Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
White lies: Amelia E. Johnson's Sunday School fiction and the politics of racelessness

Abstract This article reevaluates the cultural significance and literary complexity of the Sunday School novels published by Amelia E. Johnson during the 'Black Woman's Era'. The critical recovery of this lesser-known African American woman writer and editor focuses on her cultural activism and on the fictional strategies she deployed to challenge the limitations imposed by a white-dominated audience and publishing industry, as well as by the religious orthodoxy promoted by her denominational publishers. Problematizing the critical discourse that opposes her confrontational non-fiction writing to her racially indeterminate fiction, the article foregrounds Johnson's critique of gender, class and racial inequalities, her experimentation with narrative conventions, and her growing sense of disillusionment in the face of unrelenting discrimination, showing how Johnson's writing career illuminates the broader trends of African American women's literature at the turn into the 20th century.
CLINICAL ASSISTED REPRODUCTION A Prospective Study on Oocyte Survival Rate After ICSI: Influence of Injection Technique and Morphological Features

Purpose: To determine the influence of technical pitfalls and oocyte morphology on survival rate and cleavage behavior after ICSI. Methods: A total of 2210 injection procedures was examined for morphological and technical deviations. Survival rate and cleavage behavior were evaluated. Results: In 77.8% of all cases ICSI was unsuspicous. Out of 491 deviations from optimal injection deep penetration of the oocyte and abundant presence of cumulus cells showed significant correlation with degeneration rate (p < 0 .001 ). Morphological anomalies associated with the periphery of the oocyte were rather related to degeneration than cytoplasmic anomalies (p < 0 .001 ). Early embryonic development was not impaired by technical or morphological parameters. Conclusions: To conclude, these prospective data may be of prognostic value in regard of the number of embryos available for transfer and may help to improve treatment outcome.
Usefulness and Potential Pitfalls of Sialic Acid Determination in Sera of Patients with Ovarian Tumors

Increasing evidence in the literature indicates that serum sialic acid is increased in cancer patients suggesting a possible usefulness of its determination as a tumor marker. However there are many discrepancies in the data reported, probably due to methodological errors, mainly in lipid bound sialic measurement. In this paper we illustrate the results obtained when we applied a method worked out in our laboratory for the determination of total and fractionated sialic acid (lipid and protein bound) to the analysis of sera from patients with ovarian tumors and the preliminary data on the follow up of selected cases. The potential pitfalls in using this relatively new tumor marker will be critically evaluated.
THE POWER SPECTRUM OF THE POINT SOURCE CATALOGUE REDSHIFT SURVEY

We measure the redshift-space power spectrum P(k) for the recently completed IRAS Point Source Catalogue (PSC) redshift survey, which contains 14500 galaxies over 84% of the sky with 60 micron flux � 0.6 Jansky. Comparison with simulations shows that our estimated errors on P(k) are realistic, and that systematic errors due to the finite survey volume are small for wavenumbers k > � 0.03hMpc 1 . At large scales our power spectrum is intermediate between those of the earlier QDOT and 1.2 Jansky surveys, but with considerably smaller error bars; it falls slightly more steeply to smaller scales. We have fitted families of CDM-like models using the Peacock-Dodds formula for non-linear evolution; the results are somewhat sensitive to the assumed small-scale
The Black Educator: An Endangered Species.

Teaching, traditionally, has been the major occupation of collegeeducated Black Americans. In 1950, teaching accounted for nearly half of Black professional workers, compared to less than one quarter of White professionals. The concentration of Blacks in the teaching profession in the United States was due in large measure to the segregated schooling in the South and the fact that very few other occupations were open to Blacks. In the mid-1960s, as Black and White schools were consolidated to meet school-desegregation mandates, we witnessed dismissals of thousands of Black teachers and the virtual elimination of Black principals. By the time court and Federal actions were initiated in the late 1960s and early 1970s to prevent further displacements, massive damage had already been done. As we approach the final years of another decade, we find Black educators again in danger of being eliminated from the school systems of this country. This time the strategies are much more sophisticated and complex than they have been in the past, but still not new-the use of measurement to deny access (to the profession) and to legitimize efforts to retain control.1 We should remember that not too long ago the passing of literacy tests was required in order for one to execute the right to vote in public elections. A very cogent argument could be made that one should be able to read in order to deal with the issues and positions that would be presented in print by the political candidates. However, the literacy-test rule was an injustice that we have come to acknowledge.
Microarray analysis of liver gene expression in iron overloaded patients with sickle cell anemia and beta‐thalassemia

