Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supporting families managing parental mental illness: Challenges and resources

Over five million children in the United States have a parent living with a serious mental illness. These offspring are at higher risk for developing mental health problems themselves due to a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and psychosocial factors. Life with a parent with psychiatric symptoms can be scary, confusing, overwhelming, and sad; children often blame themselves for their parent’s problems, find their parent’s behavior embarrassing, and struggle to explain the illness to their friends. Unfortunately, these children’s needs and experiences are often ignored by overwhelmed parents, worried family members and relatives, separate mental health systems of care for adults and children that often fail to coordinate care, and even well-intentioned health-care providers. Family medicine teams have an opportunity to detect and support these families in unique ways. We offer four recommendations for family medicine teams to help families managing parental mental illness including assessing functioning, treatment needs, and impacts on each family member; educating all family members about mental illness; instilling hope, noting the range of effective treatments for mental illness; and encouraging the use of supports and referral options. Providers can leverage family members’ strengths, work with community-based resources, and offer continuity to these families, as they struggle with an oftentimes chronic, relapsing disease that has ripple effects throughout the family system.
Treatment of acute bipolar depression

Depression is the predominant pole of disability in bipolar disorder and compared with mania/hypomania, has less systematic research guiding the development of treatment especially in its acute phase (acute bipolar depression). The deficiency in the management of the acute bipolar depression largely reflects the natural divergence of opinion resulting from significant knowledge gaps. At present, there are only 3 approved drug treatments for acute bipolar depression: olanzapine/fluoxetine combination, quetiapine (immediate or extended release), and lurasidone (monotherapy or adjunctive to lithium or valproate). Nonapproved agents and nonpharmacologic treatment such as lamotrigine, antidepressants, modafinil, pramipexole, ketamine, and electroconvulsive therapy are often prescribed to treat acute bipolar depression. This article discusses the challenges of diagnosing bipolar depression, and reviews above treatment options for acute bipolar depression.
Protein folding and quinary interactions: creating cellular organisation through functional disorder

The marginal stability of globular proteins in the cell is determined by the balance between excluded volume effect and soft interactions. Quinary interactions are a type of soft interactions involved in intracellular organisation and known to have stabilising or destabilising effects on globular proteins. Recent studies suggest that globular proteins have structural flexibility, exhibiting more than one functional state. Here, we propose that the quinary‐induced destabilisation can be sufficient to produce functional partially unfolded states of globular proteins. The biological relevance of this mechanism is explored, involving intracellular phase separation and regulatory stress response mechanisms.
Parental use of spatial language and gestures in early childhood

Parents' use of spatial language and gestures is closely linked to children's spatial language development. Little is known about the quantity and quality of early spatial input and how infants' individual characteristics may be related to the spatial input they receive. Here, we examine (1) the amount and type of spatial input 16- to 21-month-old Turkish-learning children (n = 34) received in the context of a spatial activity (puzzle play) and (2) whether parental spatial input in the form of speech and gesture varies based on children's age, sex, and early spatial vocabulary comprehension assessed in an earlier session. Results of the regression analyses showed that parents' use of spatial words was predicted by children's age over and beyond earlier spatial word comprehension and sex. In particular, parents used more spatial speech as their children got older even in this restricted age range. Children's early spatial word comprehension also correlated with parents' spatial word production. Yet, parents' overall gesture use and gestures with spatial words were not predicted by children's age, sex, or early spatial word comprehension. These findings suggest that in the spatial domain, early verbal input, but not gestural input, can change depending on children's age and children's spatial vocabulary comprehension may also be related to parental use of later spatial language. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Parents enhance their children's spatial skills using spatial language and gestures. Parental spatial talk is related to children's later spatial skills. What does this study add? We assess both spatial talk and gesture in early childhood. We examine the children's characteristics (age, sex) in relation to spatial talk and gesture. We present how children's earlier vocabulary competence relates to parental input.
Prenatal inflammation and risk for schizophrenia: A role for immune proteins in neurodevelopment

Abstract Prenatal inflammation is an established risk factor for schizophrenia. However, the specific inflammatory pathways that mediate this association remain unclear. Potential candidate systems include inflammatory markers produced by microglia, such as cytokines and complement. Accumulating evidence suggests that these markers play a role in typical neurodevelopmental processes, such as synapse formation and interneuron migration. Rodent models demonstrate that altered marker levels during the prenatal period can cause lasting deficits in these systems, leading to cognitive deficits that resemble schizophrenia. This review assesses the potential role of prenatal cytokine and complement elevations on the etiology of schizophrenia. The current neurobiological understanding of the development of schizophrenia is reviewed to identify candidate cellular mechanisms that may be influenced by prenatal inflammation. We discuss the functions that cytokines and complement may play in prenatal neurodevelopment, review evidence that links exposure to these factors with risk for schizophrenia, and consider how these markers may interact with genetic vulnerabilities to influence the neurodevelopment of schizophrenia. We consider how prenatal inflammatory exposure may influence childhood and adolescent developmental risk trajectories for schizophrenia. Finally, we identify areas of further research needed to support the development of anti-inflammatory treatments to prevent the development of schizophrenia in at-risk neonates.
Investigating Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Asthma-COPD Overlap (ACO): A Scoping Review

