LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The 5-HT2A -1438 A/G and 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms and personality dimensions in adolescent anorexia nervosa: association study.

Disturbances of serotonergic neurotransmission and temperamental vulnerability have both been implicated in the pathogenesis of anorexia nervosa (AN). We genotyped the -1438 A/G polymorphism in the 5-HT2A receptor gene and serotonin transporter linked-polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) in 132 adolescent subjects with AN and in 93 healthy controls. Personality dimensions in AN patients were assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory. In a case-control model, we tested the hypothesis that these genetic variants confer susceptibility to AN. We also analyzed whether two polymorphisms show association with temperamental and character traits. No significant difference was found in the 5-HTTLPR frequency between AN patients and controls; however, there was a statistical trend towards a higher frequency of the A allele of the -1438 A/G polymorphism in patients than in controls (64.9 vs. 56.7%, chi2 test, p=0.08). We also found a significant association between the A allele of this polymorphism and two temperamental traits. Patients homozygous for the A allele showed lower reward dependence than G/G homozygotes, and A/A homozygotes showed lower harm avoidance than heterozygotes. Low reward dependence and harm avoidance were more characteristic of the restrictive-type AN than of other subtypes of the disorder. No association of 5-HTTLPR with personality dimensions in AN patients was observed. Our results may suggest that the A allele of the -1438 A/G polymorphism confers some genetic risk for adolescent AN patients, especially in those with personality traits, which are typical of the restrictive-type AN.
Early ART After Cryptococcal Meningitis Is Associated With Cerebrospinal Fluid Pleocytosis and Macrophage Activation in a Multisite Randomized Trial

INTRODUCTION
Earlier antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation in cryptococcal meningitis resulted in higher mortality compared with deferred ART initiation (1-2 weeks vs 5 weeks postmeningitis diagnosis). We hypothesized this was due to ART-associated immune pathology, without clinically recognized immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.


METHODS
Three macrophage activation markers and 19 cytokines/chemokines were measured from cryopreserved cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum during the Cryptococcal Optimal ART Timing (COAT) trial. Comparisons were made between trial arms (early vs deferred) at 1, 8, 14, and 21 days following meningitis diagnosis.


RESULTS
More participants with early ART initiation had CSF white cell count (WCC) ≥5/µL at day 14 (58% vs 40%; P = .047), after a median of 6-days ART. Differences were mainly driven by participants with CSF WCC <5/µL at meningitis diagnosis: 28% (10/36) of such persons in the early ART group had CSF WCC ≥5/µL by day 14, compared with 0% (0/27) in the deferred arm (P = .002). Furthermore, Kampala participants (the largest site) receiving early ART had higher day-14 CSF levels of interleukin-13 (P = .04), sCD14 (P = .04), sCD163 (P = .02), and CCL3/MIP-1α (P = .02), suggesting increased macrophage/microglial activation.


CONCLUSIONS
Early ART initiation in cryptococcal meningitis increased CSF cellular infiltrate, macrophage/microglial activation, and T helper 2 responses within the central nervous system. This suggests that increased mortality from early ART in the COAT trial was immunologically mediated.
Reducing Risky Security Behaviours: Utilising Affective Feedback to Educate Users

Despite the number of tools created to help end-users reduce risky security behaviours, users are still falling victim to online attacks. This paper proposes a browser extension utilising affective feedback to provide warnings on detection of risky behaviour. The paper provides an overview of behaviour considered to be risky, explaining potential threats users may face online. Existing tools developed to reduce risky security behaviours in end-users have been compared, discussing the success rates of various methodologies. Ongoing research is described which attempts to educate users regarding the risks and consequences of poor security behaviour by providing the appropriate feedback on the automatic recognition of risky behaviour. The paper concludes that a solution utilising a browser extension is a suitable method of monitoring potentially risky security behaviour. Ultimately, future work seeks to implement an affective feedback mechanism within the browser extension with the aim of improving security awareness. OPEN ACCESS Future Internet 2014, 6 761
Volume 2 number 1 SICSIM Newsletter

