nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
En1 is necessary for survival of neurons in the ventral nuclei of the lateral lemniscus
Venue: Developmental neurobiology

The ventral nuclei of the lateral lemniscus (VNLL) are part of the central auditory system thought to participate in temporal sound processing. While the timing and location of VNLL neurogenesis have been determined, the genetic factors that regulate VNLL neuron development are unknown. Here, we use genetic fate mapping techniques to demonstrate that all glycinergic and glycinergic/GABAergic VNLL neurons derive from a cellular lineage that expresses the homeobox transcription factor Engrailed 1 (En1) We also show that En1 deletion does not affect migration or adoption of a neuronal cell fate but does lead to VNLL neuron death during development. Furthermore, En1 deletion blocks expression of the transcription factor FoxP1 in a subset of VNLL neurons. Together, these data identify En1 as a gene important for VNLL neuron development and survival.
Responses from two firing patterns in inferior colliculus neurons to stimulation of the lateral lemniscus dorsal nucleus
Venue: Neural regeneration research

The g aminobutyric acid neurons (GABAergic neurons) in the inferior colliculus are classified into various patterns based on their intrinsic electrical properties to a constant current injection. Although this classification is associated with physiological function, the exact role for neurons with various firing patterns in acoustic processing remains poorly understood. In the present study, we analyzed characteristics of inferior colliculus neurons in vitro, and recorded responses to stimulation of the dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus using the whole cell patch clamp technique. Seven inferior colliculus neurons were tested and were classified into two firing patterns: sustained regular (n 4) and sustained adapting firing patterns (n 3) The majority of inferior colliculus neurons exhibited slight changes in response to stimulation and bicuculline. The responses of one neuron with a sustained adapting firing pattern were suppressed after stimulation, but recovered to normal levels following application of the g aminobutyric acid receptor antagonist. One neuron with a sustained regular pattern showed suppressed stimulation responses, which were not affected by bicuculline. Results suggest that GABAergic neurons in the inferior colliculus exhibit sustained regular or sustained adapting firing patterns. Additionally, GABAergic projections from the dorsal nucleus of the lateral lemniscus to the inferior colliculus are associated with sound localization. The different neuronal responses of various firing patterns suggest a role in sound localization. A better understanding of these mechanisms and functions will provide better clinical treatment paradigms for hearing deficiencies.
The conduct of maternal and perinatal death reviews in Oyam District, Uganda: a descriptive cross sectional study
Venue: BMC Women's Health

BackgroundUganda like many developing countries still experiences high levels of maternal and perinatal deaths despite a decade of maternal and perinatal death review (MPDR) program. Oyam district has been implementing MPDR since 2008 with varying successes among the health facilities. This paper presents the factors that influence the conduct of maternal and perinatal death reviews in Oyam District, Uganda.MethodsThis was a cross sectional study where both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Semi structured interviews were administered to 66 health workers and ten key informants (KIs) to assess the factors influencing the conduct of MPDR. Univariate and Bivariate analysis of quantitative data was done using SPSS version 17.0. A Pearson Chi Square test was done to determine factors associated with conduct of MPDR. Factors with a p value 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis.ResultsOnly 34.8 of the health workers had ever participated in MPDR. The factors that influenced conduct of MPDR were existence of MPDR committees (p 0.001) attendance of review meetings (p 0.001) and knowledge of objectives of MPDR (p 0.001) implementation of MPDR recommendations (p 0.001) observed improvement in maternal and newborn care (p 0.001) and provision of feedback (p 0.001) Hindrance to conduct of MPDR was obtained from KIs: the health workers were not made aware of the MPDR process, committee formation and training of MPDR committee members was not effectively done, inadequate support supervision, and lack of financial motivation of MPDR committee members. Challenges to MPDR included: heavy workload to health workers, high number of perinatal deaths, and non implementation of recommendations.ConclusionThe proportion of maternal and perinatal death reviews conducted in Oyam was low. This was due to poor initiation of the review process and a lack of support supervision. The district and Ministry of Health needs to put more emphasis on monitoring the conduct of maternal and perinatal death reviews by: forming and training MPDR committees and ensuring they are financially supported, providing overall coordination, and ensuring effective support supervision.
The Australian Work Exposures Study: Prevalence of Occupational Exposure to Formaldehyde.
Venue: The Annals of occupational hygiene