Abstract Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the most common fixed airflow limitation. Individuals may present with the features of both asthma and COPD called asthma-COPD overlap (ACO) with more severity and worse health-related quality of life than COPD or asthma. One of the promising biomarkers that could be used in clinical practice to differentiate ACO from COPD is fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO). The role of Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) in COPD/ACO remains unknown. This scoping review aims to investigate the role of FENO measurement to differentiate COPD from ACO, to anticipate disease severity/progression and treatment response. A structured comprehensive literature search was performed in major databases including Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and BIOSIS from 2005 onwards. Thirty-eight studies were retrieved. Based on the synthesis of the reviewed literature, six themes emerged. Thirty-four articles covered more than one theme. From which, 24 articles were on modifying factors in FENO measurement, 18 on FENO in COPD compared with healthy subjects, and seven on FENO in ACO compared with COPD, 22 on FENO and disease severity/progression,12 on FENO and biomarkers, and eight on FENO and treatment response. FENO measurement cannot be used alone in the clinical settings of COPD patients. Although FENO level is higher in ACO patients than COPD-only, it is still unclear if there is a FENO cut-off that can be used to make the diagnosis of ACO and/or to guide therapy with inhaled corticosteroids/glucocorticoids in COPD patients.
Screening of Euphorbiaceae Plant Extracts for Anti-5α-reductase.

In our research program to find novel agents for alopecia from natural plant resources, we screened Euphorbiaceae plant extracts using an anti-5α-reductase assay. Among the samples tested, the extract of Phyllanthus urinaria showed the most potent activity with 24.3 and 64.6% inhibition at 50 and 200 µg/mL against the enzyme, respectively. The extract also suppressed the androgen activity of dihydrotestosterone in LNCaP cell line. These results show that the extract of P. urinaria may be a multi-potent agent for androgen-derived alopecia. We tested for activity on a hair regrowth model using mice. The extract of P. urinaria showed hair regrowth activity at 5 mg/mouse/d administration. Furthermore, the active principle for anti-5α-reductase activity was determined as stigmasterol glucoside from activity-guided fractionation and the IC50 was 27.2 µM. These results suggest that extract of P. urinaria may be a promising candidate anti-alopecia agent.
Relationship between hospital performance measures and outcomes in patients with acute ischaemic stroke: a prospective cohort study

Objective Evidence-based performance measures have been increasingly used to evaluate hospital quality of stroke care, but their impact on stroke outcomes has not been verified. We aimed to evaluate the correlations between hospital performance measures and outcomes among patients with acute ischaemic stroke in a Chinese population. Methods Data were derived from a prospective cohort, which included 120 hospitals participating in the China National Stroke Registry between September 2007 and August 2008. Adherence to nine evidence-based performance measures was examined, and the composite score of hospital performance measures was calculated. The primary stroke outcomes were hospital-level, 30-day and 1-year risk-standardised mortality (RSM). Associations of individual performance measures and composite score with stroke outcomes were assessed using Spearman correlation coefficients. Results One hundred and twenty hospitals that recruited 12 027 patients with ischaemic stroke were included in our analysis. Among 12 027 patients, 61.59% were men, and the median age was 67 years. The overall composite score of performance measures was 63.3%. The correlation coefficients between individual performance measures ranged widely from 0.01 to 0.66. No association was observed between the composite score and 30-day RSM. The composite score was modestly associated with 1-year RSM (Spearman correlation coefficient, 0.34; p<0.05). The composite score explained only 2.53% and 10.18% of hospital-level variation in 30-day and 1-year RSM for patients with acute stroke. Conclusions Adherence to evidence-based performance measures for acute ischaemic stroke was suboptimal in China. There were various correlations among hospital individual performance measures. The hospital performance measures had no correlations with 30-day RSM rate and modest correlations with 1-year RSM rate.
Prenatal neural origins of infant motor development: Associations between fetal brain and infant motor development

