Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of the bioecological model and health belief model to self-reported health risk behaviors of adolescents in the united states

Application of the Bioecological Model and Health Belief Model to Self-Reported Health Risk Behaviors of Adolescents in the United States. (December 2008) Sasha A. Fleary, B.A., City University of New York – The City College Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr Robert W. Heffer Dr E. Lisako J. McKyer Health risk behaviors are responsible for the majority of morbidity and mortality among adolescents. Researchers have identified three sources of risk-taking in adolescents – dispositional, ecological and biological. The Bioecological Model incorporates these three sources of risk-taking, however it lacks explanatory power. For this reason, this thesis focused on explaining risk perception of health risk behaviors (smoking cigarette, alcohol and marijuana use), and health risk behaviors by integrating the Bioecological Model with a more specific Health Belief Model. The relationship between risk perception and health risk behavior was also investigated as a first step in understanding adolescent decision-making using the Health Belief Model. Adolescents from a suburban Indiana area were asked to complete the Adolescent Health Risk Behavior Survey which assessed egocentrism, self-esteem, social norms, risk perceptions, and the incidence and prevalence of health endangering behaviors. Hierarchical linear regression was used to determine the ability of the systems in the Bioecological Model and their specific variables to explain risk perception of health risk behaviors. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to determine the ability of the systems in the Bioecological Model and their specific
Functional subdivisions of the temporal lobe neocortex

In order to gather evidence on functional subdivisions of the temporal lobe neocortex of the primate, the activity of more than 2600 single neurons was recorded in 10 myelo- and cytoarchitecturally defined subdivisions of the cortex in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) and inferior temporal gyrus of the anterior part of the temporal lobe of 5 hemispheres of 3 macaque monkeys. First, convergence of different modalities into each area was investigated. Areas TS and TAa, in the upper part of this region, were found to receive visual as well as auditory inputs. Areas TPO, PGa, and IPa, in the depths of the STS, received visual, auditory, and somatosensory inputs. Areas TEa, TEm, TE3, TE2, and TE1, which extend from the ventral bank of the STS through the inferior temporal gyrus, were primarily unimodal visual areas. Second, of the cells with visual responses, it was found that some neurons in areas TS-IPa could be activated only by moving visual stimuli, whereas the great majority of neurons in areas TEa-TE1 could be activated by stationary visual stimuli. Third, it was found that there were few sharply discriminating visual neurons in areas TS and TAa; of the sharply discriminating visual neurons in other areas, however, neurons that responded primarily to faces were found predominantly in areas TPO, TEa, and TEm (in which they represented 20% of the neurons with visual responses); neurons that were tuned to relatively simple visual stimuli such as sine-wave gratings, color, or simple shapes were relatively common in areas TEa, TEm, and TE3; and neurons that responded only to complex visual stimuli were common in areas IPa, TEa, TEm, and TE3. These findings show inter alia that areas TPO, PGa, and IPa are multimodal, that the inferior temporal gyrus areas are primarily unimodal, that there are areas in the cortex in the anterior and dorsal part of the STS that are specialized for the analysis of moving visual stimuli, that neurons responsive primarily to faces are found predominantly in areas TPO, TEa, and TEm, and that architectural subdivisions of the temporal lobe cortex are related to neuronal response properties.
Cloning and Characterization of a Novel Promiscuous Human β-Chemokine Receptor D6*

Members of the chemokine family of chemotactic peptides interact with their target cells through heptahelical cell surface receptors. An understanding of the biochemistry and expression patterns of these receptors is therefore central to our overall understanding of the roles played by chemokines in both physiological and pathological processes. To date, eight receptors for the β-chemokine subfamily have been described. We have recently cloned a novel murine β-chemokine receptor and report here the identification and characterization of a highly homologous human gene termed human D6 (hD6). This is a promiscuous β-chemokine receptor and appears to be able to bind the majority of members of the β-chemokine family. It is, however, specific for this family and shows no detectable affinity for members of the α-chemokine or the C or CXXXC chemokines. Unlike the majority of other chemokine receptors, human D6 does not appear to be able to flux calcium following ligand binding, thus it is currently not clear if this novel receptor is indeed a signaling receptor. Human D6 is expressed in a range of tissues including hemopoietic cells although it appears not to be ubiquitously expressed in hemopoietic cells. Human D6, unlike some other β-chemokine receptors, appears not to be able to function as an entry co-factor for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-)1 on CD4-expressing cells.
Higher-moment risk exposures in Hedge Funds 1

