Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of antipsychotics on brain structure: what have we learnt from structural imaging of schizophrenia?

We read with great interest the article by Navari & Dazzan (2009) recently published in Psychological Medicine. These authors found that antipsychotic treatment may contribute to brain structural changes observed in psychosis and that antipsychotics act regionally rather than globally on the brain, with specific effects on different brain structures. In an own systematic review on the effects of antipsychotics on the brain (Smieskova et al. in press) we summarized findings from structural imaging studies of schizophrenia. We focused on studies investigating schizophrenia patients using neuroimaging techniques according to antipsychotic medication and studies considering the differences in medication either in various antipsychotic medications or over the time or in various groups of patients. Overall, we found that patients with schizophrenia receiving treatment with antipsychotics had reduced grey matter (GM) volume, particularly in frontal and temporal lobes. Medication with typical antipsychotics also leads to increased volume of the basal ganglia, while atypical antipsychotics reversed the effect after switching. Studies with typical antipsychotics have reported increased GM volume in cingulate cortex, in contrast to atypical antipsychotics with the excess more often seen in thalamus volume.
The prevalence of spontaneous endometriosis in the baboon (Papio anubis, Papio cynocephalus) increases with the duration of captivity

Background. It is not known whether stress affects the prevalence of endometriosis in women. Baboons with spontaneous endometriosis may be interesting models to study the human disease. For baboons, living in captivity is a period of chronic stress without continuous exposure to pregnancy. This study was done to compare the prevalence of endometriosis between baboons recently captured in the wild and those living in captivity for several years. Methods. A diagnostic laparoscopy was performed for screening endometriosis and obtaining biopsies in 104 female baboons including animals that had been captured in the wild less than 1 year ago (n=52. Group I), primates that had been living in captivity for one to two years (n=30. Group II) and animals that had been captured for more than two years (n=22, Group III).
Expression pattern of Gal4 enhancer trap insertions into the bric à brac locus generated by P element replacement

The bric a brac (bab) locus is required for proper development and morphogenesis of ovaries (Couderc et al., 2002; Godt and Laski, 1995; Sahut-Barnola, 1995), legs (Couderc et al., 2002; Chu et al., 2002; Godt and Laski, 1995), antennae (Chu et al., 2002; Godt et al., 1993) and abdomen (Couderc et al., 2002; Kopp et al., 2000) of Drosophila melanogaster. bab is a large locus covering 140 kb and is composed of two genes, bab1 and bab2, that are similar in sequence and structure and likely arose by a chromosomal duplication (Couderc et al., 2002). Both genes encode proteins with a BTB domain and a pipsqueak motif (Couderc et al., 2002), domains found in a number of transcriptional regulators (Collins, 2001; Lehmann, 1998). Both Bab1 and Bab2 are localized to the nucleus (Couderc et al., 2002; Godt and Laski, 1995; Godt et al., 1993) and interact with BIP2/ TAFII155, a component of TFIID (Pointud et al., 2001). Bab2 was also shown to bind at discrete sites along polytene chromosomes (D. Godt, unpubl. data; Pointud et al., 2001), suggesting that Bab1 and Bab2 function as transcriptional regulators. To conduct structure/function analyses of the two Bab proteins, including the examination of any functional differences between Bab1 and Bab2, we decided to develop a genetic assay that depends on the ability to rescue the bab mutant phenotype. However, the large size of the bab locus makes it unfeasible to generate a genomic rescue construct. Using bab cDNAs for rescue is an option, but bab has a complex expression pattern and initial attempts to isolate tissue-specific enhancers for driving bab cDNA expression that accurately reflect the normal bab expression pattern were not successful. We have expressed bab cDNAs with several promoters, such as the hsp70 heat shock promoter, but find that misexpression of the Bab proteins leads to cell death in many tissues (see accompanying article), making this approach less than ideal for studying bab function. A more amenable approach is to obtain a P[Gal4] enhancer trap line insertion (Brand, 1994; Brand and Perrimon, 1993) in the bab locus that expresses Gal4 in a bab-specific pattern allowing the use of UAS-bab constructs to express bab in its endogenous pattern. We used P element replacement to make bab P[Gal4] enhancer trap lines. This method is based on the finding that after a P element excises from a chromosome, a P element from a second site frequently transposes into the site of the excised P element (Gonzy-Treboul et al., 1995; Keeler and Gloor, 1997; Sepp and Auld, 1999). bab and bab are well characterized bab enhancer trap lines that express -gal in patterns very similar to the endogenous bab expression patterns (Couderc et al., 2002; Godt et al., 1993; Godt and Laski, 1995). bab is located within the first intron of the bab1 gene, whereas bab is located in the 5 untranslated region of the bab1 transcription unit. Here we describe the replacement of the P[ry , lacZ] insert in bab and bab with P[Gal4, w ] and show the Gal4 expression pattern of the resulting lines.
Higher-order resonances in a Stark decelerator

