Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
C-stage in colon cancer: implications of carcinoembryonic antigen biomarker in staging, prognosis, and management.

BACKGROUND The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) has proposed the inclusion of pretreatment serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level (C-stage) into the conventional TNM staging system of colon cancer. We assessed the prognosis of various stages of colon cancer after such an inclusion. METHODS Data for all patients (N = 17 910) diagnosed with colonic adenocarcinoma (AJCC stages I, IIA, IIB, IIC, IIIA, IIIB, IIIC, and IV, based on TNM staging system) between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2004, with a median follow-up of 27 months (range 0-35 months), were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. C-stage (C0-stage = normal CEA level; C1-stage = elevated CEA level) was assigned to all patients with available CEA information (n = 9083). Multivariable analyses using Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify independent factors associated with prognosis. Prognosis of overall stages (AJCC stages I-IV and C0 or C1) was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS C1-stage was independently associated with a 60% increased risk of overall mortality (hazard ratio of death = 1.60, 95% confidence interval = 1.46 to 1.76, P < .001). Overall survival was decreased in patients with C1-stage cancer compared with C0-stage cancer of the respective overall stages (P < .05). Similarly, decreased overall survival was noted in patients with stage I C1 cancer compared with stage IIA C0 or stage IIIA C0 cancer (P < .001), in patients with stage IIA C1 cancer compared with stage IIIA C0 (P < .001), and in patients with stage IIB C1 or stage IIC C1 cancer compared with stage IIIB C0 cancer (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS C-stage was an independent prognostic factor for colon cancer. The results support routine preoperative CEA testing and C-staging upon diagnosis of colon cancer and the inclusion of C-stage in the conventional TNM staging of colon cancer.
Phobic Anxiety and Increased Risk of Mortality in Coronary Heart Disease

Objectives: To evaluate whether phobic anxiety is associated with increased risk of cardiac mortality in individuals with established coronary heart disease (CHD) and to examine the role of reduced heart rate variability (HRV) in mediating this risk. Previous findings suggest that phobic anxiety may pose increased risk of cardiac mortality in medically healthy cohorts. Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study in 947 CHD patients recruited during hospitalization for coronary angiography. At baseline, supine recordings of heart rate for HRV were collected, and participants completed the Crown-Crisp phobic anxiety scale. Fatal cardiac events were identified over an average period of 3 years. Results: Female CHD patients reported significantly elevated levels of phobic anxiety when compared with male patients (p < .001), and survival analysis showed an interaction between gender and phobic anxiety in the prediction of cardiac mortality (p = .058) and sudden cardiac death (p = .03). In women, phobic anxiety was associated with a 1.6-fold increased risk of cardiac mortality (hazard ratio, 1.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.15–2.11; p = .004) and a 2.0-fold increased risk of sudden cardiac death (hazard ratio, 2.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.16–3.52; p = .01) and was unassociated with increased mortality risk in men (p = .56). Phobic anxiety was weakly associated with reduced high-frequency HRV in female patients (r = −.14, p = .02), but reduced HRV did not alter the association between phobic anxiety on mortality. Conclusions: Phobic anxiety levels are high in women with CHD and may be a risk factor for cardiac-related mortality in women diagnosed with CHD. Reduced HRV measured during rest does not seem to mediate phobic anxiety-related risk. CHD = coronary heart disease; SCD = sudden cardiac death; MI = myocardial infarction; LVEF = left ventricular ejection fraction; HRV = heart rate variability; SBP = systolic blood pressure.
Simulation and Performance Evaluation of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) Propagation Model in Urban Environment

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications offer support to several applications that can make the modern day travel safer, more efficient and enjoyable. However, reliable and efficient V2V application development requires better understanding and knowledge of the surrounding environment in which the vehicles operate them. The urban environment consists of open, downtown, suburban, wider and narrower spaces which vary significantly in their radio channel characteristics. Therefore studies on V2V propagation channels that take in to account random and time-varying of different environments are highly sought-after. In this paper a detailed overview of V2V propagation modeling techniques is provided. Using a case study for the city of Doha, Qatar we explained the metropolitan-area wide characterization of received signal strength. Finally, a comprehensive simulation-based evaluation is presented to measure the impact of geometry-based propagation model on V2V performance in an urban environment using the publicly available simulator. The output from the propagation model simulations is used to analyze V2V communication in terms of several communications and networking performance metrics such received signal strength, packet delivery ratio, and reliable communication range for the given data rate settings.
Screening for neural‐tube defects and maternal anxiety

