Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing an educational intervention to improve physician violence screening skills.

OBJECTIVES Health professionals play an integral role in assessing the risk of violence in their patients. However, there have been few evaluations of violence prevention education programs for health care personnel. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a violence-screening education program on pediatric residents' and medical students' comfort level and skills in the identification and management of violence risks. SETTING Adolescent clinic of a tertiary care pediatric hospital. PARTICIPANTS Fifty-six second-year residents and third-year medical students assigned to a 4-week adolescent clinic rotation. DESIGN Randomized, controlled comparison study conducted over a 1-year period. INTERVENTION On alternate months, medical students and residents in the intervention group participated in a 3-hour workshop on violence prevention. The workshop included a didactic session with an overview of firearm, media, and sexual violence; a discussion of risk factors for adolescent violence; and training on the approach to the adolescent interview. Participants also discussed violence risks in the community with a panel of teen health educators, engaged in one-on-one role play with the youth educators, and received feedback on their violence screening skills. The control group received the standard ambulatory clinic manual with articles on violence prevention. EVALUATION METHODS All participants completed prerotation and postrotation questionnaires assessing their self-reported screening practices, as well as perceived importance and confidence in violence screening. Participants also interviewed and examined an adolescent standardized patient (SP) in the clinic. SPs completed evaluations on the content of the residents' and students' screening, their interpersonal skills, and their skill in the identification and management of the violence-related problem. RESULTS Over 12 months, 30 control and 26 intervention participants were recruited. There were no differences in prerotation questionnaire scores for intervention and control groups in screening practices, perceived importance and confidence in violence screening. Postrotation intervention participants reported more screening compared with controls on violence in school/neighborhood and fighting history. There was also greater perceived importance in asking about access/use of weapons and violence in school/neighborhood. Intervention participants also had improved performance compared with controls on SP evaluations of screening for violence, identification and management of the violence-related scenario, and interpersonal skills. CONCLUSION A violence prevention education program with teen health educators improved participants' self-reported violence questioning, as well as increased perceived comfort and importance in violence screening. Participants in the program also improved their identification and management of a standardized violence-related scenario presented in an adolescent clinic setting. adolescent violence, physician education, violence risk screening.
Memory-Aware Management for Multi-Level Main Memory Complex using an Optimization of the Aging Paging Algorithm

Memory and storage are often assumed to be unsophisticated, flat resources, with simple properties, such as a constant access time. Over the years this assumption has been proven to be wrong, and understanding of the memory hierarchy could be useful in order to enhance the performance of an algorithm or a data structure [1]. For example, the Storage Class Memory (SCM) is a new technology which represents a new hybrid form of storage and memory with uniqe characteristics, meaning a memory which is non-volatile, cheap in per bit cost, has fast access times for both read and writes using cache line access, and is solid state. Also, the SCM is supposed to have different versions with different access speeds and volumes, meaning that it might be possible to add different SCM devices to the memory hierarchy as an extension of the RAM, and manage this enlarged main memory complex using special algorithms [2]. A combination between the SCM technology and a designated Memory Allocation Manager (MAM) that will allow the developer to manually control the different memories will be likely to achieve a new level of performance for memory-aware data structures. However, although the manual MAM seems to be the optimal approach for multilevel main memory complex management, this technique is still very far from being realistic because of several reasons, and the chances that it would be implemented in current codes using High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms is quite low. This premise means that the most reasonable way to introduce the SCM into any usable memory system would be by implementing an automated version of the MAM using the fundamentals of the paging algorithms, as used for a standard memory hierarchy. Our hypothesis is that achieving appropriate transferability between these new main memory complex levels may be possible using ideas of algorithms employed in current virtual memory systems, and that the memory-aware adaptation of those algorithms to a multi-level main memory complex is possible. We investigated various paging algorithms, and found the ones that could be adapted successfully from a standard memory hierarchy to a hierarchy with multi-level main memory complex. We discovered that using a memory-aware adaptation of the Aging paging algorithm results in the best performances in terms of Hit / Miss ratio and access speed. Specifically, we show that this modification can improve the access speed of the main memory complex by about 75%, and that the new algorithm manages to achieve the same or better Hit / Miss ratio in almost all cases in comparison to the current alternatives.
Occurrence of Narcissus Smoulder Caused by Botrytis narcissicola in Korea

