Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feasibility and effectiveness of a nurse-led community exercise programme for prevention of falls among frail elderly people: a multi-centre controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether an exercise programme provided by public health nurses is effective in improving physical function and psychological status in elderly people, in reducing falls and risk factors for falls in elderly people, and whether the intervention is a feasible programme within the community. DESIGN Controlled intervention trial. SUBJECTS Participants included 144 persons in the intervention group and 124 persons in the control group, who were living at home, aged over 65 years, and with 5 or more risk factors for falls identified using the questionnaire for fall assessment (Suzuki). METHODS For participants in the intervention group, an exercise programme was provided by public health nurses. This comprised a weekly exercise class of 2 hours for 17 weeks, supplemented by daily home exercises. Number of risk factors, physical function and psychological status were compared between the intervention and control groups before and after intervention. The number of further falls during the intervention was also compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS The programme significantly improved physical function and emotional status, and reduced the number of falls and risk factors for falls. The excellent adherence rate represented broad acceptance of the intervention. CONCLUSION The intervention programme was effective and feasible to operate in the community.
Gender differences in the effects of bereavement-related psychological distress in health outcomes

Background. This study examined whether traumatic grief, depressive and anxiety symptoms formed three distinct factors for widows and widowers. In addition, we examined whether high symptom levels of traumatic grief, depression and anxiety predicted different mental and physical health outcomes for widows and widowers. Method. Ninety-two future widows and 58 future widowers were interviewed at the time of their spouse's hospital admission and then at 6 weeks, 6, 13 and 25 month follow-ups. Principal axis factor analyses tested the distinctiveness of traumatic grief, depressive and anxiety symptoms, by gender. Repeated measures ANOVA tested for gender differences and changes over time in mean symptom levels of traumatic grief, depression and anxiety. Linear and logistic regression models estimated the effects of high symptom levels of traumatic grief, depression and anxiety at 6 months on health outcomes at 13 and 25 months post-intake by gender. Results. Three distinct symptom clusters (i.e. traumatic grief, depressive and anxiety symptoms) were found to emerge for both widows and widowers. Widows had higher mean levels of traumatic grief, depressive and anxiety symptoms. High symptom levels of traumatic grief measured at 6 months predicted a physical health event (e.g. cancer, heart attack) at 25 months post-intake for widows. High symptom levels of anxiety measured at 6 months predicted suicidal ideation at 25 months for widowers. Conclusions. The results suggest that there are gender differences in the levels of psychological symptoms resulting from bereavement and in their effects on subsequent mental and physical health for widows and widowers.
Bioimpedance-Based Respiration Monitoring With a Defibrillator

Defibrillators often use an ac measurement to ensure safe electrode placement. Some defibrillators also utilize impedance measurements for ventilation monitoring. This paper investigates how such measurements can be optimized for high respiration sensitivity and finds that it is beneficial to add two extra electrodes in addition to the two defibrillator electrodes. This four electrode setup increases sensitivity and also allows respiration measurements at lower frequencies than the two electrode setup.
Dense scale selection over space, time and space-time

Scale selection methods based on local extrema over scale of scale-normalized derivatives have been primarily developed to be applied sparsely---at image points where the magnitude of a scale-normalized differential expression additionally assumes local extrema over the domain where the data are defined. This paper presents a methodology for performing dense scale selection, so that hypotheses about local characteristic scales in images, temporal signals, and video can be computed at every image point and every time moment. A critical problem when designing mechanisms for dense scale selection is that the scale at which scale-normalized differential entities assume local extrema over scale can be strongly dependent on the local order of the locally dominant differential structure. To address this problem, we propose a methodology where local extrema over scale are detected of a quasi quadrature measure involving scale-space derivatives up to order two and propose two independent mechanisms to reduce the p.
Role of heat shock cognate 70 protein in import of ornithine transcarbamylase precursor into mammalian mitochondria

