Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of the TNF-alpha -308 G/A promoter polymorphism with insulin resistance in obesity.

OBJECTIVE Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is a candidate gene for the development of both obesity and insulin resistance. We investigated whether a common polymorphism in the promoter region (-308 G/A) of the TNF-alpha gene was associated with increased risk for the development of insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease in an obese Australian population. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES Obese, non-diabetic subjects (146 women and 34 men) were genotyped with polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques, and anthropometric and biochemical measurements were analyzed. A homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) score was used to gauge the level of insulin resistance. RESULTS The frequencies of the G allele and the A allele were 0.759 and 0.241, respectively. Subjects homozygous for the A allele had higher fasting insulin levels (226 vs. 131 pM; p < 0.001), higher HOMA scores (10.2 vs. 5.3; p < 0.001), higher systolic blood pressure (143 vs. 129 mm Hg; p = 0.02), and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (1.13 vs. 1.25 mM; p = 0.04) than did subjects homozygous for the G allele. Whereas an association between insulin resistance and body mass index or waist circumference was seen in all subjects, a highly significant negative correlation of HDL cholesterol to HOMA scores (r = -0.710; p < 0.001) occurred in subjects with the A allele only. DISCUSSION The -308 G/A TNF-alpha gene variant conveys an increased risk for the development of insulin resistance in obese subjects. The presence of low HDL cholesterol levels further increases the risks associated with insulin resistance in carriers of the A allele.
Statistical properties of paleomagnetic directions in Kerguelen lava flows: Implications for the late Oligocene paleomagnetic field

( 40 Ar/ 39 Ar) ages are reported to aid in the calibration of the paleomagnetic results. The primary contribution of this report, however, is a compilation of these new data with those already published in order to describe statistically the characteristics of the paleomagnetic field as recorded by the Kerguelen flood basalts. In total, 258 paleomagnetic directions sampled at 13 stratigraphic sections through the lava pile are available and span an approximately 5 Ma window: from 25 to 30 Ma. The composite section represents at least 11 polarity zones that are correlated to the reference geomagnetic polarity timescale. Our approach is to investigate the average normal and reversed polarity field directions over this 5 Ma window. We calculated a paleomagnetic pole found to be located at l = 85.5N, f = 189.3 E( A95 =2 .3, K = 16.5, N = 233). This pole is in close agreement with the coeval paleomagnetic poles obtained from different worldwide places when analyzed in the Indo-Atlantic hot spot reference frame. In the statistical analysis we tackle the specific question: Is the secular variation isotropic? This question is directly related to the occurrence of a longitudinal confinement of the virtual geomagnetic poles, which is still a matter of debate among paleomagnetists. By means of statistical tests we show that the paleomagnetic data from Kerguelen agree with an isotropic model for paleosecular
Anuran locomotion--structure and function, 2: jumping performance of semiaquatic, terrestrial, and arboreal frogs