Chronic transfusion therapy is used clinically to supply healthy erythrocytes for patients with sickle cell anemia (SCA) or beta‐thalassemia major (TM). Despite the benefits of red blood cell transfusions, chronic transfusions lead to iron accumulation in key tissues such as the heart, liver, and endocrine glands. Transfusion‐acquired iron overload is recognized as a cause of morbidity and mortality among patients receiving chronic transfusions. At present, there is little understanding of molecular events that occur during transfusional iron loading and the reasons for the large inter‐individual variation observed clinically in transfusion‐acquired iron accumulation. To address these issues, we examined whether any liver‐expressed genes in SCA or TM patients with transfusional iron overload were associated with the degree of iron accumulation. Specifically, we performed microarray analysis on liver biopsy specimens comparing SCA patients with mild or severe iron overload and also compared SCA with TM patients. Fifteen candidate genes were identified with significantly differential expression between the high and low liver iron concentrations. SCA patients and 20 candidate genes were detected between the SCA and TM patient comparison. Subsequent quantitative PCR experiments validated 12 candidate genes; with GSTM1, eIF5a, SULF2, NTS, and HO‐1 being particularly good prospects as genes that might affect the degree of iron accumulation. Future work will determine the baseline expression of these genes prior to transfusional iron overload and elucidate the full impact of these genes on the inter‐individual variation observed clinically in transfusion‐acquired iron accumulation. Am. J. Hematol. 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Theory of Mind in Preadolescence: Relations Between Social Understanding and Social Competence

Theory of mind (ToM) underlies the ability to attribute mental states to people as a way of understanding their social behaviour. Although ToM development is an active area of research, most empirical investigations focus on infants and young children. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to assess ToM in preadolescents and to determine whether individual differences in this mentalizing ability relate to social competence and relate differently for girls and for boys. It was hypothesized that preadolescents’ ability to understand thoughts and emotions in others would be associated with their social competence. 128 preadolescents (64 girls; 64 boys; mean age 11-9) completed peer social competence ratings, a vocabulary task, and participated in a social understanding (ToM) interview. Teacher ratings of the participants’ social competence were also collected. Based on composite ToM scores, results indicated positive associations between ToM and (a) peer ratings of social-interaction skills, (b) general vocabulary ability. Separate gender analyses revealed significant effects. Results are discussed in relation to (1) individual differences in social understanding and social competence and (2) effects of socio-cultural context.
Is the wealth index a proxy for consumption expenditure? A systematic review

Background: Many epidemiological studies require a measure of socioeconomic position. The monetary measure preferred by economists is consumption expenditure; the wealth index has been proposed as a reliable, simple alternative to expenditure and is extensively used. Methods: A systematic review was conducted of the agreement between wealth indices and consumption expenditure, summarising the agreement and exploring factors affecting agreement. Results: Seventeen studies using 36 datasets met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 22 demonstrated weak agreement, 10 moderate agreement, and four strong agreement. There was some evidence that agreement is higher: in middle-income settings; in urban areas; for wealth indices with a greater number of indicators; and for wealth indices including a wider range of indicators. Conclusions: The wealth index is mostly a poor proxy for consumption expenditure.
Comparison of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and positron emission tomography in detection of tumor recurrence in posttreatment of glioma: A diagnostic meta‐analysis