Abstract Functional circuits of the human brain emerge and change dramatically over the second half of gestation. It is possible that variation in neural functional system connectivity in utero predicts individual differences in infant behavioral development, but this possibility has yet to be examined. The current study examines the association between fetal sensorimotor brain system functional connectivity and infant postnatal motor ability. Resting-state functional connectivity data was obtained in 96 healthy human fetuses during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Infant motor ability was measured 7 months after birth using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Increased connectivity between the emerging motor network and regions of the prefrontal cortex, temporal lobes, posterior cingulate, and supplementary motor regions was observed in infants that showed more mature motor functions. In addition, females demonstrated stronger fetal-brain to infant-behavior associations. These observations extend prior longitudinal research back into prenatal brain development and raise exciting new ideas about the advent of risk and the ontogeny of early sex differences.
Social Robots for People with Developmental Disabilities: A User Study on Design Features of a Graphical User Interface

Social robots, also known as service or assistant robots, have been developed to improve the quality of human life in recent years. The design of socially capable and intelligent robots can vary, depending on the target user groups. In this work, we assess the effect of social robots' roles, functions, and communication approaches in the context of a social agent providing service or entertainment to users with developmental disabilities. In this paper, we describe an exploratory study of interface design for a social robot that assists people suffering from developmental disabilities. We developed series of prototypes and tested one in a user study that included three residents with various function levels. This entire study had been recorded for the following qualitative data analysis. Results show that each design factor played a different role in delivering information and in increasing engagement. We also note that some of the fundamental design principles that would work for ordinary users did not apply to our target user group. We conclude that social robots could benefit our target users, and acknowledge that these robots were not suitable for certain scenarios based on the feedback from our users.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus with reduced vancomycin susceptibility in Taiwan

Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile pathogen which can cause various mild to life-threatening infectious diseases. The evolution of S. aureus resistance is notorious, from penicillin and oxacillin to vancomycin. Vancomycin, introduced in 1956, was once considered a most reliable antibiotic for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA); unfortunately, the first strain of S. aureus with decreased susceptibility to vancomycin emerged in 1996. Vancomycin has been approved in Taiwan since 1983, and the prevalence rates of heteroresistant vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (hVISA) and vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) in 2003 were 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively. However, a ten-fold increase of hVISA and VISA to 10% and 2.7%, respectively, in 2012–2013 could indicate a challenging clinical situation in Taiwan. The most commonly reported staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) types of hVISA and VISA are usually SCCmec type III or II, typical nosocomial MRSA strains. Preventing the spread of resistant pathogens through infection control interventions and judicious antibiotic stewardship is a serious medical issue.
Do larger individuals cope with resource fluctuations better? An artificial selection approach

Size determines the rate at which organisms acquire and use resources but it is unclear what size should be favoured under unpredictable resource regimes. Some theories claim smaller organisms can grow faster following a resource pulse, whereas others argue larger species can accumulate more resources and maintain growth for longer periods between resource pulses. Testing these theories has relied on interspecific comparisons, which tend to confound body size with other life-history traits. As a more direct approach, we used 280 generations of artificial selection to evolve a 10-fold difference in mean body size between small- and large-selected phytoplankton lineages of Dunaliella tertiolecta, while controlling for biotic and abiotic variables. We then quantified how body size affected the ability of this species to grow at nutrient-replete conditions and following periods of nitrogen or phosphorous deprivation. Overall, smaller cells showed slower growth, lower storage capacity and poorer recovery from phosphorous depletion, as predicted by the ‘fasting endurance hypothesis'. However, recovery from nitrogen limitation was independent of size—a finding unanticipated by current theories. Phytoplankton species are responsible for much of the global carbon fixation and projected trends of cell size decline could reduce primary productivity by lowering the ability of a cell to store resources.
Biologically Targeted Magnetic Hyperthermia: Potential and Limitations

Hyperthermia, the mild elevation of temperature to 40–43°C, can induce cancer cell death and enhance the effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, achievement of its full potential as a clinically relevant treatment modality has been restricted by its inability to effectively and preferentially heat malignant cells. The limited spatial resolution may be circumvented by the intravenous administration of cancer-targeting magnetic nanoparticles that accumulate in the tumor, followed by the application of an alternating magnetic field to raise the temperature of the nanoparticles located in the tumor tissue. This targeted approach enables preferential heating of malignant cancer cells whilst sparing the surrounding normal tissue, potentially improving the effectiveness and safety of hyperthermia. Despite promising results in preclinical studies, there are numerous challenges that must be addressed before this technique can progress to the clinic. This review discusses these challenges and highlights the current understanding of targeted magnetic hyperthermia.
Behavioral evolution accompanying host shifts in cactophilic Drosophila larvae