The aims of this study were to produce a population based estimate of the prevalence of work related exposure to formaldehyde, to identify the main circumstances of exposure and to describe the use of workplace control measures designed to decrease those exposures.  The analysis used data from the Australian Workplace Exposures Study, a nationwide telephone survey, which investigated the current prevalence and exposure circumstances of work related exposure to 38 known or suspected carcinogens, including formaldehyde, among Australian workers aged 18 65 years. Using the web based tool OccIDEAS, semi quantitative information was collected about exposures in the current job held by the respondent. Questions were addressed primarily at tasks undertaken rather than about self reported exposures.  Of the 4993 included respondents, 124 (2.5% were identified as probably being exposed to formaldehyde in the course of their work [extrapolated to 2.6% of the Australian working population 265 000 (95% confidence interval 221 000 316 000) workers] Most (87.1% were male. About half worked in technical and trades occupations. In terms of industry, about half worked in the construction industry. The main circumstances of exposure were working with particle board or plywood typically through carpentry work, building maintenance, or sanding prior to painting; with the more common of other exposures circumstances being firefighters involved in fighting fires, fire overhaul, and clean up or back burning; and health workers using formaldehyde when sterilizing equipment or in a pathology laboratory setting. The use of control measures was inconsistent.  Workers are exposed to formaldehyde in many different occupational circumstances. Information on the exposure circumstances can be used to support decisions on appropriate priorities for intervention and control of occupational exposure to formaldehyde, and estimates of burden of cancer arising from occupational exposure to formaldehyde.
Critical success factors for Six Sigma projects

The goal of this article is to identify and understand the relationship between critical success factors for Six Sigma programs and its projects performance, considering Six Sigma projects. This article explores those relationships through PLS (Partial Least Squares) method, using a sample of 149 respondents in Brazil and Argentina. The variables were collected initially by a survey conducted with Black Belts, Green Belts, program managers and company executives and goes further on projects documental analysis. The results show that not all the claimed critical success factors are relevant for program or project performance, what could direct the effort of companies into working harder in the relevant ones. This study has a noteworthy contribution to Six Sigma literature presenting a structural model that shows the significant impact of Six Sigma Method, Project Management and the Project Manager competencies on project performance.
New agents modulating the renin angiotensin aldosterone system Will there be a new therapeutic option?
Venue: Experimental biology and medicine

The renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) is more complex than it was originally regarded. According to the current subject knowledge, there are two main axes of the RAAS: (1) angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) angiotensin II AT1 receptor axis and (2) ACE2 angiotensin (1 7) Mas receptor axis. The activation of the first axis leads to deleterious effects, including vasoconstriction, endothelial dysfunction, thrombosis, inflammation, and fibrosis; therefore, blocking the components of this axis is a highly rational and commonly used therapeutic procedure. The ACE2 Ang (1 7) Mas receptor axis has a different role, since it often opposes the effects induced by the classical ACE Ang II AT1 axis. Once the positive effects of the ACE2 Ang (1 7) Mas axis were discovered, the alternative ways of pharmacotherapy activating this axis of RAAS appeared. This article briefly describes new molecules affecting the RAAS, namely: recombinant human ACE2, ACE2 activators, angiotensin (1 7) peptide and non peptide analogs, aldosterone synthase inhibitors, and the third and fourth generation of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. The results of the experimental and clinical studies are encouraging, which leads us to believe that these new molecules can support the treatment of cardiovascular diseases as well as cardiometabolic disorders.
Quinapril decreases antifibrinolytic and prooxidative potential of propofol in arterial thrombosis in hypertensive rats
Venue: Journal of the renin angiotensin aldosterone system JRAAS