The roles of the 70-kDa cytosolic heat shock protein (hsp70) in import of precursor proteins into the mitochondria were postulated to be related to (i) unfolding of precursor proteins in the cytosol, (ii) maintenance of the import-competent state, and (iii) unfolding and transport of precursor proteins through contact sites, in cooperation with matrix hsp70. We examined roles of cytosolic hsp70 family members in import of ornithine transcarbamylase precursor (pOTC) into rat liver mitochondria, using an in vitro import system and antibodies against hsp70. Immunoblot analysis using an hsc70 (70-kDa heat shock cognate protein)-specific monoclonal antibody and a polyclonal antibody that reacts with both hsc70 and hsp70 showed that hsc70 is the only or major form of hsp70 family members in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate. The hsc70 antibody did not inhibit pOTC import when added prior to import assay. However, when pOTC was synthesized in the presence of the antibody and then subjected to import assay, pOTC import was markedly decreased. pOTC import was also decreased when the precursor was synthesized in the lysate depleted for hsc70 by treatment with hsc70 antibody-conjugated Sepharose. This reduction was almost completely restored by readdition of purified mouse hsc70 during pOTC synthesis. The readdition of hsc70 after pOTC synthesis and only during the import assay was not effective. Thus, once import competence of pOTC was lost, hsc70 was ineffective for restoration. Newly synthesized pOTC lost import competence in the absence of hsc70 somewhat more rapidly than in its presence. These results indicate that hsc70 is required during pOTC synthesis and not during import into the mitochondria. hsc70 presumably binds to pOTC polypeptide and maintains it in an import-competent form.
Fast Parallel Set Similarity Joins on Many-core Architectures

Set similarity join is a core operation for text data integration, cleaning, and mining. Previous research work on improving the performance of set similarity joins mostly focused on sequential, CPU-based algorithms. Main optimizations of such algorithms exploit high threshold values and the underlying data characteristics to derive efficient filters. In this article, we investigate strategies to accelerate set similarity join by exploiting massive parallelism available in modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). We develop two new parallel set similarity join algorithms, which implement an inverted index on the GPU to quickly identify similar sets. The first algorithm, called \texttt{gSSJoin}, does not rely on any filtering scheme and, thus, exhibits much better robustness to variations of threshold values and data distributions. Moreover, gSSJoin adopts a load balancing strategy to evenly distribute the similarity calculations among the GPU's threads. The second algorithm, called sf-gSSJoin, applies a block division scheme for dealing with large datasets that do not fit in GPU memory. This scheme also enables a substantial reduction of the comparison space by discarding entire blocks based on size limits. We present variants of both algorithms for a multi-GPU platform to further exploit task parallelism in addition to data parallelism. Experimental evaluation on real-world datasets shows that we obtain up to 109x and 19.5x speedups over state-of-the-art algorithms for CPU and GPU, respectively.
Balanced Rac1 and RhoA activities regulate cell shape and drive invagination morphogenesis in epithelia

Epithelial bending is a central feature of morphogenesis in animals. Here we show that mutual antagonism by the small Rho GTPases Rac1 and RhoA determines cell shape, tissue curvature, and invagination activity in the model epithelium of the developing mouse lens. The epithelial cells of the invaginating lens placode normally elongate and change from a cylindrical to an apically constricted, conical shape. RhoA mutant lens placode cells are both longer and less apically constricted than control cells, thereby reducing epithelial curvature and invagination. By contrast, Rac1 mutant lens placode cells are shorter and more apically restricted than controls, resulting in increased epithelial curvature and precocious lens vesicle closure. Quantification of RhoA- and Rac1-dependent pathway markers over the apical–basal axis of lens pit cells showed that in RhoA mutant epithelial cells there was a Rac1 pathway gain of function and vice versa. These findings suggest that mutual antagonism produces balanced activities of RhoA-generated apical constriction and Rac1-dependent cell elongation that controls cell shape and thus curvature of the invaginating epithelium. The ubiquity of the Rho family GTPases suggests that these mechanisms are likely to apply generally where epithelial morphogenesis occurs.
Interaction of chemical and high vascular pressure injury in isolated canine lung.