Leaf blight and bulb rot symptoms were observed on narcissus plants grown in Yongin, Cheongwon and Namhae areas in Korea during disease survey from 1999 to 2002. A total of 15 isolates of Botrytis sp. were obtained from the infected plant parts of narcissus. All the isolates were identified as Botrytis narcissicola based on their morphological and cultural characteristics. Three isolates of B. narcissicola were tested for their pathogenicity to leaves and bulbs of narcissus by artificial inoculation. All the isolates induced leaf blight and bulb rot symptoms on the plants of narcissus by artificial inoculation. The symptoms induced by artificial inoculation were similar to those observed in the fields. This is the first report of narcissus smoulder caused by B. narcissicola in Korea.
TMEM120A and B: Nuclear Envelope Transmembrane Proteins Important for Adipocyte Differentiation

Recent work indicates that the nuclear envelope is a major signaling node for the cell that can influence tissue differentiation processes. Here we present two nuclear envelope trans-membrane proteins TMEM120A and TMEM120B that are paralogs encoded by the Tmem120A and Tmem120B genes. The TMEM120 proteins are expressed preferentially in fat and both are induced during 3T3-L1 adipocyte differentiation. Knockdown of one or the other protein altered expression of several genes required for adipocyte differentiation, Gata3, Fasn, Glut4, while knockdown of both together additionally affected Pparg and Adipoq. The double knockdown also increased the strength of effects, reducing for example Glut4 levels by 95% compared to control 3T3-L1 cells upon pharmacologically induced differentiation. Accordingly, TMEM120A and B knockdown individually and together impacted on adipocyte differentiation/metabolism as measured by lipid accumulation through binding of Oil Red O and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy (CARS). The nuclear envelope is linked to several lipodystrophies through mutations in lamin A; however, lamin A is widely expressed. Thus it is possible that the TMEM120A and B fat-specific nuclear envelope transmembrane proteins may play a contributory role in the tissue-specific pathology of this disorder or in the wider problem of obesity.
Morphological Alterations of Sciatic Nerve during Development from Rat Fetuses to Adults: A Histological, Stereological and Embryological Study

Summary Myelinated axon numbers of the sciatic nerves which were obtained from 16 and 20 days foetuses, newborn and 5 weeks ages rats were estimated in this study. In all groups gender factor was not considered. Following induction of anaesthesia, the sciatic nerves were removed and myelinated axon numbers were estimated. Sciatic nerve samples were also histologically analyzed. Overall, there was a 249% increase in the total number of myelinated axons in the sciatic nerves obtained from 20 days rat foetuses as compare to 16 days foetuses. Axon number in sciatic nerves got from newborn rats was decreased 56% as compare to twenty days foetuses. Histological results in this study were parallel to our stereological results. There were more myelinated axons in 20 days foetuses than in 16 days foetuses. It was also detected lesser myelinated nerve in sections obtained from newborn sciatic nerve than to 20 days foetuses. Moreover; the most myelinated axon number was observed in sciatic nerve got from 5 weeks ages adult rats. In view of these results, this study indicated that myelinated axons were decreased in the last a few days of pregnancy as compare to newborn group, whereas myelinated axon numbers were increased during postnatal ages till 5 weeks adult ages.
Temporal hierarchies in multilayer gated recurrent neural networks for language models

Representing multiple compositions of human language has been a difficult task due to the complex hierarchical and compositional nature of language. Hierarchical structures are one of the architectures which can be used to capture such compositionalities. In this paper, we introduce temporal hierarchies to the Neural Language Model (NLM) with the help of a Deep Gated Recurrent Neural Network with adaptive timescales to help represent multiple compositions of language. We demonstrate that by representing multiple compositions of language in a deep recurrent neural network architecture, we can improve the performance of Language Models without complex hierarchical architectures. We report the performance of the proposed model using the popular Penn Treebank (PTB) dataset. The results show that by using the multiple timescale concept in an NLM, we can achieve better perplexities compared to the existing baselines.
Rethinking Freire : globalization and the environmental crisis