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and propofol both exert hypotensive action and may affect hemostasis. We investigated the influence of quinapril and propofol on hemodynamics and hemostasis in renal hypertensive rats with induced arterial thrombosis. Two kidney, one clip hypertensive rats were treated with quinapril (3.0 mg/kg for 10 days) and then received propofol infusion (15 mg/kg/h) during ongoing arterial thrombosis. The hemodynamic and hemostatic parameters were assayed. Quinapril exerted a hypotensive effect increasing after propofol infusion. Quinapril showed an antithrombotic effect with the platelet adhesion reduction, fibrinolysis enhancement and oxidative stress reduction. Propofol did not influence thrombosis; however, it inhibited fibrinolysis and showed prooxidative action. The effect of propofol on fibrinolysis and oxidative stress was significantly lower in quinapril pretreated rats. Mortality was increased among rats treated with both drugs together. Our study demonstrates that pretreatment with quinapril reduced the adverse effects of propofol on hemostasis. Unfortunately, co administration of both drugs potentiated hypotension in rats, which corresponds to higher mortality.
Beneficial impacts of thymol essential oil on health and production of animals, fish and poultry: a review

The thymol is an herbal food additive used to improve performance indices, feed utilization, immune system, and preventing from infectious diseases. Feeding animal, fish and poultry with diets supplemented with medicinal plants containing effective compounds and natural antioxidants in thymol demonstrated valuable potential of thymol to enhance the productive and reproductive performances, nutrient bioavailability, immunity and general health of livestock as well as lowering the problems of different animal diseases, side effects of chemical drugs, syntactic materials and cancer. These properties may be attributed to thymol's capability to work as antispasmodic, antioxidant, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, anticancer and anti inflammatory agent by suppressing harmful compounds/free radicals from interacting with cellular biological compounds, ability to alter the gut microbiota, and increasing digestion, absorption and metabolism of nutrients. This review illustrates the multiple beneficial applications and various aspects of thymol including its chemical structure and physical proprieties, metabolism and excretion, mechanisms of action, natural sources and practical applications in animal, fish and poultry nutrition for increasing production, immunity and safeguarding health.
Thymol and Carvacrol Prevent Doxorubicin Induced Cardiotoxicity by Abrogation of Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Apoptosis in Rats
Venue: Journal of biochemical and molecular toxicology

The aim of this study was to assess the possible protective effects of thymol and carvacrol (CAR) against doxorubicin (DOX) induced cardiotoxicity. A single dose of DOX (10 mg/kg i.v. injected to male rats revealed significant increases in serum lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, creatine kinase isoenzyme MB, aspartate transaminase, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and cardiac troponin levels. It also increased heart contents of malondialdehyde and caspase 3 accompanied by a significant reduction in heart content of reduced glutathione as well as catalase and superoxide dismutase activity as compared with the control group. In contrast, administration of thymol (20 mg/kg p.o. and/or CAR (25 mg/kg p.o. for 14 days before DOX administration and for 2 days after DOX injection ameliorated the heart function and oxidative stress parameters. Summarily, thymol was more cardioprotective than CAR. Moreover, a combination of thymol and CAR had a synergistic cardioprotective effect that might be attributed to antioxidant, anti inflammatory, and antiapoptotic activities.
Carbonic anhydrase inhibition and cytotoxicity studies of Mannich base derivatives of thymol
Venue: Journal of enzyme inhibition and medicinal chemistry