Information for the Newsletter should be transmitted directly to Nancy Zimmer. Membership information, application forms, etc. can be obtained from Mr. Gebhart. The next Newsletter is scheduled for publication in late June, 1968.
Clearance of hepatitis B surface antigen during long-term nucleot(s)ide analog treatment in chronic hepatitis B: results from a nine-year longitudinal study

Clearance of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is considered the ultimate goal in chronic hepatitis B treatment. One treatment option is long-term nucleot(s)ide analog (NA) therapy. We followed a group of long-term NA therapy patients to evaluate the efficacy of this treatment in promoting clearance and longitudinal declines of HBsAg. The study included 791 NA therapy patients who received lamivudine as their first drug. At the baseline, 442 patients were hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)+ and 349 were HBeAg−. All analyses were performed after separating the HBeAg+ and HBeAg− cohorts. Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine which factors were associated with HBsAg clearance. HBsAg clearance was observed in 18 (4.1 %) of the HBeAg+ patients and 20 (5.7 %) of the HBeAg− patients at baseline, giving seroclearance rates of 6.4 and 6.9 %, respectively, over the nine-year study period. HBsAg clearance was influenced by several independent factors that varied according to HBeAg cohort. For HBeAg+ patients, these included previous interferon therapy, infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype A, a ≥0.5 log IU/mL decline in HBsAg level within six months, and clearance of HBeAg at six months. For HBeAg− patients, these included infection with HBV genotype A, decline in HBsAg at six months, and a baseline HBsAg level of <730 IU/mL. This study suggests that both direct antiviral potential and host immune response are needed to achieve HBsAg clearance by NA therapy. Viral genotype strongly influenced HBsAg clearance during NA therapy.
RAS mutations and cetuximab in locally advanced rectal cancer: results of the EXPERT-C trial.

BACKGROUND
RAS mutations predict resistance to anti-epidermal growthfactor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibodies in metastatic colorectal cancer. We analysed RAS mutations in 30 non-metastatic rectal cancer patients treated with or without cetuximab within the 31 EXPERT-C trial.


METHODS
Ninety of 149 patients with tumours available for analysis were KRAS/BRAF wild-type, and randomly assigned to capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPOX) followed by chemoradiotherapy, surgery and adjuvant CAPOX or the same regimen plus cetuximab (CAPOX-C). Of these, four had a mutation of NRAS exon 3, and 84 were retrospectively analysed for additional KRAS (exon 4) and NRAS (exons 2/4) mutations by using bi-directional Sanger sequencing. The effect of cetuximab on study end-points in the RAS wild-type population was analysed.


RESULTS
Eleven (13%) of 84 patients initially classified as KRAS/BRAF wild-type were found to have a mutation in KRAS exon 4 (11%) or NRAS exons 2/4 (2%). Overall, 78/149 (52%) assessable patients were RAS wild-type (CAPOX, n=40; CAPOX-C, n=38). In this population, after a median follow-up of 63.8months, in line with the initial analysis, the addition of cetuximab was associated with numerically higher, but not statistically significant, rates of complete response (15.8% versus 7.5%, p=0.31), 5-year progression-free survival (75.5% versus 67.5%, hazard ratio (HR) 0.61, p=0.25) and 5-year overall survival (83.8% versus 70%, HR 0.54, p=0.20).


CONCLUSIONS
RAS mutations beyond KRAS exon 2 and 3 were identified in 17% of locally advanced rectal cancer patients. Given the small sample size, no definitive conclusions on the effect of additional RAS mutations on cetuximab treatment in this setting can be drawn and further investigation of RAS in larger studies is warranted.
Preoperative glutamine infusion improves glycemia in heart surgery patients.

PURPOSE
To evaluate the effects of pre-operative L-alanyl-glutamine (L-Ala-Gln) on blood glucose control in patients with coronary obstruction, selected for myocardial revascularization.


