Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Absence of Functional Leptin Receptor Isoforms in the POUND (Leprdb/lb) Mouse Is Associated with Muscle Atrophy and Altered Myoblast Proliferation and Differentiation

Objective Leptin receptors are abundant in human skeletal muscle, but the role of leptin in muscle growth, development and aging is not well understood. Here we utilized a novel mouse model lacking all functional leptin receptor isoforms (POUND mouse, Leprdb/lb) to determine the role of leptin in skeletal muscle. Methods and Findings Skeletal muscle mass and fiber diameters were examined in POUND mice, and primary myoblast cultures were used to determine the effects of altered leptin signaling on myoblast proliferation and differentiation. ELISA assays, integrated pathway analysis of mRNA microarrays, and reverse phase protein analysis were performed to identify signaling pathways impacted by leptin receptor deficiency. Results show that skeletal muscle mass and fiber diameter are reduced 30–40% in POUND mice relative to wild-type controls. Primary myoblast cultures demonstrate decreased proliferation and decreased expression of both MyoD and myogenin in POUND mice compared to normal mice. Leptin treatment increased proliferation in primary myoblasts from muscles of both adult (12 months) and aged (24 months) wild-type mice, and leptin increased expression of MyoD and myogenin in aged primary myoblasts. ELISA assays and protein arrays revealed altered expression of molecules associated with the IGF-1/Akt and MAPK/MEK signaling pathways in muscle from the hindlimbs of mice lacking functional leptin receptors. Conclusion These data support the hypothesis that the adipokine leptin is a key factor important for the regulation of skeletal muscle mass, and that leptin can act directly on its receptors in peripheral tissues to regulate cell proliferation and differentiation.
Development and validation of a prediction rule for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus recurrent infection among a veterans affairs healthcare system population

Development and validation of a prediction rule for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus recurrent infection among a veterans affairs healthcare system population. " MS ii To my wife Natalie, thank you for your love, support, and encouragement. I wouldn't be here without you. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank my committee members Dr. Jennifer McDanel for her help and guidance, Michi Goto for his coding assistance, and Lan Jiang for creating and managing the dataset. iv ABSTRACT Objective: Recurrent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are a significant problem in the healthcare system. Our objective was to create a clinical prediction rule to identify Veterans at high-risk of recurrent MRSA infections. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of Veterans with MRSA bacteremia was performed using patient data from 2003 to 2011. Recurrent MRSA infection was defined as a positive blood culture between two days and 180 days after discharge from the index hospitalization. Severity of illness was measured at the time of admission using a modified APACHE score. Patients were randomly split into a development or validation cohort. Using the development cohort, variables significant in predicting recurrence on univariate analysis were input into a logistic regression model. The final model, c-statistics, and receiver operating characteristic curves were compared in each cohort. MRSA infection within 180 days of the index infection. Using the development cohort, the risk factors identified and included in the logistic regression model were severity of illness, duration of bacteremia, distance to care, lack of MRSA-directed antibiotic therapy, renal failure, coagulopathy, cancer, and cardiac arrhythmia. The model had poor discrimination (c-statistic, 0.657), with 68.9% sensitivity and 54.0% specificity. The validation cohort also had poor discrimination (c-statistic, 0.625), with 66.8% sensitivity and 52.6% specificity. Conclusions: Our results identify important risk factors for MRSA recurrence and may help to guide clinicians in targeting high-risk patients for treatment and aggressive follow-up.
Working with Dysfluent Children: Practical Approaches to Assessment and Therapy

This text analyzes dysfluency in children and provides the reader with practical ways of approaching these difficulties in collaboration with the child, its parents and carers. The main focus of the book is on practical activities, with ideas and suggestions for therapy, plus case studies and useful word and sentence lists. The contents include: early dysfluency; the borderline stammerer; the confirmed stammerer; group therapy work; working with nurseries and schools.
SPECT Myocardial Perfusion Reserve in Patients with Multivessel Coronary Disease: Correlation with Angiographic Findings and Invasive Fractional Flow Reserve Measurements