Contents: Preface. C.A. Bowers, Introduction. G. Esteva, D.L. Stuchul, M.S. Prakash, From a Pedagogy for Liberation to Liberation From Pedagogy. G.R. Vasquez, Nurturance in the Andes. B.L. S. Bejarano, Who Are the Oppressed? G. Teran, Vernacular Education for Cultural Regeneration: An Alternative to Paulo Freire's Vision of Emancipation. Siddhartha, From Conscientization to Interbeing: A Personal Journey. P. Robinson, Whose Oppression Is This? The Cultivation of Compassionate Action in Dissolving the Dualistic Barrier. D. Rasmussen, Cease to Do Evil, Then Learn to Do Good (A Pedagogy for the Oppressor). C.A. Bowers, How the Ideas of Paulo Freire Contribute to the Cultural Roots of the Ecological Crisis. C.A. Bowers, Afterword.
Congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma mimicking ichthyosis bullosa of Siemens

of mitochondrial DNA. The highest incidence has been reported in middle-aged men from Mediterranean countries with a male to female ratio of 15 : 1. A history of alcohol abuse is frequent although not always present. It is important to look for associated endocrine and metabolic disorders such as abnormal glucose tolerance, hypertriglyceridaemia, hyperuricaemia and renal tubular acidosis which are commonly associated in these patients. Cosmetic deformities, with associated psychological problems in severe cases, interference with neck movements and mediastinal involvement with secondary respiratory and digestive compromise, represent the main reasons for treatment in these patients. Treatment for multiple symmetrical lipomatosis is palliative. Conservative therapeutic measures have been reported but at present lipectomy and liposuction, separately or in combination, are the only effective, although not definitive, therapeutic approaches. The choice of surgical technique must be individualized in each case and depends on diverse factors such as the medical antecedents of the patient and the location, extension and consistency of the pathological adipose tissue. Liposuction seems to be preferable in patients with soft localized fatty tumours of limited size, while lipectomy is indicated in larger defects and cases with infiltration of the mediastinum. Nonetheless treatment is not definitive and recurrence frequently occurs. We describe a case of BSL which shares some clinical aspects with HAART-related lipodystrophy and Barraquer– Simons disease. Our patient presented with atrophy of subcutaneous fat in the facial region and central distribution of adipose tissue in the upper back and abdominal region without systemic manifestations. These entities are associated with metabolic disorders, including hyperlipidaemia and insulin resistance. Mitochondrial defects have been related to the development of both BSL and HAART-related lipodystrophy. This similarity suggests the possibility of a common origin of these syndromes and that they represent different parts of the same spectrum.
Root-knot nematodes induce pattern-triggered immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana roots.

Root-knot nematodes (RKNs; Meloidogyne spp.) are plant parasites with a broad host range causing great losses worldwide. To parasitize their hosts, RKNs establish feeding sites in roots known as giant cells. The majority of work studying plant-RKN interactions in susceptible hosts addresses establishment of the giant cells and there is limited information on the early defense responses. Here we characterized early defense or pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) against RKNs in Arabidopsis thaliana. To address PTI, we evaluated known canonical PTI signaling mutants with RKNs and investigated the expression of PTI marker genes after RKN infection using both quantitative PCR and β-glucuronidase reporter transgenic lines. We showed that PTI-compromised plants have enhanced susceptibility to RKNs, including the bak1-5 mutant. BAK1 is a common partner of distinct receptors of microbe- and damage-associated molecular patterns. Furthermore, our data indicated that nematode recognition leading to PTI responses involves camalexin and glucosinolate biosynthesis. While the RKN-induced glucosinolate biosynthetic pathway was BAK1-dependent, the camalexin biosynthetic pathway was only partially dependent on BAK1. Combined, our results indicate the presence of BAK1-dependent and -independent PTI against RKNs in A. thaliana, suggesting the existence of diverse nematode recognition mechanisms.
Targeting the wee1 kinase for treatment of pediatric Down syndrome acute myeloid leukemia