Summary. Anxiety levels were studied in 176 women with raised serum α‐fetoprotein levels at 16–18 weeks gestation, at the time they attended a central assessment clinic, and again 2–3 weeks later in those not found to have a fetus with a neural‐tube defect. Methods of imparting information about the serum screening tests and the manner in which a normal amniotic fluid result was conveyed to the patient were also studied. Overall, women attending the clinic for further assessment were extremely anxious, irrespective of the source of their information. Anxiety scores 2–3 weeks after testing were greatly influenced by whether the patient had been given a definite normal result or whether she was told to assume that the result was normal if she did not hear from the clinic. Patients who, after reassessment, did not require amniocentesis had some residual anxiety in spite of verbal reassurance.
Education Politics and Contingency: Belief, Status and Trust behind the Finnish PISA Miracle

The authors suggest three concepts which they consider to be promising theoretical concepts for comparative education. These are: (1) bringing the theoretical concepts of path dependency, convergence and contingency together, (2) tracing the history of the problematique and (3) analysing national and local interpretations and translations as hybrids. In their analysis of the ‘Finnish PISA miracle’, the authors focus exclusively on the concept of contingency to see whether the concept can facilitate a broader understanding on the national phenomenon of ‘Finnish PISA success’. As a first step they identify three national ‘truths’ that are widely accepted in Finland even though there is, according to the authors, not too much empirical research evidence behind them: the Finns share a high belief in schooling, teaching is a very highly regarded profession in Finland and the Finnish comprehensive school enjoys rather high trust on the part of both parents, authorities and politicians. In their analysis, Simola y Rinne illustrate that the genesis of these three national ‘beliefs’ is rather the result of coincidence and conjunction, than the result of rational and purposeful educational planning by educational politicians. In their conclusion, they claim on the basis of their presented case that conceptualisations such as contingency must be taken seriously when pursuing an understanding of national education policies and politics. The alternative approach, i.e. operating only through functionalist and system
PENGARUH ILLUSIONS OF CONTROL, OVERCONFIDENCE DAN EMOTION TERHADAP PENGAMBILAN KEPUTUSAN INVESTASI PADA INVESTOR DI YOGYAKARTA

Nowadays Investors often make investment decision irrationally. The decision is often based on their judgment that is far away from rational assumption. When investors face risky situa-tion, there are some objectivities, emotions, and other psychological factors that usually ef-fect their decision making. This purpose of study is to examine the effect of illusions of control, risk tolerance, overconfidence and emotion on investment decision making among investors in yogyakarta. Sample of this study is the investors who are 17 until 40 years old and investing in stocks. This study used purposive, convenience and snow-ball sampling method. There are 86 respondents taken from questionnaire. To test hypotheses, this study employs descriptive analysis and multiple regression analysis. Moreover, by performing multiple regression analysis, this study found that illusions of control does not have a negative significant while overconfidence has a positive significant and emotion has a negative significant influance to the investment decision. Â Key words: Investment Decision Making, illusions of control, overconfidence andÂ emotion.
Paclitaxel Causes Electrophysiological Changes in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex via Modulation of the γ-Aminobutyric Acid-ergic System

Objective: The aim of this study was to elucidate any electrophysiological changes that may contribute to the development of neuropathic pain during treatment with the anticancer drug paclitaxel, particularly in the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system. Materials and Methods: One hundred and eight Sprague-Dawley rats were used (untreated control: 43; vehicle-treated: 21, and paclitaxel-treated: 44). Paclitaxel (8 mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally on 2 alternate days to induce mechanical allodynia. The rats were sacrificed 7 days after treatment to obtain slices of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a brain region involved in the central processing of pain. Field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) were recorded in layer II/III of ACC slices, and stimulus-response curves were constructed. The observed effects were pharmacologically characterized by bath application of GABA and appropriate drugs to the slices. Results: The paclitaxel-treated rats developed mechanical allodynia (i.e. reduced withdrawal threshold to mechanical stimuli). Slices from paclitaxel-treated rats produced a significantly higher maximal response (Emax) than those from untreated rats (p < 0.001). Bath application of GABA (0.4 µM) reversed this effect and returned the excitability to a level similar to control. Pretreatment of the slices with the GABAB receptor blocker CGP 55845 (50 µM) increased Emax in slices from untreated rats (p < 0.01) but not from paclitaxel-treated rats. Conclusion: In this study, there was a GABA deficit in paclitaxel-treated rats compared to untreated ones. Such a deficit could contribute to the pathophysiology of paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain (PINP). Thus, the GABAergic system might be a potential therapeutic target for managing PINP.
Validity of the five-factor model and their facets: The impact of performance measure and facet residualization on the bandwidth-fidelity dilemma

Four primary studies, including samples of police officers, graduate and undergraduate students, were conducted on the bandwidth-fidelity dilemma (BFD) concerning the relationship between personality and performance. Ten independent criteria were used, including both narrow and broad measures of performance. Three hypotheses of the impact of the different combinations of personality and performance measures on validity were tested. A Schmid–Leiman transformation permitted the residualization of the variance of the five-factor model (FFM) facets and the identification of their unique contribution to the prediction of job and academic performance. The results indicated that global factors predicted broad and narrow performance. Residualized facets of the FFM did not predict broad and narrow performance, and they did not show incremental validity over the global factors. Implications for the BFD are discussed.
Bidirectional longitudinal associations of perpetration and victimization of peer bullying with psychosocial problems in adolescents: A cross-lagged panel study

