Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early Intervention for Psychosis in Canada

Objective: Early intervention services (EIS) for psychosis have been developed in several countries, including Canada. There is some agreement about the program elements considered essential for improving the long-term outcomes for patients in the early phase of psychotic disorders. In the absence of national standards, the current state of EIS for psychosis in Canada needs to be examined in relation to expert recommendations currently available. Method: A detailed online benchmark survey was developed and administered to 11 Canadian academic EIS programs covering administrative, clinical, education, and research domains. In addition, an electronic database and Internet search was conducted to find existing guidelines for EIS. Survey results were then compared with the existing expert recommendations. Results: Most of the surveyed programs offer similar services, in line with published expert recommendations (i.e., easy and rapid access, intensive follow-up through case management with emphasis on patient engagement and continuity of care, and a range of integrated evidence-based psychosocial interventions). However, differences are observed among programs in admission and discharge criteria, services for patients at ultra high risk (UHR) for psychosis, patient to clinician ratios, accessibility of services, and existence of specific inpatient units. These seem to diverge from expert recommendations. Conclusions: Although Canadian programs are following most expert recommendations on clinical components of care, some programs lack administrative and organizational elements considered essential. Continued mentoring and networking of clinicians through organizations such as the Canadian Consortium for Early Intervention in Psychosis (CCEIP), as well as the development of a fidelity scale through further research, could possibly help programs attain and maintain the best standards of early intervention. However, simply making clinical guidelines available to care providers is not sufficient for changing practices; this will need to be accompanied by adequate funding and support from organizations and policy makers.
New Natural Pigment Fraction Isolated from Saw Palmetto: Potential for Adjuvant Therapy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

For the first time, we discovered a small proportion of aqueous fraction from Saw Palmetto apart from the fatty acid-rich fraction exhibited pharmacological activity. Therefore, this study aims to explore the anti-tumor potential of red pigmented aqueous fraction of Saw Palmetto, NYG on human hepatocellular carcinoma and its possible targets. Subcutaneous xenograft and orthotopic implantation models of HCC were used to evaluate the tumor inhibitory effect of NYG. Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were used as in vitro model. The mRNA expression was conducted by qPCR. Protein expression was monitored by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. Cell migration and blood vessel formation were determined by chamber assay and tube formation assay, respectively. Significant tumor inhibition of NYG in dose-dependent manner was observed on subcutaneous xenograft and orthotopic HCC model. NYG has no direct action on cell viability or VEGF secretion of HCC cells. However, NYG reduced in vitro migration and vessel formation activities of HUVEC cells, as well as in vivo intratumoral neovascularization. NYG attenuated extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) activation in endothelial cells, which may be associated with the suppression of migration and tube formation of HUVEC. NYG suppressed tumor expansion of HCC via inhibiting neovascularization, and may be potential adjuvant treatment for HCC.
Direct Electrochemistry of Redox Proteins and Enzymes Promoted by Carbon Nanotubes

The redox protein and enzyme, such as hemoglobin (Hb), horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and glucose oxidase (GOx), was immobilized on the surface of the carbon nanotube modified glassy carbon (CNT/GC) electrode, respectively. The cyclic voltammetric results indicated that the redox protein and enzyme underwent effective and stable direct electron transfer reaction with a pair of nearly symmetrical redox peaks. The formal redox potential, E0′, was almost independent on the scan rates, the average value of E0′ for Hb, HRP and GOx was –0.343 ± 0.001, –0.319 ± 0.002 and –0.456 ± 0.0008 V (vs. SCE, pH 6.9), respectively. The dependence of E0′ on the pH solution indicated that the direct electron transfer of Hb and HRP was a one-electron-transfer reaction process coupled with one-proton-transfer, while the GOx was a two-electron-transfer coupled with two-proton-transfer. The apparent heterogeneous electron transfer rate constant (ks) was 1.25 ± 0.25, 2.07 ± 0.69 and 1.74 ± 0.42 s-1 for Hb, HRP and GOx, respectively. The method presented here can be easily extended to immobilize other redox enzymes or proteins and obtain their direct electrochemistry.
Cervical spine injury in dismounted improvised explosive device trauma.

