Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Crosswise Model to Assess Sensitive Issues: A Study on Prevalence of Drug Abuse Among University Students of Iran

Background: Precise assessment of the prevalence of illicit drug use, face various methodological challenges. Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of illicit drug use among students studying at Universities in Shahroud (Northeast of Iran) through crosswise method. Patients and Methods: Participants of this cross-sectional study were 1646 students at Universities in Shahroud. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire designed based on crosswise model (CM). Results: The results of the study showed that 19% of students used at least one kind of illicit drug and 14.9% used opium residue once in their life. Moreover, 3.5% of students used drug and 3% used opium residue during the last month; 40.3% of the students admitted that they fully understood the instruction of the questionnaire; 9.6% said that did not comprehend the instruction at all, and 38.1% believed they partly understood the instruction. The result showed that 33.7% of the students fully trusted, 39.8% partly trusted, and 18.4% poorly trusted this method. There was a significant relationship between comprehension level and trust in CM (P < 0.001). Conclusions: This method can be appropriate to estimate sensitive issues; however, lack of understanding the method or doubting the confidentiality of the responses can lead to bias in the results. That is to say, if the instructions are introduced better, the level of trusting the method will increase and accordingly more reliable responses can be obtained. More studies under controlled conditions are required to interpret the findings of the current study better.
Political Risk, Institutions and Foreign Direct Investment

The paper explores the linkages between political risk, institutions and foreign direct investment inflows. Using different econometric techniques for a data sample of 83 developing countries and the period 1984 to 2003, we identify those indicators that matter most for the activities of multinational corporations. Overall, 12 different indicators for political risk and institutions are employed in the empirical analysis. The results show that government stability, the absence of internal conflict and ethnic tensions, basic democratic rights and ensuring law and order are highly significant determinants of foreign investment inflows.
Blood-Informative Transcripts Define Nine Common Axes of Peripheral Blood Gene Expression

We describe a novel approach to capturing the covariance structure of peripheral blood gene expression that relies on the identification of highly conserved Axes of variation. Starting with a comparison of microarray transcriptome profiles for a new dataset of 189 healthy adult participants in the Emory-Georgia Tech Center for Health Discovery and Well-Being (CHDWB) cohort, with a previously published study of 208 adult Moroccans, we identify nine Axes each with between 99 and 1,028 strongly co-regulated transcripts in common. Each axis is enriched for gene ontology categories related to sub-classes of blood and immune function, including T-cell and B-cell physiology and innate, adaptive, and anti-viral responses. Conservation of the Axes is demonstrated in each of five additional population-based gene expression profiling studies, one of which is robustly associated with Body Mass Index in the CHDWB as well as Finnish and Australian cohorts. Furthermore, ten tightly co-regulated genes can be used to define each Axis as “Blood Informative Transcripts” (BITs), generating scores that define an individual with respect to the represented immune activity and blood physiology. We show that environmental factors, including lifestyle differences in Morocco and infection leading to active or latent tuberculosis, significantly impact specific axes, but that there is also significant heritability for the Axis scores. In the context of personalized medicine, reanalysis of the longitudinal profile of one individual during and after infection with two respiratory viruses demonstrates that specific axes also characterize clinical incidents. This mode of analysis suggests the view that, rather than unique subsets of genes marking each class of disease, differential expression reflects movement along the major normal Axes in response to environmental and genetic stimuli.
Intravenous Insulin Treatment in Acute Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Introduction Poststroke hyperglycemia has been associated with unfavorable outcome. Several trials investigated the use of intravenous insulin to control hyperglycemia in acute stroke. This meta-analysis summarizes all available evidence from randomized controlled trials in order to assess its efficacy and safety. Methods We searched PubMed until 15/02/2013 for randomized clinical trials using the following search items: ‘intravenous insulin’ or ‘hyperglycemia’, and ‘stroke’. Eligible studies had to be randomized controlled trials of intravenous insulin in hyperglycemic patients with acute stroke. Analysis was performed on intention-to-treat basis using the Peto fixed-effects method. The efficacy outcomes were mortality and favorable functional outcome. The safety outcomes were mortality, any hypoglycemia (symptomatic or asymptomatic), and symptomatic hypoglycemia. Results Among 462 potentially eligible articles, nine studies with 1491 patients were included in the meta-analysis. There was no statistically significant difference in mortality between patients who were treated with intravenous insulin and controls (odds ratio: 1·16, 95% confidence interval: 0·89–1·49). Similarly, the rate of favorable functional outcome was not statistically different (odds ratio: 1·01, 95% confidence interval: 0·81–1·26). The rates of any hypoglycemia (odds ratio: 8·19, 95% confidence interval: 5·60–11·98) and of symptomatic hypoglycemia (odds ratio: 6·15, 95% confidence interval: 1·88–20·15) were higher in patients treated with intravenous insulin. There was no heterogeneity across the included trials in any of the outcomes studied. Conclusions This meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials does not support the use of intravenous insulin in hyperglycemic stroke patients to improve mortality or functional outcome. The risk of hypoglycemia is increased, however.
Meditation-related activations are modulated by the practices needed to obtain it and by the expertise: an ALE meta-analysis study