Zug, George R. Anuran Locomotion—Structure and Function, 2: Jumping Performance of Semiaquatic, Terrestrial, and Arboreal Frogs. Smithsonian Contribution to Zoology, number 276, 31 pages, 9 figures, 15 tables, 1978. —Frogs evolved as jumping machines. The earliest recognized anuran fossil possessed a foreshortened body and elongated hindlimbs, primary adaptations for jumping. The majority of extant frogs retain jumping as their primary mode of locomotion. Eighty species of frogs were tested to determine their absolute and relative (jumping distance divided by snout-vent length) jumping abilities. The species include representatives from the Ascaphidae, Bufonidae, Dendrobatidae, Pelodryadidae, Discoglossidae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae, Microhylidae, Myobatrachidae, Pelobatidae, and Ranidae. Jumping performance is examined relative to taxonomic and habitat group, fatigue, body size, and sex. The ranking of jumping ability (distance jumped divided by body length) among the sampled species from weakest to strongest is Bufonidae, Pelobatidae, Discoglossidae, Microhylidae, Ranidae, Leptodactylidae, Dendrobatidae, Ascaphidae, Myobatrachidae, Hylidae, and Pelodryadidae for the families of frogs and semifossorial terrestrial, treetop arboreal, semiaquatic-terrestrial, terrestrial, scrub arboreal, and grass arboreal for the habitat groupings. Weak jumping species show little evidence of fatigue, whereas strong jumpers show a progressive decline in performance. Males tend to jump farther than equivalent-sized females, although the opposite or neutral situation occurs in a few species. Both interand intraspecifically, large frogs jump farther than small ones; however, a comparison of relative ability shows small frogs to be the strongest jumpers. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is hands tamped in a limited number of initial copies and is recorded in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. SERIES COVER DESIGN: The coral Montastrea cavernosa (Linnaeus). Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Zug, George R. 1938Anuran locomotion—structure and function. (Smithsonian contributions to zoology ; no. 276) Part 1 was published in Copeia, v. 4, 1972. Bibliography: p. 1. Anura 2. Animal locomotion. 3. Animal jumping. I. Title. II. Series: Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian contributions to zoology ; no. 276. QL1.S54 no. 276 [QL668.E2] 591'. 08s [597'. 8] 78-5157
Religious Identity Choices in English Secondary Schools.

This paper explores religious adolescents' reported experiences of secondary schools. Fifty-four qualitative interviews were conducted in places of worship in three cities in England with Christians (n=46), Jews (n=38) and Muslims (n=15). Secondary schools of a religious and non-religious character were reported as not providing a suitable environment for religious observances, nor as a place to act and behave according to participants' religious principles. Religious adolescents reported prejudice and criticism of their beliefs or religious affiliations from their peers and sometimes from teachers. They also perceived their religious traditions to be distorted, inaccurately or unfairly represented in some lessons. The focus of this paper is the identity choices religious adolescents reported in response to these challenges. Three groups of identity choices are theorised and explored: religious identity seeking, religious identity declaration and religious identity masking. The findings are discussed in view of religious identity construction theory, good practice for teachers and also the potential concerns of faith communities.
EEG synchronization to modulated auditory tones in schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE The authors tested whether neural synchronization deficits were present in subjects with schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder. METHOD Amplitude-modulated tones were used to evaluate auditory steady-state evoked potential entrainment in a combined group of 21 subjects with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, 11 subjects with schizotypal personality disorder, and 22 nonpsychiatric comparison subjects. RESULTS The schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder group exhibited decreased power compared to the schizotypal personality disorder and nonpsychiatric comparison groups. There were no differences between groups in N100 amplitude. CONCLUSIONS Subjects with schizophrenia but not subjects with schizotypal personality disorder have deficits in steady-state responses to periodic stimuli, despite an intact response to sensory-evoked potentials (N100). These deficits reflect aberrant neural synchronization or resolution and may contribute to disturbed perceptual and cognitive integration in schizophrenia.
DegExt – A Language-Independent Keyphrase Extractor

In this paper, we introduce DegExt, a graph-based language-independent keyphrase extractor,which extends the keyword extraction method described in (Litvak & Last, 2008). We compare DegExt with two state-of-the-art approaches to keyphrase extraction: GenEx (Turney, 2000) and TextRank (Mihalcea & Tarau, 2004). We evaluated DegExt on collections of benchmark summaries in two diﬀerent languages: English and Hebrew. Our experiments on the English corpus show that DegExt signiﬁcantly outperforms TextRank and GenEx in terms of precision and area under curve (AUC) for summaries of 15 keyphrases or more at the expense of a mostly non-signiﬁcant decrease in recall and F-measure, when the extracted phrases are matched against gold standard collection. Due to DegExt’s tendency to extract bigger phrases than GenEx and TextRank, when the single extracted words are considered, DegExt outperforms them both in terms of recall and F-measure. In the Hebrew corpus, DegExt performs the same as TextRank disregarding the number of keyphrases. An additional experiment shows that DegExt applied to the TextRank representation graphs outperforms the other systems in the text classiﬁcation task. For documents in both languages, DegExt surpasses both GenEx and TextRank in terms of implementation simplicity and computational complexity.
Clinical characteristics of childhood Lyme neuroborreliosis in an endemic area of northern Europe