It is important to distinguish between tumor recurrence and treatment effects in posttreatment patients with high‐grade gliomas. Several imaging modalities have been reported in differentiating between tumor recurrence and treatment effects. However, there were no consistent conclusions between different studies. We performed a meta‐analysis of 23 studies that compared the diagnostic values of fluorine‐18‐fluorodeoxyglucose (18F‐FDG) and 11C‐methionine (11C‐MET) PET (positron emission tomography) or PET/CT (computed tomography) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in predicting tumor recurrence of gliomas. The pooled estimated sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratios, negative likelihood ratios and summary receiver operating characteristic curves of 18F‐FDG and 11C‐MET PET or PET/CT and MRS in detecting tumor recurrence were calculated. In conclusion, MRS is highly sensitive in the detection of tumor recurrence in glioma.18F‐FDG PET or PET/CT is highly specific in recurrence diagnosis. 11C‐MET does not have noticeable advantage over 18F‐FDG. The current evidence shows no statistical difference between MRS and PET on the accuracy.
A review study of therapeutic effects of Myrtus communis

Myrtus, with the common name myrtle is a genus of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. The aim of this study was to review its therapeutic effects effects. This review article was carried out by searching studies in PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, and Iran Medex databases . The initial search strategy identified about 128 references. In this study, 113 studies was accepted for further screening and met all our inclusion criteria [in English, full text, therapeutic effects of Myrtus, and dated mainly from the year 1964 to 2015.The search terms were “Myrtus, “therapeutic properties”, “pharmacological effects”. It is commonly used for anti-bacterial effect, anti-anxiety effect, anti-acne vulgaris, antioxidant effects, antifungal and herbicidal effects, antileishmanial and cytotoxic effects, repellency effect, antifungal, anti-biofilm and adhesion activity, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties, anti-cancer effect, scolicidal effects, gastrointestinal effect ,facial warts effects. Myrtus. is widely used for therapeutic and non-therapeutic purposes that trigger its significant value. Various combinations and numerous medicinal properties of its extract, oil, and leaves demand further and more studies about the other useful and unknown properties of this multipurpose plant.
The Spermatogenic Effect of Yacon Extract and Its Constituents and Their Inhibition Effect of Testosterone Metabolism

We screened the pharmacological effects of a 50% ethanol extract of Yacon tubers and leaves on spermatogenesis in rats. As a result, we found that Yacon tuber extracts increased sperm number and serum testosterone level in rats. It has been reported that the crude extract of Yacon tubers and leaves contain phenolic acids, such as, chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid and caffeic acid by HPLC/MS analysis. We were interested in the contributions made by phenolic acid, particularly chlorogenic acid of Yacon tuber extract to the spermatogenic activity. After administering Yacon tuber extract or chlorogenic acid to rats for 5 weeks, numbers of sperm in epididymis were increased by 34% and 20%, respectively. We also administered ferulic acid, which has been reported to be a metabolite of chlorogenic acid and a constituent of Yacon tuber extract to investigate its spermatogenic activity in rats. Yacon tuber extract and ferulic acid increased sperm numbers by 43% and 37%, respectively. And, Yacon tuber extract, and chlorogenic acid showed significantly inhibition effect of testoeterone degradation in rat liver homogenate. We considered that the spermatogenic effect of Yacon tuber extract might be related to phenolic compounds and their inhibitory effect of testosterone degradation. Yacon showed the possibility as ameliorable agents of infertility by sperm deficiency and late onset hypogonadism syndrome with low level of testosterone.
HER2 expression in gastric and oesophageal cancer: a meta-analytic review.