The brain network governing meditation has been studied using a variety of meditation practices and techniques practices eliciting different cognitive processes (e.g., silence, attention to own body, sense of joy, mantras, etc.). It is very possible that different practices of meditation are subserved by largely, if not entirely, disparate brain networks. This assumption was tested by conducting an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of meditation neuroimaging studies, which assessed 150 activation foci from 24 experiments. Different ALE meta-analyses were carried out. One involved the subsets of studies involving meditation induced through exercising focused attention (FA). The network included clusters bilaterally in the medial gyrus, the left superior parietal lobe, the left insula and the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG). A second analysis addressed the studies involving meditation states induced by chanting or by repetition of words or phrases, known as “mantra. ” This type of practice elicited a cluster of activity in the right SMG, the SMA bilaterally and the left postcentral gyrus. Furthermore, the last analyses addressed the effect of meditation experience (i.e., short- vs. long-term meditators). We found that frontal activation was present for short-term, as compared with long-term experience meditators, confirming that experts are better enabled to sustain attentional focus, rather recruiting the right SMG and concentrating on aspects involving disembodiment.
A systematic review of medical therapy to facilitate passage of ureteral calculi.

STUDY OBJECTIVE Acute renal colic is a common presenting complaint to the emergency department. Recently, medical expulsive therapy using alpha-antagonists or calcium channel blockers has been shown to augment stone passage rates of moderately sized, distal, ureteral stones. Herein is a systematic evaluation of the use of medical expulsive therapy to facilitate ureteral stone expulsion. METHODS We searched the databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register. Additional sources included key urologic journals and bibliographies of selected articles. We included studies that incorporated a randomized or controlled clinical trial design, patients older than 18 years, treatment in which an alpha-antagonist or calcium channel blocker was compared to a standard therapy group, and studies that reported stone expulsion rates. A random effects model was used to obtain summary risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for stone expulsion rate. RESULTS A pooled analysis of 16 studies using an alpha-antagonist and 9 studies using a calcium channel blocker suggested that the addition of these agents compared to standard therapy significantly improved spontaneous stone expulsion (alpha-antagonist RR 1.59; 95% CI 1.44 to 1.75; number needed to treat 3.3 [95% CI 2.1 to 4.5]; calcium channel blocker RR 1.50; 95% CI 1.34 to 1.68; number needed to treat 3.9 [95% CI 3.2 to 4.6]) in patients with distal ureteral stones. Subgroup analysis of trials using concomitant medications (ie, low-dose steroids, antibiotics, and elimination of trials using an anticholinergic agent) yielded a similar improvement in stone expulsion rate. Adverse effects were noted in 4% of patients receiving alpha-antagonist and in 15.2% of patients receiving calcium channel blockers. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that "medical expulsive therapy," using either alpha-antagonists or calcium channel blockers, augments the stone expulsion rate compared to standard therapy for moderately sized distal ureteral stones.
Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) display a bimodal duration distribution with a separation between the short- and long-duration bursts at about 2 s. The progenitors of long GRBs have been identified as massive stars based on their association with Type Ic core-collapse supernovae (SNe), their exclusive location in star-forming galaxies, and their strong correlation with bright UV regions within their host galaxies. Short GRBs have long been suspected on theoretical grounds to arise from compact object binary mergers (neutron star–neutron star or neutron star–black hole). The discovery of short GRB afterglows in 2005 provided the first insight into their energy scale and environments, as well as established a cosmological origin, a mix of host-galaxy types, and an absence of associated SNe. In this review, I summarize nearly a decade of short GRB afterglow and host-galaxy observations and use this information to shed light on the nature and properties of their progenitors, the energy scale and collimation of the re.
Gay, Queer, and Cyborg: The performance of identity in a transglobal age