Mannich bases of thymol were synthesized. The aminomethylation reaction was realised in the ortho position of the phenol for compounds 2 (dipropylamine) 3 (benzylamine) and 4 (dibenzylamine) while it was from para position for 1 (dimethylamine) 5 (piperidine) 6 (morpholine) and 7 (N methylpiperazine) The carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2.1.1) inhibitory effects of the compounds were asssessed against hCA I and hCA II. All compounds moderately inhibited hCA I and hCA II. The cytotoxicity of the compounds against four human oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines were compared those against three normal oral cells. Tumor specificity values were about 2 or slightly more for the compounds 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Compound 2 showed cytostatic activity against OSCC cell lines at 16 to 32 fold lower concentrations as compared with normal cells. This suggests that compound 2 can be considered as cytotoxicity enhancing drug candidate for further investigations.
Effects of UV Rays and Thymol/Thymus vulgaris L. Extract in an ex vivo Human Skin Model: Morphological and Genotoxicological Assessment
Venue: Cells Tissues Organs

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the major environmental factor affecting functions of the skin. Compounds rich in polyphenols, such as Thymus vulgaris leaf extract and thymol, have been proposed for the prevention of UV induced skin damage. We compared the acute effects induced by UVA and UVB rays on epidermal morphology and proliferation, cytotoxicity, and genotoxicity. Normal human skin explants were obtained from young healthy women (n 7) after informed consent and cultured at the air liquid interface overnight. After 24 h, the samples were divided in 2 groups: the former exposed to UVA (16 or 24 J/cm2) and the latter irradiated with UVB (0.24 or 0.72 J/cm2) One hour after the end of irradiation, supernatants were collected for evaluation of the lactate dehydrogenase activity. Twenty four hours after UVB exposure, biopsies were processed for light and transmission electron microscopy analysis, proliferation, cytotoxicity, and genotoxicity. UVB and UVA rays induced early inhibition of cell proliferation and DNA damage compared to controls. In particular, UVB rays were always more cytotoxic and genotoxic than UVA ones. For this reason, we evaluated the effect of either T. vulgaris L. extract (1.82 ug/ml) or thymol (1 ug/ml) on all samples treated for 1 h before UVB irradiation. While Thymus had a protective action for all of the endpoints evaluated, the action of the extract was less pronounced on epidermal proliferation and morphological features. The results presented in this study could be the basis for investigating the mechanism of thymol and T. vulgaris L. extract against the damage induced by UV radiation.
Metabolite profiling and antioxidative activity of Sage (Salvia fruticosa Mill. under the influence of genotype and harvesting period

Two cultivated accessions of Salvia fruticosa Mill. were investigated and evaluated for their essential oil, phenolic composition and antioxidant activity, during different harvesting time. The essential oil and its major compound 1.8 cineole, presented their higher yields during the early summer harvesting. The advanced analytical LC MS/MS method applied in this work led to the identification of thirty five compounds with rosmarinic acid, the diterpene artefact carnosol and several flavones and flavonols as the main phenolic constituents, the concentration of which varied largely from spring to autumn. The antioxidant activity of respective methanolic extracts was determined using the Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma (FRAP) 2,2 diphenyl 1 picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2' azino bis(3 ethylbenzothiazoline 6 sulphonic acid) (ABTS) assays, as a quality control tool. High positive correlations were observed between FRAP and ABTS antioxidant activities and total phenolic/flavonoid content, and particular phenolic constituents.
Absolute or relative effects? Arm based synthesis of trial data
Venue: Research synthesis methods