BACKGROUND Since the advent and the success of adjuvant medical therapy for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer in the form of trastuzumab there has been increasing interest in the development of similar therapies in other solid organ malignancies including gastric cancer and oesophageal cancer. Over the years, multiple observational studies have been inconsistent. Several meta-analyses have been published looking at the association between HER2 and gastric cancer and oesophageal cancer. This review aims to summarize the meta-analytic evidence for the association between HER2 in gastric and oesophageal cancer. METHODS A systematic search was conducted using MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, Current Contents Connect, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Web of Science. RESULTS Of the articles selected, only nine studies met full criteria. Six of them reviewed the role of HER2 in gastric cancer and the remaining three reviewed its role in oesophageal cancer. CONCLUSIONS The current evidence regarding the role of HER2 is unclear. However, it clearly plays a key role in the pathogenesis of gastric and oesophageal carcinomas. Targeted therapy towards this subgroup (despite variable frequency and association with survival) would offer a mortality benefit and improve survival.
Twenty‐four hour hyperinsulinemic‐euglycemic clamp improves postoperative nitrogen balance only in low insulin sensitivity patients following cardiac surgery

Critically ill patients often suffer from a protein catabolic state. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that nitrogen balance (NB) in cardiac patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) is related to their insulin sensitivity level and that supraphysiologic doses of insulin can restore anabolism.
MCPI©: A sub-minute Monte Carlo dose calculation engine for prostate implants.

An accelerated Monte Carlo code [Monte Carlo dose calculation for prostate implant (MCPI)] is developed for dose calculation in prostate brachytherapy. MCPI physically simulates a set of radioactive seeds with arbitrary positions and orientations, merged in a three-dimensional (3D) heterogeneous phantom representing the prostate and surrounding tissue. MCPI uses a phase space data source-model to account for seed self-absorption and seed anisotropy. A "hybrid geometry" model (full 3D seed geometry merged in 3D mesh of voxels) is used for rigorous treatment of the interseed attenuation and tissue heterogeneity effects. MCPI is benchmarked against the MCNP5 code for idealized and real implants, for Pd103 and I125 seeds. MCPI calculates the dose distribution (2-mm voxel mesh) of a Pd103 implant (83 seeds) with 2% average statistical uncertainty in 59 s using a single Pentium 4 PC (2.4 GHz). MCPI is more than 103 and 104 times faster than MCNP5 for prostate dose calculations using 2- and 1-mm voxels, respectively. To illustrate its usefulness, MCPI is used to quantify the dosimetric effects of interseed attenuation, tissue composition, and tissue calcifications. Ignoring the interseed attenuation effect or slightly varying the prostate tissue composition may lead to 6% decreases of D100, the dose delivered to 100% of the prostate. The presence of calcifications, covering 1%-5% of the prostate volume, decreases D80, D90, and D100 by up to 32%, 37%, and 58%, respectively. In conclusion, sub-minute dose calculations, taking into account all dosimetric effects, are now possible for more accurate dose planning and dose assessment in prostate brachytherapy.
Chance interventions – on bricolage and the state as an entrepreneur in a declining industry

In this paper, we develop the notion of bricolage by paying attention to the role of chance in the same, rather than approaching it from the perspective of control and agency. We argue that the concept of chance can be used to downplay the common tendency to focus on individual agency in bricolage, proposing an alternative understanding of the latter as constellations of resources coming together in unexpected combinations. We situate our theoretical argument in the for bricolage understudied context of a declining industry, where we focus on the role of chance in how resources are combined and separated in state interventions, connecting to the literature on the ‘state as entrepreneur’. Three episodes from the Swedish state-owned shipping companies Zenit and Uddevalla Shipping during the shipping crisis of the 1970s and 1980s are used to illustrate how state intervention can be imbued with chance and serendipity.
On Pre-Conditioning of Matrices

Some of the difficulties encountered in the problem of obtaining the elgenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix appear to be due to the fact tha t its eigenvalues are small compared to its norm. Examples provided in section 3 tend to verify this statement. In section 2 the possibility of applying norm-reducing similarity transformations to A is briefly considered, leading to a decision to restrict the transforming matrices to being diagonal. To justify this, examples are given in section 3. These indicate tha t floating-point matrix computations involving the selection of pivotal elements and the formation of inner products may be benefited. Such transformations by diagonal matrices also provide a means for scaling a matrix for fixed-point computations. In section 4, an iterative process is presented and its convergence is proved. In what follows, let A be an n th order matrix with complex elements and with eigenvalues h~(A) (i = 1, 2, . . , n) . The symbol II x II is used to denote the Euclidean norm
Representation of Grammatical Categories of Words in the Brain