Neuroborreliosis may be caused by different species of Borrelia burgdorferi (BB) and the clinical presentation of neuroborreliosis in children may differ between geographical areas due to occurrence of different BB genospecies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical characteristics in children with neuroborreliosis in an endemic area of Scandinavia. During 1996–2006, children with suspected neuroborreliosis referred to Stavanger University Hospital were investigated by a standard procedure including a lumbar puncture. A total of 143 children were diagnosed with neuroborreliosis, and all cases were diagnosed from April to December. The most common clinical presentations were symptoms of mild meningitis (75%) and/or facial nerve palsy (69%). Radicular pain was present in only 10 children. In all but 5 children, laboratory signs of meningitis were present. Erythema migrans preceded the neurological symptoms in only 27% of the children. In conclusion, we have found that in an endemic area of northern Europe, meningitis is present in the majority of children with neuroborreliosis, and that symptoms of a mild meningitis or facial nerve palsy are the most common presentations.
La circulation des biens, de la main-d'œuvre et des prénoms à Karpathos : du bon usage des parents et de la parenté

Die Zirkulation von Gutern, Arbeitskraften und Vornamen auf Karpathos : vom richtigen Gebrauch der Eltern und der Verwandtschaft. In der bauerlichen Gesellschaft der griechischen Insel Karpathos war mit den spezifischen Produktionsverhaltnissen der Gegensatz gesetzt zwischen den uber die Produktionsmittel verfugenden Erstgeborenen und den jungsten Schwestern, die zum Zolibat verurteilt, als Magde und Feldarbeiterinnen in den Dienst ihrer yerheirateten altesten Geschwister treten musten. Okonomische, ideologische und affektive Herrschaftsbeziehungen liesen dieses elementare Ausbeutungssystem harmonisch funktionieren. Hatten die Nachfolge- und Erziehungs-strategien der mannlichen und weiblichen Linien das Ziel, auf jeder Generationsstufe ihre Stellung innerhalb der Sozialstruktur zu reproduzieren, so entsprachen ihre Strategien der Zuweisung von Vornamen, deren primare Funktion die Legitimation der Exklusivrechte der Erstgeborenen war, haufig doch auch Strategien der Erbschleichung. Zwar gehorchte die Wahl eines Vornamens in allen Fallen der Interessenlogik ; die Sorge aber um den Ausgleich in der. Erfullung der okonomischen und symbolischen Interessen fuhrte doch dazu, Strategien anzuwenden, die die okonomischen Interessen verschleierten. Nicht zuletzt konnten die Strategien der Namensgebung auch die Funktion haben, die jungeren Geschwister dazu zu bringen, gegeniiber den altesten Schwestern in Ergebenheit zu rivalisieren. Das Verwandschaftsnetz, uber das jeder verfugte, hing nach Umfang, Struktur und okonomischen wie sozialem Nutzen sowohl von der Herkunft seines Vornamens als auch den eines jeden Mitglieds seiner offiziellen Verwandtschaft ab. Das Netz war weiterhin in seinen Merkmalen bedingt durch die soziale Kategorie der Zugehorigkeit, die Emigrationspraktiken wie den Brauch, wonach die unverheirateten jungeren Schwestern fur ihre alteste Schwester zu arbeiten hatten. Zwarwarendie Verwandtschaftsverhaltnisse nicht durch die Herkunft der Vornemen pradeterminiert, doch konnte uber die Strategien der Namensgebung die Verwandtschaft manipuliert, d.h. es konnte beschlossen werden, die nutzlichsten Verwandtschaftsbmdungen zu starken. Die Patenbeziehungen zwischen Bauern und Schafern boten Anlas zu dauerhaftem Austausch von Geschenken und Gegengeschenken, mit denen ein nicht unerheblicher Teil des fur die beiden Gruppen notwendigen okonomischen Tauschge-schafts abgedeckt wurde. Dieser Typ von Guterzirkulation trug bei zum Schutz der gesellschaftlichen Hierarchie gegenuber externen Storfaktoren und behinderte zudem das Aufkommen eines Bewustseins uber das Okonomische als solches. Global gesprochen, diese Gesellschaft verwendete auf systematische Weise die ordinaren (Produktionssphare) und die geistigen Verwandtschaftsbindungen (Zirkulationssphare) zur Aufrechterhaltung der Gesellschaftsordnung. Darin schuf sie zugleich die gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen ihres Uberlebens.
The dimensionality of attitude scales : a widely misunderstood idea