Quantification of myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) is an emerging topic in nuclear cardiology with an expected diagnostic and prognostic incremental value, especially for patients with severe coronary artery disease. The advent of new dedicated solid-state cameras has opened new perspectives for perfusion quantitation in SPECT. We appraised the feasibility of perfusion reserve estimation using a cadmium zinc telluride camera in a cohort of multivessel patients and its pertinence with respect to angiographic data. Methods: Twenty-three patients with known multivessel coronary artery disease were prospectively enrolled. Dynamic SPECT acquisitions using 99mTc-tetrofosmin at rest and after vasodilator stress were performed using a dedicated cadmium zinc telluride camera. Reconstructed frames were automatically segmented to extract the vascular input function and the myocardial uptake curve. One-compartment kinetic modeling was used to estimate global and regional uptake values, and then myocardial blood flow was derived using the Renkin–Crone equation. Global and regional MPR was assessed using flow difference (stress − rest) and flow ratio (stress/rest). All patients underwent control coronary angiography within 4 wk, which served as the reference for MPR index assessment. Relevant angiographic findings included maximal stenosis and (for a subgroup of 26 vessels) invasive measurement of fractional flow reserve (FFR). A stenosis was considered obstructive if greater than 50% and an FFR abnormal if lower than 0.8. Results: Global MPR correlated well with number of obstructed vessels (P < 0.001). After multivariate analysis, both regional flow ratio and flow difference were significantly associated with maximal stenosis (P < 0.001) and FFR (P < 0.001). Regional MPR indices were significantly different in obstructed and nonobstructed vessels (P < 0.001) and in vessels with normal and abnormal FFR (P < 0.001). With a cutoff of 2, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of regional flow ratio were, respectively, 80%, 85%, and 81% for the detection of obstructed vessels and 89%, 82%, and 85% for the detection of abnormal FFR. Conclusion: Scintigraphic estimations of global and regional MPR in multivessel patients using a cadmium zinc telluride camera appear to correlate well with invasive angiographic findings, including maximal stenosis and FFR measurements.
Inflammatory Injury to the Neonatal Brain – What Can We Do?

Perinatal brain damage is one of the leading causes of life long disability. This damage could be hypoxic–ischemic, inflammatory, or both. This mini-review discusses different interventions aiming at minimizing inflammatory processes in the neonatal brain, both before and after insult. Current options of anti-inflammatory measures for neonates remain quite limited. We describe current anti-inflammatory intervention strategies such as avoiding perinatal infection and inflammation, and reducing exposure to inflammatory processes. We describe the known effects of anti-inflammatory drugs such as steroids, antibiotics, and indomethacin, and the possible anti-inflammatory role of other substances such as IL-1 receptor antagonists, erythropoietin, caffeine, estradiol, insulin-like growth factor, and melatonin as well as endogenous protectors, and genetic regulation of inflammation. If successful, these may decrease mortality and long-term morbidity among term and pre-term infants.
Model-Checking the Higher-Dimensional Modal mu-Calculus

The higher-dimensional modal -calculus is an extension of the -calculus that has been introduced by Otto. The fascinating fea- ture of this extension is that it precisely characterizes the bisimulation- invariant polynomial-time properties over nite structures. In this paper we investigate how the model checking problem of the higher-dimensional modal -calculus can be eciently implemented. We propose two al- gorithms, based on extensions of local model checking and symbolic model checking algorithms respectively. We then illustrate the poten- tial strength of these generic algorithms for deciding specic problems of various elds, as process equivalences, automata theory, parsing, string problems, or games.
Lessons learned in the development of targeted therapy for malignant gliomas