Abstract For plant utilizing insects, the shift to a novel host is generally accompanied by a complex set of phenotypic adaptations. Many such adaptations arise in response to differences in plant chemistry, competitive environment, or abiotic conditions. One less well‐understood factor in the evolution of phytophagous insects is the selective environment provided by plant shape and volume. Does the physical structure of a new plant host favor certain phenotypes? Here, we use cactophilic Drosophila, which have colonized the necrotic tissues of cacti with dramatically different shapes and volumes, to examine this question. Specifically, we analyzed two behavioral traits in larvae, pupation height, and activity that we predicted might be related to the ability to utilize variably shaped hosts. We found that populations of D. mojavensis living on lengthy columnar or barrel cactus hosts have greater activity and pupate higher in a laboratory environment than populations living on small and flat prickly pear cactus cladodes. Crosses between the most phenotypically extreme populations suggest that the genetic architectures of these behaviors are distinct. A comparison of activity in additional cactophilic species that are specialized on small and large cactus hosts shows a consistent trend. Thus, we suggest that greater motility and an associated tendency to pupate higher in the laboratory are potential larval adaptations for life on a large plant where space is more abundant and resources may be more sparsely distributed.
Rosuvastatin Reduces Neuroinflammation in the Hemorrhagic Transformation After rt-PA Treatment in a Mouse Model of Experimental Stroke

Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) is a serious complication that stimulates inflammation during reperfusion therapy after acute ischemic stroke. Rosuvastatin, a 3-hydroxymethyl-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor, might improve the outcome of HT by inhibiting neuroinflammation. This study aimed to explore the protective effects of rosuvastatin against HT after recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) treatment in mice with experimental stroke via the attenuation of inflammation. A total of one hundred sixty-nine male BALB/c mice were used in the experiment. HT was successfully established in 70 mice that were subjected to 3 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) followed by a 10 mg/kg rt-PA injection over 10 min and reperfusion for 24 h. The mice were then administered rosuvastatin (1 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg) or saline (vehicle). The brain water content and neurological deficits (wire hang and adhesive removal somatosensory tests) were assessed at 24 h after rt-PA reperfusion following MCAO surgery. The morphology, blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability and number of astrocytes and microglia were assessed by immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy and western blotting at 24 h after rt-PA reperfusion following MCAO surgery. Rosuvastatin protected against impaired neurological function and reversed the BBB leakage observed in the HT group. The increased activation of astrocytes and microglia and secretion of inflammatory factors caused by HT damage were significantly attenuated by high-dose rosuvastatin treatment vs. normal-dose rosuvastatin treatment. Related inflammatory pathways, such as the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, were downregulated in the rosuvastatin-treated groups compared with the HT group. In conclusion, our results indicate that rosuvastatin is a promising therapeutic agent for HT after rt-PA reperfusion following MCAO surgery in mice, as it attenuates neuroinflammation. Additionally, high-dose rosuvastatin treatment could have a greater anti-inflammatory effect on HT than normal-dose rosuvastatin treatment.
Post hoc analysis of the Exenatide‐PD trial—Factors that predict response

Exenatide, a glucagon‐like peptide‐1 agonist and a licensed treatment for Type 2 diabetes significantly reduced deterioration in motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease in a randomized, placebo‐controlled trial. In addition, there were trends favouring the exenatide group in assessments of nonmotor symptoms, cognition, and quality of life. The aim of this exploratory post hoc analysis was to generate new hypotheses regarding (a) whether candidate baseline factors might predict the magnitude of response to exenatide; and (b) whether the beneficial effects of exenatide reported for the overall population are consistent in various subgroups of patients. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine possible predictors of motor response to exenatide in this cohort. Potential treatment by subgroup interactions for changes in; motor severity, nonmotor symptoms, cognition, and quality of life after 48‐weeks treatment with exenatide were evaluated among post hoc subgroups defined by age, motor phenotype, disease duration, disease severity, body mass index (BMI), and insulin resistance. In the subgroup analyses, exenatide once‐weekly was associated with broadly improved outcome measures assessing motor severity, nonmotor symptoms, cognition, and quality of life across all subgroups, however, tremor‐dominant phenotype and lower Movement Disorder Society‐Sponsored Revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS‐UPDRS) Part‐2 scores predicted greatest motor response to exenatide and there was an indication that patients with older age of onset and disease duration over 10 years responded less well. While patients with a range of demographic and clinical factors can potentially benefit from exenatide once‐weekly, these data support an emphasis towards recruiting patients at earlier disease in future planned clinical trials of gluacagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) receptor agonists in Parkinson's disease (PD).