METHODS
Twenty-two patients (63±8 years) were randomly assigned to receive 250 ml of L-Ala-Gln 20% plus saline 750 ml (Group L- Ala-Gln, n=11) or saline 1000 ml (Group Saline, n=11) over 3 hours before operation. Pre-operative blood samples were collected 3h before (T-1) and at the beginning of the surgical procedure (T-2). Intra-operative samples were collected immediately before the start (T-3) and the end of extra-corporeal perfusion (T- 4). Post-operative samples were collected 12h (T-12) and 24h later (T-24).


RESULTS
Glycemia decreased significantly in L-Ala-Gln treated patients during the intraoperative period. The same effect did not occur in saline patients. As the rate of insulin infusion, administered routinely to patients undergoing surgery with extracorporeal circulation was constant in both groups during surgery, the reduction of blood glucose in group L-Ala-Gln does not seem to be related to exogenous insulin.


CONCLUSION
Pre-operative use of L-Ala-Gln improves glycemic control in patients with coronary artery occlusion, submitted to myocardial revascularization.
A comparison of the costs and efficacy of ondansetron and dolasetron in the prophylaxis of postoperative vomiting in pediatric patients undergoing ambulatory surgery.

UNLABELLED
Postoperative vomiting (POV) after ambulatory surgery remains a major problem. We designed this study to determine the smallest dose of dolasetron equivalent to the Food and Drug Administration approved dose of ondansetron 100 micro g/kg IV, for the prophylaxis of POV in children undergoing surgery. In this double-blinded controlled study, 204 healthy ASA I-II children aged 2-12 yr, undergoing superficial ambulatory (day-case) surgery, were randomized to receive either ondansetron 100 micro g/kg IV, or dolasetron 45, 175, 350, or 700 micro g/kg IV during a standardized perioperative regimen. The primary end-point was the incidence of complete response, defined as the absence of POV symptoms. Costs were calculated from the perspective of the hospital using a previously described model. The incidence of early (0-6 h) and 24-h emesis was more frequent in the dolasetron 45 micro g/kg group compared with the dolasetron 350 and 700 micro g/kg groups and with the ondansetron group. Repeated POV occurred more often when dolasetron was used in a dose <350 micro g/kg. There were no significant differences in emesis rates between the dolasetron 175, 350, and 700 micro g/kg groups or between these groups and the ondansetron 100 micro g/kg group. The smallest dose of dolasetron with acceptable equivalent efficacy and patient satisfaction scores to ondansetron 100 micro g/kg was 350 micro g/kg. Institutional costs for managing POV were less with dolasetron 350 micro g/kg than with ondansetron.


IMPLICATIONS
This randomized double-blinded dose-ranging study concluded that dolasetron, 350 micro g/kg IV, was the smallest dose that provided acceptable equivalent efficacy and patient satisfaction scores to ondansetron, 100 micro g/kg IV, for the prophylaxis of postoperative vomiting in children undergoing outpatient surgery. However, with this dose, the costs to the institution for managing postoperative vomiting were less.
Novel insights into the relationships between dendritic cell subsets in human and mouse revealed by genome-wide expression profiling

Dendritic cells (DCs) are a complex group of cells that play a critical role in vertebrate immunity. Lymph-node resident DCs (LN-DCs) are subdivided into conventional DC (cDC) subsets (CD11b and CD8α in mouse; BDCA1 and BDCA3 in human) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs). It is currently unclear if these various DC populations belong to a unique hematopoietic lineage and if the subsets identified in the mouse and human systems are evolutionary homologs. To gain novel insights into these questions, we sought conserved genetic signatures for LN-DCs and in vitro derived granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) DCs through the analysis of a compendium of genome-wide expression profiles of mouse or human leukocytes. We show through clustering analysis that all LN-DC subsets form a distinct branch within the leukocyte family tree, and reveal a transcriptomal signature evolutionarily conserved in all LN-DC subsets. Moreover, we identify a large gene expression program shared between mouse and human pDCs, and smaller conserved profiles shared between mouse and human LN-cDC subsets. Importantly, most of these genes have not been previously associated with DC function and many have unknown functions. Finally, we use compendium analysis to re-evaluate the classification of interferon-producing killer DCs, lin-CD16+HLA-DR+ cells and in vitro derived GM-CSF DCs, and show that these cells are more closely linked to natural killer and myeloid cells, respectively. Our study provides a unique database resource for future investigation of the evolutionarily conserved molecular pathways governing the ontogeny and functions of leukocyte subsets, especially DCs.
The circadian regulation of photosynthesis

