Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intestinal microbiota determines development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice

Objective Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is prevalent among obese people and is considered the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome. However, not all obese individuals develop NAFLD. Our objective was to demonstrate the role of the gut microbiota in NAFLD development using transplantation experiments in mice. Design Two donor C57BL/6J mice were selected on the basis of their responses to a high-fat diet (HFD). Although both mice displayed similar body weight gain, one mouse, called the ‘responder’, developed hyperglycaemia and had a high plasma concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The other, called a ‘non-responder’, was normoglycaemic and had a lower level of systemic inflammation. Germ-free mice were colonised with intestinal microbiota from either the responder or the non-responder and then fed the same HFD. Results Mice that received microbiota from different donors developed comparable obesity on the HFD. The responder-receiver (RR) group developed fasting hyperglycaemia and insulinaemia, whereas the non-responder-receiver (NRR) group remained normoglycaemic. In contrast to NRR mice, RR mice developed hepatic macrovesicular steatosis, which was confirmed by a higher liver concentration of triglycerides and increased expression of genes involved in de-novo lipogenesis. Pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA genes revealed that RR and NRR mice had distinct gut microbiota including differences at the phylum, genera and species levels. Conclusions Differences in microbiota composition can determine response to a HFD in mice. These results further demonstrate that the gut microbiota contributes to the development of NAFLD independently of obesity.
A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Risk-Reduction Strategies Targeted at Older Drivers

Objective. The risk of motor-vehicle collisions increases as driving-related functional abilities decline. These declines can accompany normal or pathological aging and can be identified through driving-related functional screening exams upon license renewal. The objective of this cost-benefit analysis was to determine the utility of four functional screening procedures used to identify drivers at risk for motor-vehicle collisions, as well as an intervention designed to maintain or improve functional abilities. Additionally, this study sought to determine the expected cost per driver if an intervention was designed to target only those drivers who failed the functional ability-based driving screen, versus the expected cost per driver if the intervention was distributed en masse to all drivers 75 years and older. Improving functional abilities in older adults has potential far-reaching health and financial impacts which are broader than their impact of maintaining mobility. Methods. A decision tree was constructed to evaluate the expected costs and benefits of (a) screening all drivers and intervening when indicated (several screening batteries of varying length were considered), (b) no screening, but intervening with all drivers of older age, or (c) neither screening nor intervening (i.e., re-licensing per usual). Test characteristics and risk probabilities were based on a cohort of drivers aged 75 and older from a previous study (Ball et al., 2006). Relevant sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results. Providing all drivers with the speed-of-processing intervention is the most cost-beneficial option (expected cost per driver = $493.30), even if the cost of the intervention doubles. Sensitivity analysis indicated the effectiveness of the intervention could drop from 86% to 25% and the preventative approach of intervening with all drivers remains the most cost-beneficial strategy. The least cost-beneficial option is almost always re-licensing per usual (expected cost per driver = $1,562.84). Conclusion. Screening drivers upon license renewal is not currently beneficial because the available technology cannot consistently identify drivers at risk for a collision. However, the speed-of-processing intervention has demonstrated efficacy in improving driving competence (Roenker et al., 2003) and is a non-invasive, moderate-cost intervention that has the potential to protect the safety and mobility, as well as the financial interests, of older drivers and the community at large.
Treatment of Diabetic Foot Infections: Wagner Classification, Therapy, and Outcome

A total of 850 cases of septic diabetic foot infections were reviewed in 355 patients. Age, sex, other chronic diseases, site, etiology, Wagner grade, treatment, and results were analyzed. One third of the patients were in their sixth decade of life. There were 180 women and 175 men. Chronic diseases included hypertension, congestive heart disease, and renal failure. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common bacteria. Treatment was considered to meet protocol standards if Wagner's algorithms and infectious disease principles were followed. Thirty-nine Wagner grade 0 infections were seen: only one was not treated appropriately. Eighty-eight percent treated per protocol healed and the one not treated appropriately failed. In grade 1, 79% of the 154 evaluable patients were treated appropriately with a 86% success rate versus a 53% success rate for those not treated per protocol. Of three quarters of the 64 patients with grade 2 infections treated according to protocol, 73% healed. One of those in grade 2 who was not treated according to protocol healed. In grade 3,64% of the 251 patients were treated per protocol with a 79% success rate versus a 12% success rate for those who were not treated per protocol. Most of the 189 patients with grade 4 cases were treated according to protocol with 88% success; the 20 not treated per protocol had a 15% success rate. Thirty of the 32 grade 5 patients were treated per protocol and all but one healed. Protocol therapy had a statistically significant effect by χ2 test in the treatment of all groups.
Self-concept evaluation and migraine without aura in childhood