Research on school bullying often focuses on the directional path of bullying and/or victimization leading to psychosocial problems, while such one-dimensional views have been shown to be too simplistic. Furthermore, recent research has shown that patterns of bullying at school differ for boys and girls, which makes gender a particularly relevant factor in exploring the causes and consequences of bullying. Therefore, the present study explored the bidirectional, longitudinal associations of bullying and bullying victimization on several psychosocial problems via a longitudinal cross-lagged panel study in 1243 adolescents in the Netherlands, while taking into account potential gender differences. Data were collected in September 2011 and 2012. Results showed that both bullied boys as well as girls reported more conduct problems at follow-up. Both boy and girl bullies reported less pro-social behavior and more peer problems at follow-up, but boys also reported more conduct problems at follow-up, while girls did not. Furthermore, in girls, emotional problems were associated with more victimization at follow-up, while inattention-hyperactivity problems and less pro-social behavior were related to increased chances of being a perpetrator of bully at follow-up. Conversely, in boys, baseline inattention-hyperactivity problems were not associated with being a bully later on, but rather with increased chances of being a bullying victim at later times. These results can help to tailor future anti-bullying interventions at schools.
Cleavage of the dengue virus polyprotein at the NS3/NS4A and NS4B/NS5 junctions is mediated by viral protease NS2B-NS3, whereas NS4A/NS4B may be processed by a cellular protease

The cleavage mechanism utilized for processing of the NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5 domain of the dengue virus polyprotein was studied by using the vaccinia virus expression system. Recombinant vaccinia viruses vNS2B-NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5, vNS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5, vNS4A-NS4B-NS5, and vNS4B-NS5 were constructed. These recombinants were used to infect cells, and the labeled lysates were analyzed by immunoprecipitation. Recombinant vNS2B-NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5 expressed the authentic NS3 and NS5 proteins, but the other recombinants produced uncleaved polyproteins. These findings indicate that NS2B is required for processing of the downstream nonstructural proteins, including the NS3/NS4A and NS4B/NS5 junctions, both of which contain a dibasic amino acid sequence preceding the cleavage site. The flavivirus NS4A/NS4B cleavage site follows a long hydrophobic sequence. The polyprotein NS4A-NS4B-NS5 was cleaved at the NS4A/NS4B junction in the absence of other dengue virus functions. One interpretation for this finding is that NS4A/NS4B cleavage is mediated by a host protease, presumably a signal peptidase. Although vNS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5 expressed only the polyprotein, earlier results demonstrated that cleavage at the NS4A/NS4B junction occurred when an analogous recombinant, vNS3-NS4A-84%NS4B, was expressed. Thus, it appears that uncleaved NS3 plus NS5 inhibit NS4A/NS4B cleavage presumably because the putative signal sequence is not accessible for recognition by the responsible protease. Finally, recombinants that expressed an uncleaved NS4B-NS5 polyprotein, such as vNS4A-NS4B-NS5 or vNS4B-NS5, produced NS5 when complemented with vNS2B-30%NS3 or with vNS2B plus v30%NS3. These results indicate that cleavage at the NS4B/NS5 junction can be mediated by NS2B and NS3 in trans.
Changes in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and in sodium and potassium balance during development of renal hypertension in rats.

1. The relationships between the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, sodium and potassium balance and systolic blood pressure were studied during development of moderate (160-180 mmHg; clip i.d. 0.25 mm) and severe (200-230 mmHg; clip i.d. 0.20 mm) renal hypertension in rats with an undisturbed contralateral kidney. 2. In severely hypertensive rats renin activity in the peripheral plasma increased from day 9, by which time the systolic blood pressure was elevated to 160-180 mmHg. The rate of total corticosteroid and aldosterone production in vitro increased from day 14 and plasma renin substrate concentration increased from day 24. In moderately hypertensive rats, none of these changes occurred. 3. During the first 10 days after the application of 0.25 and 0.20 mm clips, sodium and potassium retention/g gain in body weight were higher than in sham-operated controls. During the next 10 days, the positive balance stabilized in animals with a 0.25 mm clip whereas, in animals with a 0.20 mm clip, sodium and potassium balance returned to the level of the sham-operated controls through increased renal losses. Despite these changes the systolic pressure rose further in animals with a 0.20 mm clip. 4. The initial sodium retention could be a factor in the early rise of blood pressure and could account for the delay in the rise of peripheral plasma renin activity. The subsequent loss of the retained sodium and potassium during the development of severe hypertension could have facilitated the rise in peripheral plasma renin activity, but did not initiate this rise.
Oral health, related behaviors and oral health impacts among homeless adults.