The paper singles out the key roles of US equity skewness and kurtosis in the determination of the market premia embedded in Hedge Fund returns. We propose a conditional higher-moment asset pricing model with location, trading and higher-moment factors in order to describe the dynamics of the Equity Hedge (Market Neutral, Short Selling and Long/Short strategies), Event Driven, Relative Value, and Funds of Hedge Funds styles. The volatility, skewness and kurtosis implied in the US options markets are used by Hedge Fund managers as instruments to anticipate market movements. Managers should adjust their market exposure in response to variations in the implied higher moments. We show that higher-moment premia improve a conditional asset pricing model both in terms of explanatory power (R-squares and Schwarz criterion) and specification errors across all Hedge Fund styles.
A companion candidate in the gap of the T Chamaeleontis transitional disk

Context. T Cha is a young star surrounded by a cold disk. The presence of a gap within its disk, inferred from fitting to the spectral energy distribution, has suggested on-going planetary formation.Aims. The aim of this work is to look for very low-mass companions within the disk gap of T Cha.Methods. We observed T Cha in L ′ and K s with NAOS-CONICA, the adaptive optics system at the VLT, using sparse aperture masking.Results. We detected a source in the L ′ data at a separation of 62 ± 7 mas, position angle of ~78 ± 1 degrees, and a contrast of ΔL ′ = 5.1 ± 0.2 mag. The object is not detected in the K s band data, which show a 3-σ contrast limit of 5.2 mag at the position of the detected L ′ source. For a distance of 108 pc, the detected companion candidate is located at 6.7 AU from the primary, well within the disk gap. If T Cha and the companion candidate are bound, the comparison of the L ′ and K s photometry with evolutionary tracks shows that the photometry is inconsistent with any unextincted photosphere at the age and distance of T Cha. The detected object shows a very red K s − L ′ color, for which a possible explanation would be a significant amount of dust around it. This would imply that the companion candidate is young, which would strengthen the case for a physical companion, and moreover that the object would be in the substellar regime, according to the K s upper limit. Another exciting possibility would be that this companion is a recently formed planet within the disk. Additional observations are mandatory to confirm that the object is bound and to properly characterize it.
The Connection between Biaxial Orientation and Shear Thinning for Quasi-Ideal Rods

The complete orientational ordering tensor of quasi-ideal colloidal rods is obtained as a function of shear rate by performing rheo-SANS (rheology with small angle neutron scattering) measurements on isotropic fd-virus suspensions in the two relevant scattering planes, the flow-gradient (1-2) and the flow-vorticity (1-3) plane. Microscopic ordering can be identified as the origin of the observed shear thinning. A qualitative description of the rheological response by Smoluchowski, as well as Doi–Edwards–Kuzuu theory is possible, as we obtain a master curve for different concentrations, scaling the shear rate with the apparent collective rotational diffusion coefficient. However, the observation suggests that the interdependence of ordering and shear thinning at small shear rates is stronger than predicted. The extracted zero-shear viscosity matches the concentration dependence of the self-diffusion of rods in semi-dilute solutions, while the director tilts close towards the flow direction already at very low shear rates. In contrast, we observe a smaller dependence on the shear rate in the overall ordering at high shear rates, as well as an ever-increasing biaxiality.
Order and Change

A couple of years ago, Karen Orren and I began some collaborative work on general issues surrounding the study of political institutions, and we present here different aspects of a perspective that we are hammering out jointly. I draw out some of our thoughts about the institutional structure of politics; Karen, some of our thoughts about the place of ideas. ' Institutions have always figured prominently in political science. Certainly the leading lights of the behavioral revolution are right to protest the caricature of their project as indifferent to the institutional aspects of politics and to reject the broadside assault on their program launched by those who have presumed to rediscover them.2 It would be more accurate to observe that every stage in the development of American political science has generated its own distinct approach to the study of institutions. Formalism, behaviorism, and positive theory emerged in sequence, each offering its own critique of previously dominant perspectives on institutions and an alternative way of viewing them.
The Effect of Alkalosis on Hypoxia-Induced Pulmonary Vasoconstriction in Lungs of Newborn Rabbits