The motion of polar molecules can be controlled by time-varying inhomogeneous electric fields. In a Stark decelerator, this is exploited to select a fraction of a molecular beam that is accelerated, transported, or decelerated. Phase stability ensures that the selected bunch of molecules is kept together throughout the deceleration process. In this paper an extended description of phase stability in a Stark decelerator is given, including higher-order effects. This analysis predicts a wide variety of resonances that originate from the spatial and temporal periodicity of the electric fields. These resonances are experimentally observed using a beam of OH ({sup 2}{pi}{sub 3/2},v=0,J=3/2) radicals passing through a Stark decelerator.
Urban sprawl and risk for being overweight or obese.

OBJECTIVES I examined the association between urban sprawl and the risk for being overweight or obese among US adults. METHODS A measure of urban sprawl in metropolitan areas was derived from the 2000 US Census; individual-level data were obtained from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. I used multilevel analysis to assess the association between urban sprawl and obesity. RESULTS After I controlled for gender, age, race/ethnicity, income, and education, for each 1-point rise in the urban sprawl index (0-100 scale), the risk for being overweight increased by 0.2% and the risk for being obese increased by 0.5%. CONCLUSIONS The current obesity epidemic has many causes, but there is an association between urban sprawl and obesity.
Guinea‐pig isolated trachealis: the effects of charybdotoxin on mechanical activity, membrane potential changes and the activity of plasmalemmal K+‐channels

1 A study has been made, in guinea‐pig isolated trachealis, of the effects of charybdotoxin in modulating (a) the activity of large conductance K+‐channels, (b) the spontaneous electrical activity of intact cells and (c) the mechanical effects of some bronchodilator drugs. 2 Single smooth muscle cells were isolated from guinea‐pig trachealis by enzymic digestion and were studied by the patch clamp recording technique. Recordings were made from outside‐out plasmalemmal patches when the medium bathing the external surface of the patches contained 1.2 mm Ca2+ and 6 mm K+ while that bathing the cytosolic surface contained 0.1 μm Ca2+ and 140 mm K+. Charybdotoxin (100 nm), applied to the external surface of patches held at 0 mV, abolished the unitary currents associated with the opening of large conductance K+‐channels. 3 Opened segments of guinea‐pig trachea were used for the simultaneous recording of membrane potential and tension changes. In these experiments charybdotoxin (100 nm) caused the conversion of spontaneous electrical slow waves into spike‐like action potentials. This effect was accompanied by a very small reduction in resting membrane potential. 4 Tissue bath recording showed that charybdotoxin (100 nm) increased the spontaneous mechanical tone of the tissue, antagonized (2.8 fold in each case) the relaxant actions of isoprenaline and theophylline but did not antagonize the relaxant actions of cromakalim or RP 49356. 5 It is concluded that charybdotoxin is an effective inhibitor of large conductance K+‐channels in guinea‐pig trachealis cells. The ability of charybdotoxin to convert spontaneous slow waves into spike‐like action potentials suggests that the large, charybdotoxin‐sensitive, K+‐channels play an important role in determining the strong outward rectifying behaviour of the cells. The ability of charybdotoxin to antagonize isoprenaline and theophylline, but not to antagonize cromakalim and RP 49356, suggests that opening of the large conductance, charybdotoxin‐sensitive K+‐channel is implicated in the action of the former but not the latter pair of bronchodilator drugs.
The Human Microbiome as a New Source for Antibiotic Discovery