Because both chemical and mechanical insults to the lung may occur concomitantly with trauma, we hypothesized that the pressure threshold for vascular pressure-induced (mechanical) injury would be decreased after a chemical insult to the lung. Normal isolated canine lung lobes (N, n = 14) and those injured with either airway acid instillation (AAI, n = 18) or intravascular oleic acid (OA, n = 25) were exposed to short (5-min) periods of elevated venous pressure (HiPv) ranging from 19 to 130 cmH2O. Before the HiPv stress, the capillary filtration coefficient (Kf,c) was 0.12 +/- 0.01, 0.27 +/- 0.03, and 0.31 +/- 0.02 ml.min-1.cmH2O-1 x 100 g-1 and the isogravimetric capillary pressure (Pc,i) was 9.2 +/- 0.3, 6.8 +/- 0.5, and 6.5 +/- 0.3 cmH2O in N, AAI, and OA lungs, respectively. However, the pattern of response to HiPv was similar in all groups: Kf,c was no different from the pre-HiPv value when the peak venous pressure (Pv) remained less than 55 cmH2O, but it increased reversibly when peak Pv exceeded 55 cmH2O (P less than 0.05). The reflection coefficient (sigma) for total proteins measured after pressure exposure averaged 0.60 +/- 0.03, 0.32 +/- 0.04, and 0.37 +/- 0.09 for N, AAI, and OA lobes respectively. However, in contrast to the result expected if pore stretching had occurred at high pressure, in all groups the sigma measured during the HiPv stress when Pv exceeded 55 cmH2O was significantly larger than that measured during the recovery period. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Correlation of renin angiotensin system (RAS) candidate gene polymorphisms with response to Ramipril in patients with essential hypertension

Background: The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is an important facet of blood pressure regulation physiology. Treatment of essential hypertension targets the RAS using Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACEIs). However, ACEIs are not uniformly effective and show inter-individual pharmacodynamic variations. Aim: To assess the correlation between genetic polymorphisms in the genes coding for RAS components (angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE I/D), α-adducin (ADD1) and β1 -adrenoreceptor (β1-ADR)) and response to Ramipril. Materials and Methods: We recruited 120 patients with essential hypertension who were administered Ramipril monotherapy initially, followed by combination therapy, if needed, based on their responses. Relationship between genotypes of the three candidate genes and decrease in the blood pressure (BP) was analyzed. Results: One hundred and six patients were evaluable at the end of the study period and 21 different genotypes were observed among them. Seven of them were classified as responders after 8 weeks and at the end of 12 weeks, an additional 77 (72.64%) were deemed responders. 19/22 non-responders were treated with combination therapy and 7/19 (36.84%) showed a response to the same. There was a significant difference between the proportions of responders and non-responders among the genotypes of the ADD1 and β1-ADR genes (P = 0.005 and 0.003, respectively). The best predictors of response to Ramipril 5 mg daily were the II/GG/SS, II/TG/SS, II/GG/SG, ID/GG/SS, ID/GG/SG and ID/TT/SS and DD/GG/SS; II/GG/GG, II/TT/SG, ID/TG/SG, ID/TT/SG, DD/GG/SG and DD/GG/GG were moderately predictive and II/TT/SS, II/TG/GG, ID/TG/GG, DD/TG/SG and DD/TG/GG were poorly predictive of response. Discussion: Variable responses to Ramipril may be the result of genetic factors. Conclusion: Pre-prescription genotyping may help individualize treatment.
PCP4 (PEP19) overexpression induces premature neuronal differentiation associated with Ca2+/Calmodulin‐Dependent kinase II‐δ activation in mouse models of down syndrome