We congratulate Hwanhee Hong and colleagues on another fascinating paper (Hong et al. 2015a) arguing the case for arm based models for meta analysis. The standard approach to meta analysis is the contrast based model where the information that is pooled over trials is the information of the trial specific relative treatment effect, expressed for example as a log relative risk, log odds ratio, or as a mean treatment difference. In an arm based model, it is the absolute log risk, log odds, or mean outcome on each arm that are pooled. There is no doubt that arm based models are an intriguing alternative to the accepted understanding of metaanalysis, and that they provide a very elegant alternative approach to network meta analysis (NMA) However, readers of Research Synthesis Methods (RSM) will have no difficulty in recognising that arm based models represent a radical even revolutionary departure from current meta analytic practice. In this commentary, we begin by outlining the key differences between armand contrast based meta analysis to make clear the true extent of the implications of the claims being made. We then argue that contrast based models are to be preferred on both theoretical and practical grounds. Hong and colleagues present a number of arguments about the core assumptions of contrast based models, both in their RSM paper (Hong et al. 2015a) and previously (Zhang et al. 2014, Ohlssen et al. 2014, Zhang et al. 2015, Hong et al. 2015b) which we believe are mistaken. We offer some counter arguments and comment on the simulation study presented by Hong et al. (2015a)
The arithmetic of reducing relative and absolute inequalities in health: a theoretical analysis illustrated with European mortality data
Venue: Journal of Epidemiology Community Health

Reducing inequalities in health is a great challenge for public health, but how relative and absolute inequalities in mortality respond to changes in mortality by socioeconomic group is not well understood.  We derived arithmetically what combinations of changes and starting levels of mortality by socioeconomic group produce narrowing, and what combinations produce widening of relative and absolute inequalities in mortality. We then determined empirically how often these scenarios actually occur with data on inequalities in cause specific mortality in five European countries spanning four decades (1970 2010)  Changes in the rate ratio depend exclusively on the ratio of relative mortality change between socioeconomic groups, whereas changes in the rate difference depend on whether the ratio of relative mortality change between socioeconomic groups is larger or smaller than the rate ratio. This implies that, in case of declining mortality and faster relative mortality decline in higher socioeconomic groups, the rate difference will increase until the rate ratio becomes equal to the ratio of relative mortality decline, but will then start to decline. In the most common scenario in our data set (starting rate ratio above 1.00 and faster relative mortality decline in higher than lower socioeconomic groups) the rate ratio indeed always goes up but the rate difference goes down in about half of all cases, sometimes after a period of growth.  A narrowing of absolute inequalities occurs under a wider range of conditions than a narrowing of relative inequalities in mortality.
Distinguishing black hole spin orbit resonances by their gravitational wave signatures. II. Full parameter estimation

Gravitational waves from coalescing binary black holes encode the evolution of their spins prior to merger. In the post Newtonian regime and on the precession time scale, this evolution has one of three morphologies, with the spins either librating around one of two fixed points "resonances" or circulating freely. In this paper we perform full parameter estimation on resonant binaries with fixed masses and spin magnitudes, changing three parameters: a conserved "projected effective spin" x and resonant family DPh=0,p (which uniquely label the source) the inclination thJN of the binary's total angular momentum with respect to the line of sight (which determines the strength of precessional effects in the waveform) and the signal amplitude. We demonstrate that resonances can be distinguished for a wide range of binaries, except for highly symmetric configurations where precessional effects are suppressed. Motivated by new insight into double spin evolution, we introduce new variables to characterize precessing black hole binaries which naturally reflects the time scale separation of the system and therefore better encode the dynamical information carried by gravitational waves.
Selective Laser Melting of Magnesium and Magnesium Alloy Powders: A Review

Magnesium based materials are used primarily in developing lightweight structures owing to their lower density. Further, being biocompatible they offer potential for use as bioresorbable materials for degradable bone replacement implants. The design and manufacture of complex shaped components made of magnesium with good quality are in high demand in the automotive, aerospace, and biomedical areas. Selective laser melting (SLM) is becoming a powerful additive manufacturing technology, enabling the manufacture of customized, complex metallic designs. This article reviews the recent progress in the SLM of magnesium based materials. Effects of SLM process parameters and powder properties on the processing and densification of the magnesium alloys are discussed in detail. The microstructure and metallurgical defects encountered in the SLM processed parts are described. Applications of SLM for potential biomedical applications in magnesium alloys are also addressed. Finally, the paper summarizes the findings from this review together with some proposed future challenges for advancing the knowledge in the SLM processing of magnesium alloy powders.