Bacterial infection especially antibiotic-resistance “superbugs” (e.g., methicillinand vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) has caused a huge global threat of public health [1-3]. Bacterial infection currently kills more people than HIV, and will kill more people than cancer in the coming decades [4,5]. Nevertheless, new antibiotics, one of the most important treatment options for bacterial infection, unfortunately continue to be limited because the pace of antibiotic discovery and development is dramatically declining [6]. To meet the urgent need for novel drugs with combating the “superbugs”, researchers are continuing to explore new natural sources such as marine resource [6], metagenome [2], and uncultured microorganisms [1] that were missed in previous screens [4].
Decision-making analysis for selection of antibiotic treatment in intra-abdominal infection using preference measurements.

BACKGROUND Antimicrobial therapy of abdominal infections is important to the prognosis of affected patients. The choice of antimicrobial therapy must consider effectiveness, safety, cost, and antibiotic resistance, among numerous factors. However, in reality, decisions are made assuming bioequivalence between regimens, without considering the specific attributes of any particular regimen. The objective was to determine the best antibiotic regimen for patients with community-acquired abdominal infection on the basis of a decision analysis that included effectiveness as well as safety, measured as adverse effects. METHODS A decision tree was built using information from a systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of antimicrobial regimens tested in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and the frequency and severity of adverse effects. The quality of the articles was assessed with the Oxford criteria for RCTs. The main outcome was preferences reported by surgeons, measured on a numeric scale. Preferences were obtained using a standard survey that reported each adverse effect with its respective intensity, reversibility, sequelae, duration of symptoms, and necessity for change of antibiotic. Each of the surgeons had to assign a value blindly from 0 to 10, where 10 was the most severe. A sensitivity analysis was conducted varying the frequency of adverse effects. RESULTS The regimens analyzed were amikacin-metronidazole, amikacin-clindamycin, ciprofloxacin-metronidazole, ampicillin-sulbactam, ceftriaxone-metronidazole, piperacillin-tazobactam, and ertapenem. The perceived severity of adverse effects reported were: Acute neuromuscular blockade (8.0), severe allergic reaction (7.5), ototoxicity (7.4), nephrotoxicity (7.1), antibiotic-associated colitis (7.0), peripheral neuropathy (5.3), general neurological symptoms (4.9), gastrointestinal symptoms (3.1), and other general symptoms (2.6). Favored regimens were ceftriaxone-metronidazole (1.15), ampicillin-sulbactam (1.24), piperacillin-tazobactam (1.27) and ertapenem (1.28). These strategies dominated the other therapeutic schemes. Sensitivity analysis showed no changes in the dominance reported when the frequency of adverse effects was maintained in the known clinical range. CONCLUSIONS Antibiotic regimens that contain aminoglycosides are not bioequivalent to those without aminoglycosides when effectiveness and adverse effects are considered simultaneously. Antibiotic regimens that do not use aminoglycosides must be the first line of treatment for abdominal sepsis acquired in the community.
A Preliminary Evaluation of Stool Antigen Test in H. pylori Infections

The discovery of Helicobacter pylori revolutionised the concept of gastroduodenal pathology& diverted the world wide attention from pH to Hp (H. pylori). Surgical management is replaced by antibiotics. Endoscopy guided biopsy is diagnostic. No endoscopic tests obviate need for invasive procedure. Aim: Evaluation of H. pylori stool antigen detection test by comparing it with conventional diagnostic tests like antral mucosal biopsy urease test and culture. Material& methods-Study group – 35 patients with upper GI disorders. Control group -10 asymptomatic individuals (total 45). Informed consent and ethics committee clearance obtained. Antral mucosal biopsy sample transported in 20% glucose broth . Stool sample obtained simultaneously from the both groups . Urease test done on 10% Urease agar. Micro aerophilic culture on BHI agar with 5% sheep blood and VCNT supplement . Colonies identified by morphology on staining, hanging drop, urease test, oxidase test catalase test. H pylori antigen was detected in the stool sample by EIA (Meridian bioscience Inc.). Results: Urease test was positive in 19 of 35(54%) of symptomatic cases. 14of35 (40%) cases in the symptomatic group were positive by culture. 18 out of35 (51.42%) of the cases were found to have Helicobacter pylori antigen in stool. Conclusion: H. pylori antigen detection in stool is an easy noninvasive alternative diagnostic procedure in pretreatment screening & monitoring the effectiveness of H. pylori treatment.
Effects of Long‐Term Tai Chi Ball Practice on Balance Performance in Older Adults