The prognosis of patients with glioblastoma, anaplastic astrocytoma, and anaplastic oligodendroglioma remains poor despite standard treatment with radiotherapy and temozolomide. Molecular targeted therapy holds the promise of providing new, more effective treatment options with minimal toxicity. However, the development of targeted therapy for gliomas has been particularly challenging. The oncogenetic process in such tumors is driven by several signaling pathways that are differentially activated or silenced with both parallel and converging complex interactions. Therefore, it has been difficult to identify prevalent targets that act as key promoters of oncogenesis and that can be successfully addressed by novel agents. Several drugs have been tested, including epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (gefitinib and erlotinib), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors (temsirolimus and everolimus), and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), protein kinase C-β, and other angiogenesis pathways inhibitors (vatalanib, bevacizumab, and enzastaurin). Although preliminary efficacy results of most trials in recurrent disease have fallen short on expectations, substantial advances have been achieved by associated translational research. In this article, we seek to recapitulate the lessons learned in the development of targeted therapy for gliomas, including challenges and pitfalls in the interpretation of preclinical data, specific issues in glioma trial design, insights provided by translational research, changes in paradigms, and future perspectives. [Mol Cancer Ther 2007;6(7):1909–19]
Quantification of marine snow fragmentation by swimming euphausiids

Sinking of marine snow is a major mechanism of particulate carbon transport from surface waters to the seafloor. Any process altering the abundance or size of marine snow influences carbon flux and food availability to pelagic and benthic organisms. We explored whether zooplankton can alter carbon transport by a new mechanism—physical fragmentation of marine snow. The fluid stress created around the appendages of swimming Euphausia pacifica is capable of fragmenting a single aggregate into multiple, smaller aggregates. The reduced size and slower sinking rate of the daughter aggregates may increase their residence time in the water column, promoting decomposition and decreasing particle flux to depth. To determine the importance of fragmentation, tethered and free‐swimming euphausiids were videotaped in the presence of marine snow representing a range of aggregate strengths, sizes, and ages. Image analysis was used to characterize the particles prior to and following fragmentation and to determine the area of influence around a single euphausiid. Tethered euphausiids pulled in particles from an average of 6.7 mm away, and most aggregates were fragmented in either the region of the rapidly beating pleopods or in the high‐velocity jet that forms off the tail. Euphausiids were capable of fragmenting all aggregate types and produced an average of 7.3 daughter particles, with 60% of these daughter particles remaining within the marine snow size class (>0.5 mm). Thus, physical fragmentation by swimming euphausiids increases the abundance of marine snow while decreasing overall marine snow mass. This novel process, which alters particle size structure without loss of total particulate organic carbon (POC), will be important in upwelling regions where euphausiids are the dominant macrozooplankton migrators.
How Does Executive Function Deficits Affect Individuals With Autism And What Strategies Can Educators Use That Will Benefit Those Individuals

Autism affects 1in 66 children and that comes with a lot of frustration for children and their families. Some families will see the largest difficulty when their child enters the education system. High functioning individuals will have skills that will have educators wondering what is happening to their student who seems to be able to understand and complete the work in a school environment. What is talk about in small amounts is executive functioning and its challenges that occurs with individuals with autism. Executive function is a theory that is broken down into 7 different components that individuals will have challenges with. It’s imperative that educators understand executive functioning deficits and then implement strategies that can be used in the classroom and generalized into their home environment. It’s important to understand how the components work individually and to make connections between and how they can affect each other. My research enabled me to find what school psychologist do when they need to test for executive functioning using the BRIEF, if the BRIEF is reliable and how the results from the BRIEF inform their implementation of strategies for students with executive functioning deficits. Understanding what executive function theory is and how it effects individuals is the first step in giving them the skills to be successful.
Neurobiology of Disease Sodium Influx Pathways during and after Anoxia in Rat Hippocampal Neurons