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to determine whether metabolic and respiratory alkalosis reduce hypoxia- induced pulmonary vasoconstriction in lungs of newborn rabbits. To accomplish this, we isolated and perfused with blood the lungs from 33 newborn rabbits, 3-14 d old. In all pairs of lungs, we first measured the magnitude of hypoxia-induced pulmonary vasoconstriction at a pH of 7.30-7.42. We then measured the effect of alkalosis on the magnitude of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstruction by following one of two different sequences of exposure to hypoxia and alkalosis. For the first sequence, we exposed 13 lungs to hypoxia, and during the hypoxic exposure we either decreased the inspired PCo, (respiratory alkalosis, n=8) or infused NaHCC>3 (metabolic alkalosis, n=5) to achieve a pH of 7.50-7.65. For the second sequence, we first decreased the inspired Pco2 (n=9) or infused Na- HCO3 («=11) to achieve a pH of 7.50-7.65 and then exposed the lungs to hypoxia. We found that hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction was reduced by either respiratory or metabolic alkalosis, when alkalosis was induced during hypoxia. When respiratory or metabolic alkalosis was induced before hypoxia, the magnitude of hypoxiainduced pulmonary vasoconstriction was the same as at the normal pH. We conclude that both metabolic and respiratory alkalosis reduce ongoing hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction in lungs of newborn rabbits. However, neither mode of alkalosis blunts pulmonary vasoconstriction in response to subsequent exposures to hypoxia.
Vertical augmentation with interpositional blocks of anorganic bovine bone vs. 7-mm-long implants in posterior mandibles: 1-year results of a randomized clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate whether 7-mm-long implants could be an alternative to longer implants placed in vertically augmented posterior mandibles. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty patients with posterior mandibular edentulism with 7-8 mm bone height above the mandibular canal were randomized to either vertical augmentation with anorganic bovine bone blocks and delayed 5-month placement of ≥10 mm implants or to receive 7-mm-long implants. Four months after implant placement, provisional prostheses were delivered, replaced after 4 months, by definitive prostheses. The outcome measures were prosthesis and implant failures, any complications and peri-implant marginal bone levels. All patients were followed to 1 year after loading. RESULTS One patient dropped out from the short implant group. In two augmented mandibles, there was not sufficient bone to place 10-mm-long implants possibly because the blocks had broken apart during insertion. One prosthesis could not be placed when planned in the 7 mm group vs. three prostheses in the augmented group, because of early failure of one implant in each patient. Four complications (wound dehiscence) occurred during graft healing in the augmented group vs. none in the 7 mm group. No complications occurred after implant placement. These differences were not statistically significant. One year after loading, patients of both groups lost an average of 1 mm of peri-implant bone. There no statistically significant differences in bone loss between groups. CONCLUSIONS When residual bone height over the mandibular canal is between 7 and 8 mm, 7 mm short implants might be a preferable choice than vertical augmentation, reducing the chair time, expenses and morbidity. These 1-year preliminary results need to be confirmed by follow-up of at least 5 years.
Expansion of toll-like receptor 9-expressing B cells in active systemic lupus erythematosus: implications for the induction and maintenance of the autoimmune process.

OBJECTIVE Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern-associated receptors in innate immunity that may be involved in the recognition of self antigens and the production of pathogenic autoantibodies. This study was undertaken to examine the expression and function of various TLRs in subpopulations of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS The expression of TLRs in PBMCs from 50 SLE patients with active disease (SLE Disease Activity Index [SLEDAI] score >or=8; n = 26) or inactive disease (SLEDAI score <8; n = 24) and 20 healthy controls was studied by flow cytometry. TLR expression was assessed on various subpopulations of PBMCs (TLR-2 and TLR-4 by membrane staining; TLR-3 and TLR-9 by intracellular staining). TLR function was accessed by stimulating PBMCs with specific ligands. RESULTS The proportion of B cells and monocytes expressing TLR-9 was higher among patients with active SLE (mean +/- SD 49.5 +/- 24.4% and 30.7 +/- 24.1%, respectively) than among patients with inactive disease (22.8 +/- 19.6% and 14.3 +/- 8.4%, respectively; P = 0.02 and P = 0.03). Among B cells, the proportion of plasma cells and memory B cells expressing TLR-9 was increased in patients with active SLE. Increased percentages of TLR-9-expressing B cells correlated with the presence of anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies (P = 0.007). Treatment with serum from patients with active disease increased the percentage of TLR-9-expressing plasma cells in serum from healthy controls. Enhanced induction of HLA-DR after TLR-9 stimulation was documented in B cells from patients with active disease. CONCLUSION In patients with active SLE, the proportion of peripheral blood memory B cells and plasma cells expressing TLR-9 is increased. Endogenous nucleic acids released during apoptotic cell death may stimulate B cells via TLR-9 and contribute to SLE pathogenesis.
Monotone numerical schemes for a Dirichlet problem for elliptic operators in divergence form

We consider a second‐order differential operator A(x)=−∑ di,j=1 ∂iaij(x)∂j+ ∑ dj=1 ∂j(bj(x)·)+c(x) on ℝd, on a bounded domain D with Dirichlet boundary conditions on ∂D, under mild assumptions on the coefficients of the diffusion tensor aij. The object is to construct monotone numerical schemes to approximate the solution of the problem A(x)u(x)=µ(x), x∈D, where µ is a positive Radon measure. We start by briefly mentioning questions of existence and uniqueness introducing function spaces needed to prove convergence results. Then, we define non‐standard stencils on grid‐knots that lead to extended discretization schemes by matrices possessing compartmental structure. We proceed to discretization of elliptic operators, starting with constant diffusion tensor and ending with operators in divergence form. Finally, we discuss W 21 ‐convergence in detail, and mention convergence in C and L1 spaces. We conclude by a numerical example illustrating the schemes and convergence results. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Quantitative analysis of gene expression in fixed colorectal carcinoma samples as a method for biomarker validation