Summated rating scales to measure attitudes (and other human characteristics) commonly consist of numerous items whose scores are summed to yield a total score. A central assumption underlying the use of this technique is that the items in the scale reflect a common construct. If this assumption is not met, the scoring procedure produces largely meaningless, uninterpretable data. Although this important psychometric principle has been known for a long time, numerous studies in the research literature demonstrate a neglect of this principle. Some studies make no attempt at all to conceptualise the construct to be measured; others conceptualise the construct but then ignore the possibility that it may be multi‐dimensional; still others actually contain evidence which indicates that the construct is multi‐dimensional and then proceed to ignore that evidence. A possible contributor to the confusion is the widespread misunderstanding about the related yet distinct concepts of internal consistency and uni‐dimen.
Montmorillonite-Alginate Composites as a Drug delivery System: Intercalation and In vitro Release of Diclofenac sodium

Diclofenac sodium and alginate was intercalated into montmorillonite to form uniform sized beads by gelation method. The structure and surface morphology of the synthesized composite beads were characterized by powdered X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermo gravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopy. Diclofenac release kinetics of the composite in simulated intestinal fluid medium (pH 7.4) and effect of montmorillonite content on the in vitro release of diclofenac from diclofenac-montmorillonite-alginate composites bead was investigated by UV/Vis spectrophotometer. Diclofenac encapsulation efficiency in the montmorillonite-alginate composites bead increases with an increase in the montmorillonite content. The control release of diclofenac from diclofenac-montmorillonite-alginate composites beads was observed to be better as compared to diclofenac-alginate beads.
Partial hepatectomy induces mobilization of a unique population of haematopoietic progenitor cells in human healthy liver donors.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Recent studies indicate that after transplantation, circulating bone marrow-derived stem cells migrate into the liver and contribute to liver regeneration. Whether such cells are actively recruited from the bone marrow for liver repair remains to be determined. In this regard, we investigated whether liver resection leads to a release of stem cell marker-positive (+) cells into the peripheral circulation. METHODS Peripheral blood samples from 11 living liver donors were analyzed by flow cytometry one day before and 12h after partial hepatectomy (PH) using antibodies against CD133, CD34, CD45, CD14, c-kit, bcrp-1. Immunomagnetic separation was performed to select CD133+ cells for functional assays in vitro. RESULTS A significant increase in the percentage of CD133+ cells could be demonstrated in all donors studied. Unexpectedly, virtually all CD133+ cells coexpressed CD45 and CD14, whereas only a small subset expressed CD34. No significant staining was observed for c-kit and bcrp-1. In culture, immunoselected CD133+ cells displayed characteristics of myelomonocytic precursors. In addition, enriched CD133+ generated an adherent cell population that expressed CK8, alpha-fetoprotein, and human albumin. CONCLUSIONS PH induces mobilization of a distinct population of myelomonocytic progenitor cells, which have hepatic differentiation potential in vitro, and might play a role in liver regeneration after PH in humans.
Changes in pain and concurrent pain medication use following compounded topical analgesic treatment for chronic pain: 3- and 6-month follow-up results from the prospective, observational Optimizing Patient Experience and Response to Topical Analgesics study