Mechanisms that contribute to Na influx during and immediately after 5 min anoxia were investigated in cultured rat hippocampal neurons loaded with the Na -sensitive fluorophore sodium-binding benzofuran isophthalate. During anoxia, an influx of Na in the face of reduced Na ,K -ATPase activity caused a rise in [Na ]i. After the return to normoxia, Na ,K -ATPase activity mediated the recovery of [Na ]i despite continued Na entry. Sodium influx during and after anoxia occurred through multiple pathways and increased the longer neurons were maintained in culture. Under the experimental conditions used, Na entry during anoxia did not reflect the activation of ionotropic glutamate receptors, TTXor lidocaine-sensitive Na channels, plasmalemmal Na /Ca 2 exchange, Na /H exchange, or HCO3 -dependent mechanisms; rather, contributions were received from a Gd 3 -sensitive pathway activated by reactive oxygen species and Na /K /2Cl cotransport in neurons maintained for 6 –10 and 11–14 d in vitro (DIV), respectively. Sodium entry immediately after anoxia was not attributable to the activation of ionotropic glutamate receptors, voltage-activated Na channels, or Na /K /2Cl cotransport; rather, it occurred via Na /Ca 2 exchange, Na /H exchange, and a Gd 3 -sensitive pathway similar to that observed during anoxia; 11–14 DIV neurons received an additional contribution from an HCO3 -dependent mechanism(s). The results provide insight into the intrinsic mechanisms that contribute to disturbed internal Na homeostasis during and immediately after anoxia in rat hippocampal neurons and, in this way, may play a role in the pathogenesis of anoxic or ischemic cell injury.
Changing identities of Chinese women : rhetoric, experience, and self-perception in twentieth-century China

Living with Rhetoric. Part I Not the Sun: Gendered Moments and Memories - Daughters, Rebellion and the Past: Filial Daughters Girlhood Play Daughters' Feet Walled Daughters Stranger Daughters Daughter Order A Single Future Boys of Girls Schooling for Daughters Daughter Rebels The Avoidance of Fate Family Fortresses Mothers and Daughters Past and Future Daughter Separation New Destinies? Part II The Sun and the Moon: Gendered Sameness and Strangers - Comrades of Revolution: A New Rhetoric Andogynous Women Representing Lives Masking Experience Writing Lives Living as Daughters Patrilineal Messages Marriage Choice Half of Heaven Strangers to Heaven Privileging the Future Female Futures. Part III Not the Moon: Gendered Difference and Reflection - Women of Reform: Urban Working Lives Rural Working Lives Educating Women Women's Rights The Women's Law The Women's Law Women's Studies "The Four Selves" Uniquely Female Independently Female Older "Single" Female Love and the Female Self Female Socialization Missing Girls Single-child Daughters Ambiguous Women Cosmopolitan Daughters. Appendices: Relations governing labour protection for female staff and workers, 1988 Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, 1992.
NATURAL ANTIOXIDANTS

s: Sárközi K, Máté Zs, Vezér T, Papp A (2013): Behavioral changes and general toxicity in rats after subchronic inorganic arsenic and fluoride treatment. In: Csillag A (szerk.) XIV. Conference of the Hungarian Neuroscience Society. Abstract Book (ISBN 978-96388224-2-0), Paper P 7.18. Sárközi K, Papp A, Máté Zs, Horváth E, Szabó A (2014): Green tea counteracts certain nervous system and general toxic effects of arsenic and manganese in rats. In: Cotoraci C, Ardelean A (szerk.) 16th Danube-Kris-Mures-Tisa (DKMT) Euroregion Conference on Environment and Health: Book of Abstracts (ISBN:978-973-664-707-9) p. 19. Sárközi K, Papp A, Máté Zs, Horváth E, Szabó A (2014) A zöld tea ellensúlyozza az arzén és mangán egyes általános és neurotoxikus hatásait patkányban. Fiatal Higiénikusok Fóruma X. Konferencia. Egészségtudomány LVIII. , 106-107.
The early clinical recognition of juvenile-onset ankylosing spondylitis and its differentiation from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To determine which early clinical data differentiate juvenile-onset ankylosing spondylitis (AS) from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). METHODS Medical records of 35 patients with juvenile-onset AS and 75 with JRA (excluding type II pauciarticular JRA), all of whom had disease onset at age < or = 16 years, disease duration of < or = 2 1/2 years at the initial visit to the rheumatology clinic, and followup of > or = 10 years, were analyzed retrospectively with regard to features of disease found 6 months, 12 months, and 10 years after onset. RESULTS At 6 months, various features appeared more frequently in the juvenile-onset AS group than in the JRA group, i.e., pauciarthritis (54.3% versus 30.7%; P = 0.03, odds ratio [OR] = 2.7), enthesopathy (82.9% versus 0%; P < 0.0001, OR = 321.4), tarsal disease (71.4% versus 1.3%; P < 0.0001, OR = 185.0), and lumbar/sacroiliac symptoms (11.4% versus 0%; P = 0.02, OR = 11.9). At 12 months, the features found more frequently among juvenile-onset AS patients than JRA patients were enthesopathy (88.6% versus 4.0%; P < 0.0001, OR = 186.0), tarsal disease (85.7% versus 10.7%; P < 0.0001, OR = 50.3), and knee disease (100.0% versus 82.7%; P = 0.04, OR = 8.0). Involvement of the upper extremities (especially the hands) was found in significantly fewer juvenile-onset AS patients compared with the JRA group. Definite involvement of the spine and sacroiliitis in juvenile-onset AS occurred after a mean +/- SD of 7.3 +/- 2.0 years. CONCLUSION Regardless of axial disease, enthesopathy and tarsal disease in children who have arthritis of the lower, but not of the upper extremities differentiate juvenile-onset AS from JRA within 1 year of symptoms. The discriminative value of these parameters approaches that of axial disease (the gold standard) throughout the followup period.
Self Psychology: An Introduction