To the Editor: Balance decreases with age, resulting in greater risk of falls for people aged 65 and older. Physical activity can address some aspects of this age-associated physiological decline, with exercise programs that incorporate balance retraining having been found to improve postural stability. Tai chi has been reported as a safe and enjoyable form of exercise that could improve balance in community-dwelling elderly adults, decreasing the risk of falls. Another form of exercise that has become increasingly popular among many elderly people of Chinese descent is tai chi ball (TCB). TCB consists of more wholebody rotational and multisegmental circular movements than tai chi, with sequential weight shifting. TCB requires fine equilibrium control. A 12-month survey of the effect of TCB on postural balance of community-dwelling elderly women has provided information of unique value and is presented here.
Central blockade of muscarinic cholinergic receptors disrupts affective and attentional set‐shifting

Impairments in multiple aspects of attentional and executive function follow damage to cholinergic neurons in the central nervous system. Affective and attentional set‐shifting represent two aspects of executive function controlled by different sectors of the prefrontal cortex. The involvement of cholinergic neural mechanisms in these aspects of executive function has not been specified. To determine whether central muscarinic cholinergic receptors were involved in affective and/or attentional set‐shifting, we tested rats on a series of discrimination learning problems, which included affective (reversal learning) and attentional set (extradimensional shift)‐shifting components, under the systemic influence of scopolamine, a muscarinic antagonist. Scopolamine impaired both reversal learning and extradimensional shifting, but was without effect on learning new discrimination problems that did not require an affective or attentional shift. Systemic administration of methylscopolamine, which does not cross the blood–brain barrier, did not impair affective or attentional set‐shifting, indicating that the scopolamine effects were centrally mediated. These data implicate muscarinic receptors in the central nervous system in the control of executive function. Taken together with other recent data, they may also suggest an important role for cholinergic receptors outside of the neocortex in regulating these aspects of attention and executive function.
Notes on Contributors

ness 140, 147, 398, 408, 410, 413, 418 accent 96, 105–6, 351, 353, 355, 357 acoustics 43, 44, 203–5, 211 acoustic analyses 4, 26 acoustic data 7 acoustic information 3 acoustic measurements 12 acoustic phonetics 6 acoustic salience 282, 285, 291 algorithm 235 arboreal mapping algorithm 241 end-based algorithm 243, 248 relation-based algorithm 235 alignment 238–9 alignment constraints 197 allomorphy 103–4, 147, 166, 406–7, 442 allophone 136, 155, 170 allophonic level 138 alternation 152, 166, 370, 372–3, 407–8, 411 Alternation Condition 148, 180, 409–10 ambisyllabicity 89 analogy 166, 170, 412, 442 analytic morphology 68 non-analytic morphology 68 Anticipatory Eye Movement Paradigm 18, 20–2 anti-cyclicity 436 anti-derivationalism 422, 425, 427, 436–7 aphasia 321–2, 324, 326, 329 Broca’s aphasia 323, 326, 328 Conduction aphasia 323 phonemic jargon aphasia 334 Wernicke’s aphasia 323, 326, 335 apraxia of speech (AOS) 322–4, 340 arboreal mapping 241 archiphoneme 136 areal features 14 articulation 204, 217 articulator features 304 articulatory gesture 36, 168 articulatory planning 321, 323, 329, 333 Articulatory Organ Hypothesis 286, 295 Articulatory Phonology 356–7, aspiration 218–21 Autosegmental phonology 141, 149, 182–3, 29 autosegmental licensing 87 autosegmental representations 412–15, 418 autosegmental tier 270, 416 autosegments 415, 417 babbling 17 babbling dri 280 canonical babbling 279 behaviourism 422, 432–3 behavioural methodologies 18, 21 Bidirectional Phonetics and Phonology 212, 216, 221 bilinguals 21 binarity 240 binary branching 79, 88 binary features 34, 402, 418 bivalent features 34 NKula_Index_Final. indd 515 10/6/2010 4:05:44 PM
Focal, transient mechanical narrowing of a pipeline embolization device following treatment of an internal carotid artery aneurysm