Most Down syndrome children with acute myeloid leukemia (DS‐AML) have an overall excellent prognosis, however, patients who suffer an induction failure or relapse, have an extremely poor prognosis. Hence, new therapies need to be developed for this subgroup of DS‐AML patients. One new therapeutic approach is preventing cell cycle checkpoint activation by inhibiting the upstream kinase wee1 with the first‐in‐class inhibitor MK‐1775 in combination with the standard genotoxic agent cytarabine (AraC).
Efficacy of short period, low dose oral prednisolone for the prevention of stricture after circumferential endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for esophageal cancer

Background and aims: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) was developed in Japan and has been performed on many patients with early stage esophageal cancer; however quality of life in patients with postoperative stricture is drastically decreased and repeat, periodic endoscopic balloon dilatation (EBD) is usually required over long periods. In this study, we evaluate the efficacy of short period, low dose oral prednisolone in controlling post-procedural esophageal stricture. Patients and methods: In total, 33 patients who underwent semicircular or complete circular ESD for esophageal superficial squamous cell carcinoma were included in this study. They were divided into two groups: those who underwent large-circumference ESD with no preventative treatment for stricture (ESD alone group) and those who received systemic steroid treatment for stricture (oral prednisolone group). We compared the two groups in terms of stricture rate and total number of EBD sessions. The ESD alone group underwent no preventative treatment. The oral prednisolone group started with 30 mg/day prednisolone on the second day post-ESD, and continued with a gradually tapering prednisolone dose, finally discontinuing systemic steroid administration 3 weeks later. Results: The stricture rate after ESD was significantly lower in the oral prednisolone group (3 of 17 patients; 17.6 %) than in the ESD alone group (11 of 16 patients; 68.7 %) (P < 0.01). The number of EBD sessions was significantly lower in the oral prednisolone group than in the ESD alone group (median 4.6, range 2 – 10 vs. median 8.1, range 1 – 18; P < 0.01). Conclusion: Short period, low dose oral prednisolone showed promising results for the prevention of stricture after ESD for early stage esophageal cancers.
Stress-induced epigenetic regulation of κ-opioid receptor gene involves transcription factor c-Myc

Exposure to stress is associated with adverse emotional and behavioral responses. Whereas the κ-opioid receptor (KOR) system is known to mediate some of the effects, it is unclear whether and how stress affects epigenetic regulation of this gene. Because the KOR gene can use two promoters (Pr1 and Pr2) and two polyadenylation signals (PA1 and PA2), it is also interesting whether and how these distinct regulatory mechanisms are differentially modulated by stress. The current study examined the effects of stress on these different regulatory mechanisms of the KOR gene. Results showed that stress selectively increased the expression of KOR mRNA isoforms controlled by Pr1 and terminated at PA1 in specific brain areas including the medial–prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, brainstem, and sensorimotor cortex, but not in the amygdala or hypothalamus. These effects correlated with altered epigenetic state of KOR Pr1 chromatin, as well as elevation and increased recruitment of the principal transcription factor c-Myc, which could activate Pr1. Stress-induced modulation of Pr1 was further validated using glutamate-sensitive murine hippocampal cell line, HT22. The results revealed a common molecular mechanism underlying the effect of stress on selected chromatin regions of this gene at the cellular level and in the context of whole animal and identified a critical role for c-Myc in stress-triggered epigenetic regulation of the KOR gene locus. This study sheds light on the mechanisms of stress-induced epigenetic regulation that targets specific chromatin segments and suggests certain KOR transcripts and its principal transcription factor c-Myc as potential targets for brain-area–specific intervention.
Effective Activity of Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells against Autologous Metastatic Melanoma Including Cells with Stemness Features