In the fall of 1995, a new  oat appeared in the homecoming parade at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio—the university at which I now teach. Wedged in-between  oats from Greek fraternities and sororities and from several other students groups on campus was a  oat representing the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Alliance. In bold letters on the side of the  oat was written, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, and we have a  oat. ’ The  oat suggested, with ironic humour, that being part of a campus community of diversity meant having the right to participate in one of the great rituals of college life, and one closely associated with the celebration and performance of heterosexual identity. In the language of queer theory, the  oat was a performance of sexual identity that was also a parody—meant to call attention to the fact that homecoming had always excluded gayness, or queerness, in the past, that homecoming was a great ritual of heteronormativity, second only to the high school senior prom in this regard. By placing the gay Other within the very belly of the beast, so to speak, the  oat served to make people re ect on how much homecoming had been associated with a Jock and Jockette culture that ostensibly excludes all homosexuality, and how gay students were refusing to be excluded even from this jock culture. The queer  oat was a performative statement that there are no more safe havens for straightness. At the same time, it implied, or could be taken to imply, that ‘queer’ folk are just like ‘normal’ folk, and that as a consequence they are not a threat, have no revolutionary or radical agenda other than wanting to be a part of the mainstream, to party and have fun in ways that the normalizing student culture on campus validated. Perhaps this helps explain why the  oat created hardly a stir on campus and has now become part of homecoming tradition. Within the upper middle class, largely white cultural setting in which queerness or gayness was made visible, discrimination or intolerance toward gays was no longer condoned. A growing number of straight students even acknowledged having gay friends in articles written about the homecoming  oat in the school newspaper. Being gay, it seemed, was no big deal. Unfortunately, as queerness has become more open and ‘out’ in campus life, homophobia has had a more visible target to attack. And it soon became clear that gay men and lesbians in Oxford were not immune from attack. Just two short years after a queer  oat  rst appeared in the homecoming parade, two male students walking home
Evaluating Research on Motivation: Generating More Heat Than Light?

This paper evaluates the usefulness for teachers of research in motivation. It outlines developments in motivational theory and highlights a widespread misconception of motivation as a unitary concept. Critical issues such as the developmental roots of motivation, the age at which motivation becomes important, the impact of curriculum and pedagogic processes upon motivation and the role of schools and teachers in developing effective and continued motivation to learn in their pupils are examined. On a conceptual level, motivation seems to be generating more heat than light. This paper calls for approaches to the study of motivation which tap the phenomenology of the construct.
Prefrontal Serotonin Depletion Affects Reversal Learning But Not Attentional Set Shifting

Recently, we have shown that serotonin (5-HT) depletion from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the marmoset monkey impairs performance on a serial discrimination reversal (SDR) task, resulting in perseverative responding to the previously correct stimulus (Clarke et al., 2004). This pattern of impairment is just one example of inflexible responding seen after damage to the PFC, with performance on the SDR task being dependent on the integrity of the orbitofrontal cortex. However, the contribution of 5-HT to other forms of flexible responding, such as attentional set shifting, an ability dependent on lateral PFC (Dias et al., 1996a), is unknown. The present study addresses this issue by examining the effects of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine-induced PFC 5-HT depletions on the ability to shift attention between two perceptual dimensions of a compound visual stimulus (extradimensional shift). Monkeys with selective PFC 5-HT lesions, despite being impaired in their ability to reverse a stimulus-reward association, were unimpaired in their ability to make an extradimensional shift when compared with sham-operated controls. These findings suggest that 5-HT is critical for flexible responding at the level of changing stimulus-reward contingencies but is not essential for the higher-order shifting of attentional set. Thus, psychological functions dependent on different loci within the PFC are differentially sensitive to serotonergic modulation, a finding of relevance to our understanding of cognitive inflexibility apparent in disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.
Racial Preferences in Young Children.

Past studies (Landreth & Johnson 1953; Stevenson & Stewart 1958) have shown that young children between the ages of 3 and 5 are already beginning to form preferences (and possibly prejudices) for racial features, particularly concerning skin color. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether children at ages 3, 4, and 5 also show any preference for other features, such as eye color, hair color, and hair type. The subjects were 30 children attending a racially mixed preschool. There were 10 5-year-olds, 10 4-year-olds, and 10 3-year-olds. At each age level, half of the subjects were Negro and half were white. The test materials consisted of 64 drawings of children's faces. Four facial features were systematically varied: eye color (blue and brown), hair color (brown and black), hair type (straight and curly), and skin color (white and dark brown). The 64 faces were shown in pairs to the children. Within each pair, the characteristics of only one feature differed (e.g., one picture had blue eyes and the other had brown eyes). Thus, for each feature, eight different pairs were possible. All 30 children were tested individually. The child was instructed to point to the picture of the child that he would rather play with. Scores were obtained representing the percentage of the typically Negro characteristic (eye color = brown; hair color = black; hair type = curly; skin color = dark brown) that the subject chose out of eight test pairs for a given feature (see table 1).
Stigmatization of Transitions in Loneliness