OBJECTIVE To assess the oral health needs, related behavior and oral health impact among homeless persons in Newark, New Jersey. METHODS Participants represented a convenience sample of adults (n=46) participating in Homeless Services Day, an annual event sponsored by the Homeless Services Division of the Newark, NJ Department of Health and Human Services. Their mean age was 40.4 yr (SD=10.0), and 51.1% were female. The majority (76%) reported African-American ethnicity; remaining participants self-identified as Hispanic, White or Asian. Participants reported being homeless for a median of 11 months, with a range of 1 to 108 months. RESULTS The 46 participants had 745 teeth (averaged 16.2 per person) that were either missing, had fillings or had untreated decay. Diseased teeth averaged 3.8 per person; missing teeth averaged 8.6 per person; and filled teeth averaged 3.7 per person. Only 28.3% had a dental visit in the past year. Approximately 87% reported negative oral health impacts impact: over half (55.6%) had current oral facial pain and two-thirds of our participants reported having dental-related face pain during the past year. Additional oral health impacts included: eating (42%), smiling (33%), concentrating (18%) and talking (16%). CONCLUSIONS Consistent with other studies, this homeless sample presented with considerable oral health needs. Newark's homeless, like other homeless cohorts, face access to care and negative oral health impacts. This study informs the need for future research that can provide substantive evidence for care providers and policy makers.
Perceived stigma and self-stigma of problem gambling: perspectives of people with gambling problems

Abstract Minimal research has investigated the stigma associated with problem gambling, despite its major hindrance to help-seeking and recovery. This study explored perceived stigma and self-stigma to examine stigmatizing beliefs held, how they may be internalized, coping mechanisms, and effects on help-seeking. In-depth interviews with 44 people experiencing gambling problems were analysed using interpretive phenomenology. Results revealed an overwhelming perception that problem gambling attracts acute public stigma and is publicly viewed as caused by personal failings. Participants had serious concerns about being viewed as ‘a problem gambler’, fearing demeaning stereotypes, social rejection, hostile responses and devaluing behaviours. Many participants internalized perceived stigma as self-stigma, with deleterious reported effects on self-esteem, self-efficacy, perceived social worth, and mental and physical health. Deep shame was a near universal emotion and exacerbated by relapse. Secrecy was the main coping mechanism used, with perceived and self-stigma found to act as major barriers to disclosure and help-seeking. The findings can inform the development of a valid understanding and conceptualization of problem gambling stigma. This is a prerequisite for effective stigma-reduction strategies to reduce public stigma and discrimination, and to lower perceived and self-stigma and increase the use of treatment services and other interventions by people with gambling problems.
Their Own Best Teachers

Skillful teachers have developed the ability to take learners from the first conception of a goal to its accomplishment in shorter and shorter periods of time, with fewer and fewer errors on the learners’ part and with increasing satisfaction and diminishing frustration on the teacher’s. This article deals with the extent to which teachers provide learners assistance in their struggles to accomplish goals. At times, teachers may provide more assistance than is actually required and, in so doing, inadvertently limit learners’ development over the long term.
Prevalence and treatment of psychiatric disorders in 3 to 14‐year‐old children: Results of a representative field study in the small town rural region of Traunstein, Upper Bavaria

ABSTRACT— In a representative sample (n= 358) 18.4% of the children aged 3 to 14 were classified as having psychiatric disorders, mostly special symptoms (13.4%) (ICD 307). Using the multiaxial classification of child psychiatric disorders developed by Rutter et al. (1). connections between a psychiatric diagnosis on the one hand and developmental delays, medical conditions and abnormal psychosocial circumstances on the other are pointed out. Finally, the situation regarding help for children with psychiatric disorders is discussed. Only 2.0% of the children were receiving treatment for such conditions.
Mosaic Graphs and Comparative Genomics in Phage Communities

Comparing the genomes of two closely related viruses often produces mosaics where nearly identical sequences alternate with sequences that are unique to each genome. When several closely related genomes are compared, the unique sequences are likely to be shared with third genomes, leading to virus mosaic communities. Here we present comparative analysis of sets of Staphylococcus aureus phages that share large identical sequences with up to three other genomes, and with different partners along their genomes. We introduce mosaic graphs to represent these complex recombination events, and use them to illustrate the breath and depth of sequence sharing: some genomes are almost completely made up of shared sequences, while genomes that share very large identical sequences can adopt alternate functional modules. Mosaic graphs also allow us to identify breakpoints that could eventually be used for the construction of recombination networks. These findings have several implications on phage metagenomics assembly, on the horizontal gene transfer paradigm, and more generally on the understanding of the composition and evolutionary dynamics of virus communities.