Chapter 1 In the Beginning Chapter 2 The Reformulation of the Concept of Narcissism Chapter 3 The Self and Self Object Concepts Chapter 4 How Seld Psychology Conceives of Psychological Growth and Therapeutic Action Chapter 5 Psychopathology: Disturbance and Disorders of Self Experience Chapter 6 Clinical Process Section Chapter 7 Intersubjectivity Chapter 8 Motivational Systems Theory Chapter 9 Self Psychology's View of Aggression Chapter 10 Self Psychology's Contributions to the Evolution of Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice
Approaches for finding cohesive subgroups in large‐scale social networks via maximum k‐plex detection

A k‐plex is a clique relaxation introduced in social network analysis to model cohesive social subgroups that allows for a limited number of nonadjacent vertices (strangers) inside the cohesive subgroup. Several exact algorithms and heuristic approaches to find a maximum‐size k‐plex in the graph have been developed recently for this NP‐hard problem. This article develops a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) for the maximum k‐plex problem. We offer a key improvement in the design of the construction procedure that alleviates a drawback observed in multiple past studies. In existing construction heuristics, k‐plexes found for smaller values of parameter k are sometimes not found for larger k even though they are feasible; instead inferior solutions are found. We identify the reasons behind this behavior and address these in our new construction procedure. We then show that an existing exact algorithm for solving this problem on power‐law graphs can be considerably enhanced by using GRASP. The overall approach is able to solve the problem to optimality on massive social networks, including some with several million vertices and edges. These are orders of magnitude larger than the largest real‐life social networks on which this problem has been solved to optimality in the current literature. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 69(4), 388–407 2017
Diaspora Entrepreneurship: New Directions in Enterprise Development

This chapter examines the phenomenon of diaspora entrepreneurs and the degree to which they have internationalised their businesses. This is achieved through a tri-component conceptual framework of individual, firm, and environmental factors. Through a case study methodology, it was revealed that analysis on the micro, meso, and mega levels is better suited for in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of diaspora entrepreneurship. It was also found that diaspora entrepreneurs are able to leverage personal, ethnic, and structural resources that allow them to concurrently engage in social and business activities in both countries (transnational entrepreneurship). Research, policy implications, and limitations are then discussed. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2952-3.ch003
An Interval Training Bout on Cognitive Performance in Healthy Adults

Cognitive performance has been shown to improve with regular aerobic exercise training. Despite this, most Americans do not adhere to current exercise prescription guidelines. High intensity interval training (HIIT) has been suggested as a lower time commitment, more enjoyable alternative to regular aerobic exercise. Twenty nine apparently healthy college-aged adults were recruited and administered a high intensity interval training session with a preand 24 hours-post-exercise cognitive performance test. No changes were found in performance following the bout of high intensity interval training. No significant interactions were observed when comparing performance to gender, training age, training goal, or intra-exercise rating of perceived exertion (RPE). More study is needed to assess the efficacy of a long term HIIT intervention on cognitive performance changes using more sensitive testing procedures. INDEX WORDS: High intensity interval training, Cognitive performance, Exercise psychology, Acute effects of exercise