Biomarkers have been described as the future of oncology. Modern proteomics provide an invaluable tool for the near-whole proteome screening for proteins expressed differently in neoplastic vs. healthy tissues. However, in order to select the most promising biomarkers, an independent method of validation is required. The aim of the current study was to propose a methodology for the validation of biomarkers. Due to material availability the majority of large scale biomarker studies are performed using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues, therefore these were selected for use in the current study. A total of 10 genes were selected from what have been previously described as the most promising candidate biomarkers, and the expression levels were analyzed with reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) using calibrator normalized relative quantification with the efficiency correction. For 6/10 analyzed genes, the results were consistent with the proteomic data; for the remaining four genes, the results were inconclusive. The upregulation of karyopherin α 2 (KPNA2) and chromosome segregation 1-like (CSE1L) in colorectal carcinoma, in addition to downregulation of chloride channel accessory 1 (CLCA1), fatty acid binding protein 1 (FABP1), sodium channel, voltage gated, type VII α subunit (SCN7A) and solute carrier family 26 (anion exchanger), member 3 (SLC26A3) was confirmed. With the combined use of proteomic and genetic tools, it was reported, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, that SCN7A was downregulated in colorectal carcinoma at mRNA and protein levels. It had been previously suggested that the remaining five genes served an important role in colorectal carcinogenesis, however the current study provided strong evidence to support their use as biomarkers. Thus, it was concluded that combination of RT-qPCR with proteomics offers a powerful methodology for biomarker identification, which can be used to analyze FFPE samples.
Family structure instability and the educational persistence of young people in England

Research in the area of family structure and educational outcomes has often failed to account for instability in family structure. Furthermore, prior research in this area has been dominated by North American studies with a smaller body emerging from Europe. This study draws upon 10,783 young people and their parents from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England to examine the association between family structure and family structure instability on post-16 educational persistence. Multivariate models indicate that family structure instability has a negative impact on educational persistence. After controlling for covariates, young people who had experienced family structure instability were 33% less likely to stay in education than young people who resided in married biological families during the four years prior to the end of compulsory schooling. The findings of this research provide evidence that young people who have experienced a change in family circumstances during these four years are potentially at risk of dropping out of school – this is the case irrespective of the nature of the change. Once covariates were accounted for, young people who resided in stable lone-parent households were just as likely as those in stable married biological families to continue to post-16 education. Analyses were also conducted to determine the educational persistence of young people from biological vs step-cohabitating families.
On Longest Cycles in Essentially 4-Connected Planar Graphs

Abstract A planar 3-connected graph G is essentially 4-connected if, for any 3-separator S of G, one component of the graph obtained from G by removing S is a single vertex. Jackson and Wormald proved that an essentially 4-connected planar graph on n vertices contains a cycle C such that . For a cubic essentially 4-connected planar graph G, Grünbaum with Malkevitch, and Zhang showed that G has a cycle on at least ¾ n vertices. In the present paper the result of Jackson and Wormald is improved. Moreover, new lower bounds on the length of a longest cycle of G are presented if G is an essentially 4-connected planar graph of maximum degree 4 or G is an essentially 4-connected maximal planar graph.
Gammopathy with proximal motor axonopathy simulating motor neuron disease

We report a 38-year-old man with a pure motor syndrome and IgM gammopathy leading to flaccid quadriplegia. Improvement followed treatment with dexamethasone, cyclophosphamide, and plasmapheresis, but he died of pulmonary embolism. At autopsy, he had a proximal motor axonopathy with lymphocytic infiltration of ventral roots. Proximal motor neuropathy may masquerade as motor neuron disease. The association with gammopathy and response to treatment suggest that patients with motor neuron disease should be routinely screened for serum protein abnormalities.
Matter and energy transformation: An investigation into secondary school students' arguments

Arguments are important to both the construction of scientific knowledge and development of skills as well as tools to assess this knowledge. That is, arguments are central to, for instance, scientific practices. Whereas research on arguments continues to accumulate, there is little evidence that this work focuses on the development of both instructional and assessment tools to support students in using empirically verifiable data, how these connect to claims about natural phenomena, and assess that learning. In this paper, we use a modified version of Toulmin’s (1958) model of argument analysis to examine the kinds of Data and Warrants, and sometimes Backing (elements of argument) students use to support the Claims they make about matter and energy (e.g. see Jin & Anderson, in preparation) in their oral arguments about CTPs. Our findings suggest that students use different kinds of elements to support their Claims. More sophisticated students tend to use those elements that appeal to scientific principles. However, less sophisticated students tend to use elements that are, for example, analogical, and/or tautological, as well as personal beliefs to support the Claims they make about these process.