BACKGROUND The injury pattern from improvised explosive device (IED) trauma is different if the target is in a vehicle (mounted) or on foot (dismounted). Combat and civilian first response protocols require the placement of a cervical collar on all victims of a blast injury. METHODS We searched the Joint Theatre Trauma Registry (JTTR) and the Role 3 Hospital, Kandahar Airfield (KAF) database from Mar. 1, 2008, to May 31, 2011. We collected data on cervical fracture; head injury; traumatic amputation; initial blood pressure, pulse, injury severity score (ISS), Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score and base excess; and patient demographic information. RESULTS The concordance rate between JTTR and KAF databases was 98%. Of the 15 693 admissions in JTTR, 326 patients with dismounted IED injuries were located. The rate of cervical collar prehospital placement was 7.6%. Cervical fractures were found in 19 (5.8%) dismounted IED victims, but only 4 (1.2%) were considered radiographically unstable. None of these 19 patients had prehospital placement of a collar. Patients with cervical spine fractures were more severely injured than those without (ISS 18.2 v. 13.4; GCS 10.1 v. 12.5). Patients with head injuries had significantly higher risk of cervical spine injury than those with no head injury recorded (13.6% v. 3.9%). No differences in frequency of cervical spine injury were found between patients who had associated traumatic amputations and those who did not (5.4% v. 6.0%). CONCLUSION Dismounted IED is a mechanism of injury associated with a low risk for cervical spine trauma. A selective protocol for cervical collar placement on victims of dismounted IED blasts is possible and may be more amenable to combat situations.
Change in Learning Preferences From Pre-clinical to Clinical Courseof Undergraduate Medical Students– A Longitudinal Study

Learning strategies are important in medical students’ lives which are attributed to the instructional circumstances and prevailing environment in educational institutions. Analysisof students’ learning preferences will enable the educators to plan an appropriate curriculum and modulate the motivational factors. Hence this study was undertaken to assess the changes in learning strategies of students during the course from preclinical to clinical and to determine the influence of gender on these preferences. A longitudinal study was conducted in a Medical college of Karnataka using a pre-designed, semi-structured questionnaire from first year MBBS students and re-administered in the final year.The preference for medium of learning shifted from books in first year to teachers in final year (p<0.0001). Students preferred to clarify doubts from friends in first year but by final year they preferred teachers (p<0.0001). Teachers were a source of motivation in first year but by final year they were self-motivated (p-0.029). Gender-wise analysis revealed a significant difference in learning preferences. There is a need for a judicious mix of different learning methods for overall teaching learning experience.
Cultural Differences in Individualism? Just Artifact.

Previous research has provided discrepant findings with regard to the presence or absence of a cultural difference in strength of individualistic motivation among Mexican American and Anglo American children. To test the hypothesis of a cultural difference, and to explore the nature of different individualism measures, two individualism measures were administered to 733 Anglo American, Mexican American, and black children. Results indicated age but not cultural differences in strength of individualistic motivation, and that one measure of individualism, the Social Orientation Choice-Card, is confounded with competitiveness. That artifact remains the most plausible explanation of what was presumed to be a cultural difference.
Computer literacy of Iranian teachers of English as a foreign language: Challenges and obstacles

Abstract Basically, one of the requirements for the implementation of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ ability to use computers effectively. Educational authorities and planners should identify EFL teachers’ computer literacy levels and make attempts to improve the teachers’ computer competence. This mixed-methods study set out to uncover perceptions of 263 Iranian EFL teachers on their computer literacy levels. A computer literacy questionnaire and a general computer literacy test were administered to the participants. Follow-up in-depth interviews were further conducted with 24 EFL teachers who had also participated in the survey. The results of the study illustrated that the participants’ levels of computer literacy were not adequate for the implementation of CALL. Statistical analyses of the results demonstrated that the EFL teachers did not make use of a wide range of computer applications. The qualitative and quantitative data demonstrated that there are several factors which would impede the improvement of EFL teachers’ computer literacy. These main impeding factors include lack of computer literacy training in teacher education programs, lack of support from EFL authorities to improve EFL teachers’ computer literacy and lack of time to improve teachers’ computer literacy. In addition, it was shown that the EFL teachers adopted positive attitudes toward improving their computer literacy. This article proposes suggestions and recommendations for EFL authorities on how to prepare and educate EFL teachers to use technology in their teaching for the implementation of CALL.
Diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma by detection of human telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA in pancreatic juice with sample qualification.

PURPOSE We evaluated the diagnostic efficacy of detection of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) message, a catalytic domain of human telomerase, in endoscopic retrograde pancreatography (ERP)-derived pancreatic juice. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Both hTERT and CD25 expression were detected by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) in 17 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC), 12 patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP), and 7 patients with no ERP abnormality (N). In the same patients, beta-actin message was semiquantified by competitive RT-PCR. K-ras codon 12 mutations were concomitantly analyzed by enriched PCR-SSCP in 11 and 7 PC and CP cases, respectively. RESULTS Expression of hTERT was detected in 88% of PC cases and 17% of CP cases but not in the normal control (N). Alterations in K-ras were detected in 73% of PC cases and 57% of CP cases, respectively. beta-Actin mRNA was expressed in >3.0 x 10(1) copies/microl in all but two PC cases in which hTERT mRNA was not detected. CD25-positive and -negative peripheral lymphocytes were isolated from a normal volunteer using a fluorescent activating cell sorter. The hTERT message was detected in CD25-positive peripheral lymphocytes and in 18, 25, and 0% of the pancreatic juice samples from PC, CP, and N cases, respectively. All CP cases expressing hTERT message were also CD25 positive. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that detection of hTERT mRNA in pancreatic juice is a powerful tool to discriminate PC from CP, particularly when the samples are qualified against beta-actin mRNA levels and contaminating CD25-positive lymphocytes.
Toward a personal construct conceptualization of depression and suicide