Pcp4/pep19 is a modulator of Ca2+‐CaM, a key molecule for calcium signaling, expressed in postmitotic neuroectoderm cells during mouse embryogenesis. The PCP4 gene is located on human chromosome 21 and is present in three copies in Down syndrome (DS). To evaluate the consequences of three copies of this gene on the development of these cells in the nervous system, we constructed a transgenic (TgPCP4) mouse model, with one copy of human PCP4, and investigated the effects in this model and in the Ts1Cje, a mouse model of DS. During embryogenesis, we analyzed 1) the level of pcp4 transcript and protein in the two models; 2) the extent of colabeling for markers of neuronal differentiation (βIII‐tubulin, Map2c, calbindin, and calretinin) and pcp4 by immunofluorescence analysis and overall protein levels of these markers by Western blotting; and 3) the rate of activation of CaMKII, a Ca2+‐CaM target, to evaluate the impact of pcp4 overexpression on the Ca2+‐CaM signaling pathway. We showed that three copies of the pcp4 gene induced the overexpression of transcripts and proteins during embryogenesis. Pcp4 overexpression 1) induced precocious neuronal differentiation, as shown by the distribution and levels of early neuronal markers; and 2) was associated with an increase in CaMKIIδ activation, confirming involvement in neuronal differentiation in vivo via a Pcp4−Ca2+−CaM pathway. TgPCP4 and Ts1Cje mice developed similar modifications, demonstrating that these mechanisms may account for abnormal neuronal development in DS. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:2779–2802, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Acute ischemic strokes improving during the first 48 hours of onset: predictability, outcome, and possible mechanisms. A comparison with early deteriorating strokes.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Our aims were to identify predictors of early neurological improvement in acute ischemic stroke patients, to evaluate its impact on clinical outcome, and to investigate possible mechanisms. METHODS A consecutive series of 152 first-ever ischemic hemispheric stroke patients hospitalized within 5 hours of onset underwent a first CT scan within 1 hour of hospitalization, and the initial subset of 80 patients also underwent angiography. During the first 48 hours of hospital stay, an increase or a decrease of 1 or more points in the admission Canadian Neurological Scale (CNS) score was defined as early improvement or early deterioration, respectively. Repeated CT scan or autopsy was performed 5 to 9 days after stroke. RESULTS Thirty-four patients (22%) improved, 84 (56%) remained stable, and 34 (22%) deteriorated. Logistic regression, which took into account vascular risk factors, baseline clinical and CT data, and therapies administered, selected younger age, lower admission CNS score, and absence of early hypodensity at first CT as independent predictors of early improvement. Among the patients who underwent angiography, logistic regression selected arterial patency and presence of collateral blood supply as independent predictors of early improvement. At the repeated CT scan or autopsy, improving patients presented the highest frequency of small infarcts. Thirty-day case-fatality rate and disability were lower in improving patients. Variables independently associated with outcome at logistic regression were admission CNS score, early deterioration, and early improvement. CONCLUSIONS Early improvement can be predicted by the absence of early CT hypodensity and is highly predictive of good outcome. Presence of collateral blood supply and presumably early spontaneous recanalization are likely to be the mechanisms underlying early improvement.
Glucose homeostasis remains altered by acute caffeine ingestion following 2 weeks of daily caffeine consumption in previously non-caffeine-consuming males

Acute caffeine ingestion increases serum NEFA and plasma adrenaline and decreases insulin sensitivity. Although frequently suggested, it is not known if a tolerance to these alterations in glucose homeostasis is developed in habitual caffeine consumers. Our objective was to determine whether acute caffeine ingestion continued to alter insulin, glucose, NEFA and adrenaline during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) following 14 d of caffeine consumption. Twelve caffeine-naive young males underwent four OGTTs over a 4-week period. Subjects ingested a gelatin-filled placebo (PLA) capsule on the first trial day and 5 mg caffeine/kg body weight on the remaining three trial days (day 0, day 7, day 14) before a 2 h OGTT. Following day 0 and day 7, subjects were given six dosages of 5 mg caffeine/kg to consume per d between trials. Serum insulin and blood glucose area under the curve (AUC) were significantly elevated (P < 0·05) v. PLA on day 0 (36 and 103 %, respectively) and were not different from PLA on day 7. On day 14, insulin AUC was 29 % greater than PLA (P < 0·05), and glucose was greater (P < 0·05) during the first hour, although the 50 % elevation in glucose AUC was not different from PLA. Before the OGTT, caffeine resulted in greater (P < 0·05) serum NEFA and plasma adrenaline concentrations in all three caffeine trials, but both NEFA and adrenaline concentrations were decreased (P < 0·05) on day 14 v. day 0. Although 14 d of caffeine consumption by previously caffeine-naive subjects reduced its impact on glucose homeostasis, carbohydrate metabolism remained disrupted.
Maintenance of Antibody to Pathogen Epitopes Generated by Segmental Gene Conversion Is Highly Dynamic during Long-Term Persistent Infection