Abstract We report the performance of a patient who, as a consequence of left frontal and temporoparietal strokes, makes far more errors on nouns than on verbs in spoken output tasks, but makes far more errors on verbs than on nouns in written input tasks. This double dissociation within a single patient with respect to grammatical category provides evidence for the hypothesis that phonological and orthographic representations of nouns and verbs are processed by independent neural mechanisms. Furthermore, the opposite dissociation in the verbal output modality, an advantage for nouns over verbs in spoken tasks, by a different patient using the same stimuli has also been reported (Caramazza & Hillis, 1991). This double dissociation across patients on the same task indicates that results cannot be ascribed to "greater difficulty" with one type of stimulus, and provides further evidence for the view that grammatical category information is an important organizational principle of lexical knowledge in the brain.
Antagonism of CD11b with Neutrophil Inhibitory Factor (NIF) Inhibits Vascular Lesions in Diabetic Retinopathy

Leukocytes and proteins that govern leukocyte adhesion to endothelial cells play a causal role in retinal abnormalities characteristic of the early stages of diabetic retinopathy, including diabetes-induced degeneration of retinal capillaries. Leukocyte integrin αmβ2 (CD11b/CD18, MAC1), a protein mediating adhesion, has been shown to mediate damage to endothelial cells by activated leukocytes in vitro. We hypothesized that Neutrophil Inhibitory Factor (NIF), a selective antagonist of integrin αmβ2, would inhibit the diabetes-induced degeneration of retinal capillaries by inhibiting the excessive interaction between leukocytes and retinal endothelial cells in diabetes. Wild type animals and transgenic animals expressing NIF were made diabetic with streptozotocin and assessed for diabetes-induced retinal vascular abnormalities and leukocyte activation. To assess if the leukocyte blocking therapy compromised the immune system, animals were challenged with bacteria. Retinal superoxide production, leukostasis and leukocyte superoxide production were increased in wild type mice diabetic for 10 weeks, as was the ability of leukocytes isolated from diabetic animals to kill retinal endothelial cells in vitro. Retinal capillary degeneration was significantly increased in wild type mice diabetic 40 weeks. In contrast, mice expressing NIF did not develop any of these abnormalities, with the exception that non-diabetic and diabetic mice expressing NIF generated greater amounts of superoxide than did similar mice not expressing NIF. Importantly, NIF did not significantly impair the ability of mice to clear an opportunistic bacterial challenge, suggesting that NIF did not compromise immune surveillance. We conclude that antagonism of CD11b (integrin αmβ2) by NIF is sufficient to inhibit early stages of diabetic retinopathy, while not compromising the basic immune response.
A new kind of normal: Qualitative accounts of Multifamily Group Therapy for acquired brain injury

Acquired brain injuries (ABI) can have a major impact on social participation, causing increased social isolation and emotional distress for people with the injury and their family members. Multifamily Group Therapy (MFGT) provides information, resources, problem-solving strategies and opportunities for social networking for families where one member has an illness. By qualitatively examining the experience of group participation from the perspectives of both individuals with ABI and their family members, the present study aimed to elucidate the processes underlying and factors influencing success of facilitated MFG programmes with families impacted by ABI. Following participation in the 12-week MFGT, 29 individuals with brain injury and 30 caregivers participated in 90-minute, semi-structured focus groups. The overarching theme emerging from the transcripts was that of “Finding One's Place”, with sub-themes of Connectedness, Identity, and Knowledge and Understanding. The MFGT experience made a contribution to participants' efforts to find their place in the world after an ABI. This was enhanced by connection with others within the group, sharing experiences, the development of self and family identity, and the gaining of knowledge and understanding. These findings consolidate a growing literature, which points to the importance of “Reconstruction of a place in the world” and “Reconstruction of personhood” in ABI recovery.