfluramine but without the associated systemic side effects, to liraglutide, a gut hormone already used as a glucose-lowering drug but with appetite-suppressant properties, or the novel drug combination of phentermine/topiramate, two ‘old’ drugs used in lower doses than with previous therapeutic uses, resulting in an additive effect on weight loss and fewer side effects. We summarize the key findings from recent randomized controlled trials of these three drugs. Although these agents lead to clinically important weight loss when used as monotherapy, the use of antiobesity drugs as adjunctive therapy post intensive lifestyle intervention could prove to be the most successful strategy. Moreover, a progressive approach to obesity pharmacotherapy perhaps offers the best opportunity to finally address the obesity crisis on a mass scale.