Correct circadian regulation increases plant productivity, and photosynthesis is circadian-regulated. Here, we discuss the regulatory basis for the circadian control of photosynthesis. We discuss candidate mechanisms underpinning circadian oscillations of light harvesting and consider how the circadian clock modulates CO2 fixation by Rubisco. We show that new techniques may provide a platform to better understand the signalling pathways that couple the circadian clock with the photosynthetic apparatus. Finally, we discuss how understanding circadian regulation in model systems is underpinning research into the impact of circadian regulation in crop species.
Parenting style and child-feeding behaviour in predicting children's weight status change in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE
The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children is on the rise worldwide. Prior studies find that parents' child-feeding practices are associated with child weight status and the efficacy of specific parental child-feeding practices can be moderated by parenting styles. In the current longitudinal study, we examined the associations between child-feeding practices and weight status changes over 1 year among a sample of school-aged children in Taiwan.


DESIGN
In autumn 2008, a child-feeding questionnaire and parenting-style questionnaire were administered to parents of the second and fourth graders in an elementary school in Taiwan. The weight and height of the students were measured by a trained school nurse in 2008 and again in 2009.


SETTING
An elementary school in central Taiwan.


SUBJECTS
A total of 465 parent-child pairs were included in the analysis.


RESULTS
Using a gender- and age-adjusted BMI classification scheme issued by the Taiwan Department of Health, 29·2 % of the students were considered overweight at the 2009 measurement. Controlling for 2008 weight status revealed moderating effects of parenting style on the relationship between child-feeding practices and child weight status. Both authoritative and authoritarian mothers might monitor their children's dietary intake; however, the effectiveness of this practice was better, in terms of weight status control, among the authoritative mothers.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggest that parenting styles have a moderating effect on specific parental child-feeding practices. Parenting styles and parent's feeding practices could be an important focus for future public health interventions addressing the rising childhood obesity epidemic.
Adaptive multimedia content delivery for context-aware u-learning

Empowered by mobile computing, teachers and students can benefit from computing in more scenarios beyond the traditional computer classroom. But because of the much diversity of device specification, learning contents and mobile context existing today, the learners get a bad learning experience (e.g. rich contents cannot be displayed correctly) during ubiquitous learning (u-learning) environment. This paper proposes an adaptive contents delivery model for context-aware u-learning according to three-level service models proposed, which create the adaptive contents for learners to get a seamless access in learning according to learners’ interest and contexts. The evaluation on a mobile virtual community system shows that the learners may not only study in rich media on mobile device at anytime and at anyplace, also get a better learning experience, e.g. learners may get instant help from other participates by ubiquitous device and access the rich contents: PowerPoint files.
Mental health and psychosocial support in crisis and conflict: report of the Mental Health Working Group.

INTRODUCTION
The Working Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support was convened as part of the 2009 Harvard Humanitarian Action Summit. The Working Group chose to focus on ethical issues in mental health and psychosocial research and programming in humanitarian settings. The Working Group built on previous work and recommendations, such as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee's Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings.


OBJECTIVES
The objective of this working group was to address one of the factors contributing to the deficiency of research and the need to develop the evidence base on mental health and psychosocial support interventions during complex emergencies by proposing ethical research guidelines. Outcomes research is vital for effective program development in emergency settings, but to date, no comprehensive ethical guidelines exist for guiding such research efforts.