Purpose: We investigate the unknown tumor-killing activity of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells against autologous metastatic melanoma and the elusive subset of putative cancer stem cells (mCSC). Experimental Design: We developed a preclinical autologous model using same patient-generated CIK cells and tumor targets to consider the unique biology of each patient/tumor pairing. In primary tumor cell cultures, we visualized and immunophenotypically defined a putative mCSC subset using a novel gene transfer strategy that exploited their exclusive ability to activate the promoter of stemness gene Oct4. Results: The CIK cells from 10 patients with metastatic melanoma were successfully expanded (median, 23-fold; range, 11–117). Primary tumor cell cultures established and characterized from the same patients were used as autologous targets. Patient-derived CIK cells efficiently killed autologous metastatic melanoma [up to 71% specific killing (n = 26)]. CIK cells were active in vivo against autologous melanoma, resulting in delayed tumor growth, increased necrotic areas, and lymphocyte infiltration at tumor sites. The metastatic melanoma cultures presented an average of 11.5% ± 2.5% putative mCSCs, which was assessed by Oct4 promoter activity and stemness marker expression (Oct4, ABCG2, ALDH, MITF). Expression was confirmed on mCSC target molecules recognized by CIK cells (MIC A/B; ULBPs). CIK tumor killing activity against mCSCs was intense (up to 71%, n = 4) and comparable with results reported against differentiated metastatic melanoma cells (P = 0.8). Conclusions: For the first time, the intense killing activity of CIK cells against autologous metastatic melanoma, including mCSCs, has been shown. These findings move clinical investigation of a new immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma, including mCSCs, closer. Clin Cancer Res; 19(16); 4347–58. ©2013 AACR.
Appropriate Insulin Level in Selecting Fortified Diet-Fed, Streptozotocin-Treated Rat Model of Type 2 Diabetes for Anti-Diabetic Studies

Background Pathophysiological investigation of disease in a suitable animal model is a classical approach towards development of a credible therapeutic strategy. This study examined appropriate insulin level in selecting animal model for type 2 diabetes (T2D) studies. Method Albino Wistar rats (150-200g) were divided into two groups fed with commercially available normal-diet-feed (NDF) and water or fortified diet feed (FDF) (10g NDF per gram of margarine) with 20% fructose solution as drinking water. After 6 weeks of dietary regimen both groups were divided into 5 sub-groups and injected intraperitoneally with a graded dose of streptozotocin (STZ) (0, 25, 35, 45 & 55mg/kg bw.). Result The result showed that the FDF-fed rats increased significantly in body weight, basal serum insulin, total cholesterol, triglycerides and blood glucose levels as compared to NDF-fed rats. Ten days post STZ induction, the groups treated with STZ (45 & 55 mg/kg) developed frank hyperglycaemia with < 46.8% serum insulin, a severe deficiency typical of diabetes type 1. The NDF25 and NDF35 groups with 75.7% and 64.4% serum insulin respectively presented relative normoglycemia, whereas the FDF35 (85.8% serum insulin) were notably hyperglycaemia (>300 mg/dL) throughout the 6weeks post diabetes confirmation. These FDF35 rats were sensitive to glibenclamide, metformin and pioglitazone in lowering hyperglycaemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia Conclusion The hyperglycaemia stability of the FDF35 rats (85.5% insulin) together with their sensitivity to 3 different hypoglycaemic drugs strongly suggests their suitability as a non-genetic model of T2D. Hence the study shows that circulating serum insulin ≥ 85.8% with overt hyperglycaemia may be utilized as the benchmark in selecting rat models for T2D studies.
Nonlinear dynamics of the mammalian inner ear

A simple nonlinear transmission-line model of the cochlea with longitudinal coupling is introduced that can reproduce Basilar membrane response and neural tuning in the chinchilla. It is found that the middle ear has little effect on cochlear resonances, and hence conclude that the theory of coherent reflections is not applicable to the model. The model also provides an explanation of the emergence of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs). It is argued that SOAEs arise from Hopf bifurcations of the transmission-line model and not from localized instabilities. The paper shows that emissions can become chaotic, intermittent and fragile to perturbations.