Background Opioids and other controlled substances prescribed for chronic pain are associated with abuse, addiction, and death, prompting national initiatives to identify safe and effective pain management strategies including topical analgesics. Methods This prospective, observational study evaluated changes from baseline in overall mean severity and interference scores on the Brief Pain Inventory scale and the use of concurrent pain medications at 3- and 6-month follow-up assessments in chronic pain patients treated with topical analgesics. Changes in pain severity and interference and medication usage were compared between treated patients and unmatched and matched controls. Results The unmatched intervention group (unmatched-IG) included 631 patients who completed baseline and 3-month follow-up surveys (3-month unmatched-IG) and 158 who completed baseline and 6-month follow-up assessments (6-month unmatched-IG). Baseline and 3-month follow-up data were provided by 76 unmatched controls and 76 matched controls (3-month unmatched-CG and matched-CG), and 51 unmatched and 36 matched patients completed baseline and 6-month follow-up surveys (6-month unmatched-CG and matched-CG). Baseline demographic characteristics and mean pain severity and interference scores were similar between groups. There were statistically significant decreases from baseline in mean pain severity and interference scores within the 3- and 6-month unmatched-IG (all P<0.001). Significantly greater decreases in the mean change from baseline in pain severity and interference scores were evident for the 3- and 6-month unmatched-IG versus unmatched-CG (all P<0.001), with similar results when the 3- and 6-month matched-IG and matched-CG were compared. A higher percentage of the 3- and 6-month unmatched-IG and matched-IG de-escalated use of concurrent pain medications (all P<0.001), while significantly higher percentages of the unmatched-CG and matched-CG escalated medication use. Side effects were reported by <1% of the unmatched-IG. Conclusion Topical analgesics appear to be effective and safe for the treatment of chronic pain, with randomized controlled trials needed to confirm these findings.
Differential Stimulant Response on Attention in Children With Comorbid Anxiety and Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects 3% to 7% of school-age children. Approximately 30% of the children with ADHD also have comorbid anxiety or oppositional defiant disorder. Methylphenidate is the drug of choice for the medical treatment of such cases. When compared with children with ADHD alone, children with comorbid anxiety or oppositional defiant disorder may show worsening of the global attention score in response to methylphenidate and not only a “reduced response,” as reported in previous studies. This study included 1122 children diagnosed as ADHD, of which 174 were diagnosed with comorbid anxiety and 141 with comorbid oppositional defiant disorder. All patients performed the Test of Variables of Attention before and after methylphenidate administration. A normal distribution (Gaussian distribution) of reaction to methylphenidate, as measured by the global ADHD score in children diagnosed as pure ADHD, was found. These findings were in contrast to children with ADHD and comorbid anxiety or oppositional defiant disorder who showed a bimodal distribution and hence represent a distinct population. In both groups with comorbid disorders, there was a larger subgroup in which significant worsening of global ADHD score occurred after methylphenidate administration (P < .05). Children with ADHD and comorbid anxiety or oppositional defiant disorder might represent clinically distinct populations in which inattention is secondary to those disorders; therefore, methylphenidate may be an inappropriate treatment for such children.
Factors shaping the introduction of process writing in Hong Kong secondary schools

Abstract This paper describes the initial stage of a research project designed to evaluate the adoption of process writing by a group of eight secondary English teachers in Hong Kong. The discussion of the project and the profile of its participants is set in Rogers’ (1983) framework for describing the process of adoption of innovations, including the nature of the innovation and how it is perceived by potential adopters, the communications channels for disseminating it, the time needed for adoption, and the social system in which the adoption takes place. A range of adoption attitudes are identified among the participants, based on the compatible and incompatible factors they perceive in relation to the innovation and the conditions they believe would need to change to ensure a smooth adoption process. The teachers’ profile suggests that they can be assisted in actualising the necessary conditions for implementing the process approach by provision of suitable materials and various types of support, inclu.