A total of 204 college students judged hypothetical peers that represented two types of Current Loneliness (Lonely vs Non-lonely) x two types of Transition in Loneliness (No-transition vs Transition). In the transition condition, the peers were shown as changing over the course of leaving home and attending college, from being lonely to non-lonely or from being non-lonely to lonely. Results showed that the students ascribed psychosocial functioning to the peers in the following order, from lowest to highest: no-transition lonely, transition lonely, transition non-lonely and no-transition nonlonely. Also, students reported less acceptance of the lonely than non-lonely peers and of the transition than no-transition peers, primarily for the non-lonely peer. Consistent with Weiner et al.'s (1988) causal analysis of stigmas, the more the college students believed that the loneliness and behavior of the transition lonely peer were not controllable by him or her, the more the students accepted the peer. Suggestions for future research included the investigation of the stigmatization of various transitions to loneliness, such as divorce or death of a spouse.
School work environment and its impact on the professional competence of newly qualified teachers

Abstract The nature of the relationship between the work environment and people working in it has become a significant issue for educational research. This paper is based upon the outcomes of investigations made in a number of secondary schools in England and Wales in which a Work Environment Scale and follow-up interviews were used. It contains a snapshot of the British way of portraying the secondary school work environment, provides a perspective of its impact on the professional competence of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) and offers a comparison of NQTs' and more experienced teachers' perceptions about the work environments of their workplaces. The interaction between NQTs and their work environments is considered in order to give ideas about what is happening in these schools when NQTs start their professional careers and how their professional competence might be promoted. An outline of the Work Environment Scale is presented with a special emphasis on its application in educational settings and i.
Pharmacological and Molecular Characterization of the Mechanisms Involved in Prostaglandin E2-Induced Mouse Paw Edema

The present study evaluated some of the mechanisms underlying prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)-induced paw edema formation in mice. Intraplantar (i.pl.) injection of PGE2 (0.10-10.0 nmol/paw) into the hindpaw elicited a dose-related edema formation, with a mean ED50 value of 0.42 nmol/paw. The coinjection of selective E-prostanoid (EP)3 [(2E)-N-[(5-bromo-2-methoxyphenyl)-sulfonyl]-3-[5-chloro-2-(2-naphthylmethyl)phenyl]acrylamide; L826266), but not EP2 or EP4 (all 10 nmol/paw), receptor antagonists significantly inhibited PGE2-induced paw edema. Like L826266, the PGE2-induced paw edema was markedly reduced by treatment with pertussis toxin and phospholipase C (PLC) inhibitor 1-[6-[[17β-methoxyestra-1,3,5(10)-trien-17-yl]amino]hexyl]-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione (U-73122). Likewise, the selective neurokinin (NK)1 receptor antagonist N-[(4R)-4-hydroxy-1-(1-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)carbonyl-l-prolyl]-N-methyl-N-phenyl-methyl-3-(2-aphthyl)-l-alaninamide (FK888) and the antagonist of vanilloid receptor (TRPV1) receptors 4′-chloro-3-methoxycinnamanilide (SB366791) (both 1 nmol/paw) also significantly inhibited PGE2-mediated paw edema. Conversely, the selective NK2, NK3, and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) CGRP8-37 receptor antagonists all failed to interfere with PGE2-induced paw edema. The neonatal treatment of mice with capsaicin was also able to reduce PGE2-induced paw edema. The inhibitors of protein kinase C (PKC) 3-[1-[3-(dimethylaminopropyl]-1H-indol-3-yl]-4-(1H-indol-3-yl)-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione monohydrochloride (GF109203X) and mitogen protein-activated kinases (MAPKs; 30 nmol/paw) c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) (anthra[1,9-cd]pyrazol-6(2H)-one; SP600125), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (PD98059), and p38 [4-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-methylsulfinylphenyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)1H-imidazole; SB203580], but not protein kinase A, markedly decreased the PGE2-mediated edema formation. The i.pl. injection of PGE2 (3 nmol/paw) induced a significant activation of MAPKs, namely, JNK and p38, an effect that was largely prevented by the selective EP3 receptor antagonist L826266 (10 nmol/paw). Collectively, these findings indicate that edematogenic responses elicited by PGE2 are mediated by EP3 receptor activation, also involving the stimulation of PLC, PKC, and MAPKs pathways and the participation of TRPV1 and NK1 receptors. These results make a considerable contribution to our comprehension of the mechanisms involved in PGE2-mediated inflammatory responses in mice.