ABSTRACT Multiple bacterial and protozoal pathogens utilize gene conversion to generate rapid intrahost antigenic variation. Both large- and small-genome pathogens expand the size of the variant pool via a combinatorial process in which oligonucleotide segments from distinct donor loci are recombined in various combinations into expression sites. Although the potential combinatorial diversity generated by this segmental gene conversion mechanism is quite large, the functional variant pool depends on whether immune responses against the recombined segments are generated and maintained, regardless of their specific combinatorial context. This question was addressed by tracking the Anaplasma marginale variant population and corresponding segment-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody responses during long-term infection. Antibody was induced early in A. marginale infection, predominately against the surface-exposed hypervariable region (HVR) rather than against the invariant conserved flanking domains, and these HVR oligopeptides were most immunogenic at the time of acute bacteremia, when the variant population is derived via recombination from a single donor locus. However antibody to HVR oligopeptides was not consistently maintained during persistent infection, despite reexpression of the same segment, although in a different combinatorial context. This dynamic antibody recognition over time was not attributable to the major histocompatibility complex haplotype of individual animals or use of specific msp2 donor alleles. In contrast, the position and context of an individual oligopeptide segment within the HVR were significant determinants of antibody recognition. The results unify the genetic potential of segmental gene conversion with escape from antibody recognition and identify immunological effects of variant mosaic structure.
Image-based relighting as the sampling and reconstruction of the plenoptic illumination function

Image-based modeling and rendering has been demonstrated as a cost-effective and efficient approach to real-time graphics systems. In this paper, we describe an extended formulation of the plenoptic function, called the plenoptic illumination function, which explicitly specifies the illumination component. Techniques based on it can be extended to support relighting as well as view interpolation. Based on the linearity of illumination, image-based relighting can be performed with complex lighting configuration. The core of this framework is compression, and we therefore show how to exploit two types of data correlation, intra-pixel and inter-pixel correlations, in order to achieve a manageable storage size.
A Study on the Effect on Real Estate Price from Land Transfer Revenues and Local Fiscal Expenditure in Different Provinces of China

The panel data of 30 provinces has been used to analyze the regional difference of the effect on real estate price by land transfer revenues and local fiscal expenditure.The results show that there exits lagged effects on real estate price by land transfer revenues and local fiscal expenditure.The difference of the effect on real estate price by land transfer revenues and local fiscal expenditure is not significant among the eastern,middle and western in a short time.However,in a long term development period,local fiscal expenditure has a larger impact on real estate price than land transfer revenues in the east and the west.However,it is a different story in the middle.Land transfer revenues make the significantly greater stimulating effect than local fiscal expenditure.
Exploitation of pleiotropic actions of statins by using tumour-targeted delivery systems

Abstract Statins are drugs traditionally used to lower cholesterol levels in blood. At concentrations 100- to 500-fold higher than those needed for reaching cholesterol lowering activity, they have anti-tumour activity. This anti-tumour activity is based on statins pleiotropic effects derived from their ability to inhibit the mevalonate synthesis and include anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic, anti-angiogenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-metastatic actions and modulatory effects on intra-tumour oxidative stress. Thus, in this review, we summarise the possible pleiotropic actions of statins involved in tumour growth inhibition. Since the administration of these high doses of statins is accompanied by severe side effects, targeted delivery of statins seems to be the appropriate strategy for efficient application of statins in oncology. Therefore, we also present an overview of the current status of targeted delivery systems for statins with possible utilisation in oncology.