METHODS
Working Group members conducted literature reviews which included peer-reviewed publications, agency reports, and relevant guidelines on the following topics: general ethical principles in research, cross-cultural issues, research in resource-poor countries, and specific populations such as trauma and torture survivors, refugees, minorities, children and youth, and the mentally ill. Working Group members also shared key points regarding ethical issues encountered in their own research and fieldwork.


RESULTS
The group adapted a broad definition of the term "research", which encompasses needs assessments and data gathering, as well as monitoring and evaluation. The guidelines are conceptualized as applying to formal and informal processes of assessment and evaluation in which researchers as well as most service providers engage. The group reached consensus that it would be unethical not to conduct research and evaluate outcomes of mental health and psychosocial interventions in emergency settings, given that there currently is very little good evidence base for such interventions. Overarching themes and issues generated by the group for further study and articulation included: purpose and benefits of research, issues of validity, neutrality, risk, subject selection and participation, confidentiality, consent, and dissemination of results.


CONCLUSIONS
The group outlined several key topics and recommendations that address ethical issues in conducting mental health and psychosocial research in humanitarian settings. The group views this set of recommendations as a living document to be further developed and refined based on input from colleagues representing different regions of the globe with an emphasis on input from colleagues from low-resource countries.
Soft pneumatic grippers embedded with stretchable electroadhesion

Current soft pneumatic grippers cannot robustly grasp flat materials and flexible objects on curved surfaces without distorting them. Current electroadhesive grippers, on the other hand, are difficult to actively deform to complex shapes to pick up free-form surfaces or objects. An easyto-implement PneuEA gripper is proposed by the integration of an electroadhesive gripper and a two-fingered soft pneumatic gripper. The electroadhesive gripper was fabricated by segmenting a soft conductive silicon sheet into a two-part electrode design and embedding it in a soft dielectric elastomer. The two-fingered soft pneumatic gripper was manufactured using a standard soft lithography approach. This novel integration has combined the benefits of both the electroadhesive and soft pneumatic grippers. As a result, the proposed PneuEA gripper was not only able to pick-and-place flat and flexible materials such as a porous cloth but also delicate objects such as a light bulb. By combining two soft touch sensors with the electroadhesive, an intelligent and shape-adaptive PneuEA material handling system has been developed. This work is expected to widen the applications of both soft gripper and electroadhesion technologies. Supplementary material for this article is available online
Predictors of stage of adoption for colorectal cancer screening among African American primary care patients.

BACKGROUND
Compared with other racial groups, African Americans have the highest colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality rates coupled with lower screening rates.


OBJECTIVE
Our study examined the predictors of stage of adoption for fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) and colonoscopy among African American primary care patients who were nonadherent to published screening guidelines.


METHODS
Baseline data (N = 815) in a randomized clinical trial were analyzed. Participants were categorized into precontemplation, contemplation, and preparation stages for FOBT and colonoscopy. Predictor variables were demographics, clinical variables, CRC health beliefs and knowledge, and social support. Hierarchical modeling was to identify significant predictors of stage of adoption.


RESULTS
Older, male, Veterans Affairs participants and those with higher perceived self-efficacy, family/friend encouragement, and a provider recommendation had higher odds of being at a more advanced stage of adoption for FOBT. Patients with a history of cancer and higher perceived barriers had higher odds of being at an earlier stage of adoption for FOBT. Predictors of more advanced stage of adoption for colonoscopy included higher perceived benefits, higher perceived self-efficacy, family/friend encouragement, and a provider recommendation for colonoscopy. Higher income (>30 000 vs <15 000) was predictive of earlier stage of adoption for colonoscopy.


CONCLUSIONS
Enhancing self-efficacy, encouragement from family and friends, and provider recommendations are important components of interventions to promote CRC screening.


IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Nurses can use knowledge of the characteristics associated with stage of adoption to educate and motivate their African American primary care patients to complete CRC screening tests.