Flow diversion is a promising technique for cerebral aneurysm treatment but presents new and sometimes unique challenges. Transient reversible narrowing due to device reconfiguration of the pipeline embolization device (PED) has not been previously described. Here we describe a patient with dolichoectasia of the distal right internal carotid artery with an associated saccular sidewall aneurysm who developed asymptomatic circumferential narrowing of the proximal aspect of the PED in the first month following deployment. The patient was followed conservatively and demonstrated partial resolution of device narrowing on 6 month follow-up imaging.
Significance of white matter abnormalities in patients with closed head injury

Neuroimaging in patients with closed head injury (CHI) may frequently reveal abnormalities of white matter. Because white matter abnormalities may be seen in patients aged over 40 years even without CHI, the significance of these abnormalities in patients with CHI is questionable and needs to be assessed in the context of relevance to clinical outcome. The aims of this study were to determine the relative incidence of white matter abnormalities in a group of patients with CHI, and to assess the impact (if any) of these abnormalities on clinical outcome. Sixty-three patients with CHI underwent neuroimaging with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) single photon emission tomography (SPET) approximately 6 months after trauma. Seven patients had white matter abnormalities on MRI scanning. There are no rCBF SPET criteria for defining abnormal perfusion to the white matter. The SPET scans ranged from normal (one patient) and abnormal perfusion to frontal, temporal or parietal lobes in these patients (n = 6). Patients were assessed for outcome after undergoing appropriate rehabilitation programmes with indices of reintegration into the community, activities of daily living, disability, and their cognitive ability to perform tasks. This assessment was conducted 2 years after initial trauma. Of these seven patients with abnormal MRI of the white matter, one performed poorly and six had moderate to good clinical outcome. When individual lobar perfusion is considered, abnormal perfusion to the frontal or temporal lobes was significantly associated with poorer outcome (P<0.005). In conclusion, white matter abnormalities detected by MRI are frequently associated with cortical perfusion defects identified by SPET (6/7 or 86%). However, when these white matter abnormalities were accompanied by perfusion defects in the frontal and temporal lobes, these were statistically significant in predicting poorer outcome.
Low serum selenium concentration in a healthy population resident in Catalunya: a preliminary report.

Serum selenium levels were determined in 92 healthy subjects [40 men, 52 women; mean age 33.5 +/- 1.6 (s.e.m.) years, range 16-71 years] living in the province of Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain. Only well-nourished individuals with unremarkable clinical history, normal blood chemistry and haematological tests were selected. The subjects were divided into 6 age groups for each sex. Serum samples were analysed using a modification of the standard electrothermal graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry method to shorten the procedure while maintaining its accuracy. A significant correlation (y = -1.31 + 1.51 x; r = 0.9967, P less than 0.001) was observed between our method and the standard assay method. The mean serum selenium concentration was 60.39 micrograms/l, 95 per cent CI 53.35-67.45 micrograms/l. There were age- but no sex-group differences (P less than 0.001). This result is similar to that found in countries whose low selenium levels have been related to an increased risk of some disease states. Clinical and health implications of this suboptimal selenium status are discussed.
Using synchronization to obtain dynamic logic gates.

We introduce a scheme to obtain key logic-gate structures, using synchronization of nonlinear systems. We demonstrate the idea explicitly by numerics and experiments on nonlinear circuits. A significant feature of this scheme is that a single nonlinear drive-response circuit can be used to flexibly yield the different logic gates, and switch logic behavior by small changes in the parameter of the response system; so the response system can act as a "logic output controller. " Thus this scheme may help to construct dynamic general-purpose computational hardware with reconfigurable abilities.