Abstract Research is examined that is relevant to a conceptualization of depression and suicide from the viewpoint of personal construct theory. This review highlights the role played by the following cognitive processes in the two disorders: (a) constriction in construct content and application, (b) construct system disorganization, (c) a breakdown in anticipation of the future, (d) negative self-construing, (e) polarized or dichotomous construing, and (f) perceived interpersonal isolation. Similarities and differences in the construct systems of depressed and suicidal individuals are explored and testable implications of the personal construct model are detailed. The paper concludes by noting construct theory's potential conceptual, methodological, and therapeutic contributions to further work in this area. The prevalence of depression has given rise to numerous theories-ranging from the psychodynamic to the biochemical-that attempt to account for its etiology and offer guidelines for treatment. One of .
Moral Lessons: The Ethical Role of Teachers

This article explores conceptual and empirical issues related to the moral and ethical basis of professional practice in teaching. In considering the ethical role of teachers within an expanded context of the formal and informal moral life of classrooms, the discussion raises concerns about both the theoretical identification and practical investigation of "moral lessons. " It does so through a review of current literature in this area and a report of a 2nd-level analysis of findings from a research study of 2 culturally diverse elementary school classrooms in urban Canada.
Congruence, Resistance, Liminality: Reading and Ideology in Three School Libraries

AbstractThis article offers an ethnographic description of the processes of enculturation that occurred within three school libraries, and considers how such libraries may be considered cultural sites in their own right, apart from other aspects of schooling. The study examines third-grade students’ patterns of response to implicit and explicit messages about the value and function of literacy in their lives as they are encoded in the organization of three school libraries, in those libraries’ texts, and in the discursive practices and backgrounds of their librarians. Analysis of these responses leads to an interrogation of two principal accounts of how educational institutions in general attempt to reproduce the social order of late industrial capitalism, either through students’ resistance to dominant ideological practices or through sociolinguistic congruence or incongruence between ways of using words at home and in school. As a counterargument to these two well-known frames of interpretation, the aut.
Synthesis of Ferulic Acid and Its Non Covalent Inclusion with Hydroxypropyl-β-Cyclodextrin

Ferulic acid (FA) is a highly effective compound with many activities, but it is poorly suited for pharmaceutics application because of its low physicochemical properties. In the present study we synthesized FA through microwave assisted Knoevenagel condensation using malonic acid and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, in the present of organic base as catalyst. The optimization of the synthesis method was done by comparing the base catalyst; that are pyridine, triethyl amine and morpholine. The structure of FA was determined through UV, FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and MS spectroscopic methods. Improvement the physicochemical properties of FA was carried out through the establishment of the non covalent inclusion of FA with hydroxypropyl-b-cyclodextrin (HP-b-CD) by the kneading method. Its physicochemical characterizations were performed by FTIR and 1H-NMR spectroscopic methods, ROESY experiment, differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-Ray diffractometry (XRD) and dissolution rate. Microwave irradiation that assisted synthesis of FA using morpholine as catalyst produced the highest yield compared to other catalysts. All of the characteristic data showed that non-covalent inclusion of FA/HP-b-CD has been formed. The dissolution rate of inclusion complex of FA/HP-b-CD was increasing significantly compared with FA.
Specific In Vivo Labeling of Tyrosinated α-Tubulin and Measurement of Microtubule Dynamics Using a GFP Tagged, Cytoplasmically Expressed Recombinant Antibody

GFP-tagged proteins are used extensively as biosensors for protein localization and function, but the GFP moiety can interfere with protein properties. An alternative is to indirectly label proteins using intracellular recombinant antibodies (scFvs), but most antibody fragments are insoluble in the reducing environment of the cytosol. From a synthetic hyperstable human scFv library we isolated an anti-tubulin scFv, 2G4, which is soluble in mammalian cells when expressed as a GFP-fusion protein. Here we report the use of this GFP-tagged scFv to label microtubules in fixed and living cells. We found that 2G4-GFP localized uniformly along microtubules and did not disrupt binding of EB1, a protein that binds microtubule ends and serves as a platform for binding by a complex of proteins regulating MT polymerization. TOGp and CLIP-170 also bound microtubule ends in cells expressing 2G4-GFP. Microtubule dynamic instability, measured by tracking 2G4-GFP labeled microtubules, was nearly identical to that measured in cells expressing GFP-α-tubulin. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching demonstrated that 2G4-GFP turns over rapidly on microtubules, similar to the turnover rates of fluorescently tagged microtubule-associated proteins. These data indicate that 2G4-GFP binds relatively weakly to microtubules, and this conclusion was confirmed in vitro. Purified 2G4 partially co-pelleted with microtubules, but a significant fraction remained in the soluble fraction, while a second anti-tubulin scFv, 2F12, was almost completely co-pelleted with microtubules. In cells, 2G4-GFP localized to most microtubules, but did not co-localize with those composed of detyrosinated α-tubulin, a post-translational modification associated with non-dynamic, more stable microtubules. Immunoblots probing bacterially expressed tubulins confirmed that 2G4 recognized α-tubulin and required tubulin’s C-terminal tyrosine residue for binding. Thus, a recombinant antibody with weak affinity for its substrate can be used as a specific intracellular biosensor that can differentiate between unmodified and post-translationally modified forms of a protein.
Isolation and Characterization of Renal Erythropoietin-Producing Cells from Genetically Produced Anemia Mice

Understanding the nature of renal erythropoietin-producing cells (REPs) remains a central challenge for elucidating the mechanisms involved in hypoxia and/or anemia-induced erythropoietin (Epo) production in adult mammals. Previous studies have shown that REPs are renal peritubular cells, but further details are lacking. Here, we describe an approach to isolate and characterize REPs. We bred mice bearing an Epo gene allele to which green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter cDNA was knocked-in (EpoGFP) with mice bearing an Epo gene allele lacking the 3′ enhancer (EpoΔ3′E). Mice harboring the mutant EpoGFP/Δ3′E gene exhibited anemia (average Hematocrit 18% at 4 to 6 days after birth), and this perinatal anemia enabled us to identify and purify REPs based on GFP expression from the kidney. Light and confocal microscopy revealed that GFP immunostaining was confined to fibroblastic cells that reside in the peritubular interstitial space, confirming our previous observation in Epo-GFP transgenic reporter assays. Flow cytometry analyses revealed that the GFP fraction constitutes approximately 0.2% of the whole kidney cells and 63% of GFP-positive cells co-express CD73 (a marker for cortical fibroblasts and Epo-expressing cells in the kidney). Quantitative RT-PCR analyses confirmed that Epo expression was increased by approximately 100-fold in the purified population of REPs compared with that of the unsorted cells or CD73-positive fraction. Gene expression analyses showed enrichment of Hif2α and Hif3α mRNA in the purified population of REPs. The genetic approach described here provides a means to isolate a pure population of REPs, allowing the analysis of gene expression of a defined population of cells essential for Epo production in the kidney. This has provided evidence that positive regulation by HIF2α and negative regulation by HIF3α might be necessary for correct renal Epo induction. (282 words)
Region Ranking SVM for Image Classification

The success of an image classification algorithm largely depends on how it incorporates local information in the global decision. Popular approaches such as average-pooling and max-pooling are suboptimal in many situations. In this paper we propose Region Ranking SVM (RRSVM), a novel method for pooling local information from multiple regions. RRSVM exploits the correlation of local regions in an image, and it jointly learns a region evaluation function and a scheme for integrating multiple regions. Experiments on PASCAL VOC 2007, VOC 2012, and ILSVRC2014 datasets show that RRSVM outperforms the methods that use the same feature type and extract features from the same set of local regions. RRSVM achieves similar to or better than the state-of-the-art performance on all datasets.
Computational model of interictal discharges triggered by interneurons

Interictal discharges (IIDs) are abnormal waveforms registered in the periods before or between seizures. IIDs that are initiated by GABAergic interneurons have not been mathematically modeled yet. In the present study, a mathematical model that describes the mechanisms of these discharges is proposed. The model is based on the experimental recordings of IIDs in pyramidal neurons of the rat entorhinal cortex and estimations of synaptic conductances during IIDs. IIDs were induced in cortico-hippocampal slices by applying an extracellular solution with 4-aminopyridine, high potassium, and low magnesium concentrations. Two different types of IIDs initiated by interneurons were observed. The first type of IID (IID1) was pure GABAergic. The second type of IID (IID2) was induced by GABAergic excitation and maintained by recurrent interactions of both GABA- and glutamatergic neuronal populations. The model employed the conductance-based refractory density (CBRD) approach, which accurately approximates the firing rate of a population of similar Hodgkin-Huxley-like neurons. The model of coupled excitatory and inhibitory populations includes AMPA, NMDA, and GABA-receptor-mediated synapses and gap junctions. These neurons receive both arbitrary deterministic input and individual colored Gaussian noise. Both types of IIDs were successfully reproduced in the model by setting two different depolarized levels for GABA-mediated current reversal potential. It was revealed that short-term synaptic depression is a crucial factor in ceasing each of the discharges, and it also determines their durations and frequencies.