Introduction Self-esteem is related to the broadly understood concept of self-schemas and is a crucial mechanism for a correct psychological development in children and adolescents. The impact of the many psychological difficulties linked to the migraine without aura (MoA) and recurrent headache attacks, such as anger and separation anxiety, on self-esteem has not yet been well investigated. The aims of the present study were to assess self-esteem levels in an objective way and to verify their possible relationship and correlation with the frequency and intensity of migraine attacks, in a population of children and adolescents affected by MoA. Methods The study population was comprised of 185 children (88 males [M],97 females [F]) aged between 6 and 12 years (mean 9.04 ± 2.41 years) referred consecutively for MoA to the Center for Childhood Headache, Clinic of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, Second University of Naples and of 203 healthy controls (95 M, 108 F) with mean age 9.16 ± 2.37 years, recruited from schools in Campania. The monthly headache frequency and the mean headache duration were assessed from daily headache diaries kept by all the children, and MoA intensity was assessed on a VAS (visual analog scale). To further evaluate their level of self-concept, all subjects filled out the Multidimensional Self-Concept Scale (MSCS). Results The two study groups were comparable for age (P = 0.621), sex (P = 0.960), and z-score BMI (P = 0.102). The MoA group showed a significant reduction in the MSCS total score (P < 0.001) and in the Social (P < 0.001), Affect (P < 0.001), Family (P < 0.001), and Physical (P < 0.001) domains of the MSCS compared with the control group. The Pearson’s correlation analysis showed a significantly negative relationship between MoA clinical characteristics and MSCS scores, and similarly the frequency of attacks was significantly negatively related with the Social (r = −0.3176; P < 0.001), Competence (r = −0.2349; P = 0.001), Physical (r = −0.2378; P = 0.001), and total (r = −0.2825; P < 0.001) scores of the MSCS. On the other hand, the MoA duration was significantly negatively related with the Social (r = −0.1878; P = 0.01), Competence (r = −0.2270; P = 0.002), Physical (r = −0.1976; P = 0.007), and total (r = −0.1903; P = 0.009) scores of the MSCS. Conclusion Our study first identified differences in self-esteem levels, with an objective tool, in children affected by MoA compared with controls, suggesting the need for evaluation of self-esteem for better psychological pediatric management of children with migraine.
The Remembered Self: Emotion and Memory in Personality

In The Remembered Self Jefferson A. Singer and Peter Salovey persuasively argue that memories are an important window into one's life story, revealing characteristic moods, motives, and thinking patterns. Through experimental evidence, clinical case material, and examples from literature, the authors offer a fresh perspective on the role of memory in personality and clinical psychology. They demonstrate how certain repetitive memories help shape our emotional responses to present situations. These same memories are in turn re-remembered and mis-remembered through the lens of our most passionate goals. Singer and Salovey discuss the specific role of mood's influence on what and how we remember, and they explain how a person's self-defining memories may serve as archetypes of the personality's most central themes. The authors also show how identifying and understanding key narrative memories can lead to more effective psychotherapy. Finally, the authors propose that a renewed emphasis on conscious thought and narrative memory may provide an integrative bridge among personality, social, clinical, and cognitive psychologists. Such an approach, the authors argue, could reduce the tension between heavily quantitative psychologists and qualitatively oriented phenomenologists, leading to a more inclusive and complex vision of the whole person. Organized in four parts, the book begins by introducing a new theoretical perspective on memory content and organization in personality and goes on to present research evidence in support of this theory. The second part illustrates how memory content can be influenced by mood states, attentional processes, and biases of the self. The third part ofthe book links the previous theoretical and experimental work to the practice of psychotherapy. Finally, the last chapter attempts to locate the philosophy and methods advocated in the book into a larger debate occurring at present in psychology. Unlike the conventional psychoanalytic approach to memory which concentrates on what is forgotten, Singer and Salovey treat memory in a new and different way with an emphasis on what is remembered. Theirs is a bold new theory of memory and self that is both comprehensive and accessible.
Legal abortion levels and trends by woman's age at termination.

CONTEXT Assessments of abortion levels and trends by women's age at termination can be used to monitor trends in unintended pregnancy by age and can inform relevant programs and policies. METHODS Legal abortion incidence data were compiled from national statistical offices and nationally representative surveys of more than 40 countries where legal abortion is generally available. Age-specific abortion rates and percentage distributions of abortions by age were computed, and trends since 1996 and 2003 were examined. Subregional and regional estimates were developed for geographic areas where the majority of the population was represented by the data. RESULTS The median year for the most recent estimates of abortions by woman's age was 2009. Adolescents accounted for a smaller share of abortions than their share of the population in the majority of eligible countries with data. In most countries, the highest age-specific abortion rates and proportions of abortions were among women aged 20-29. Since 1996, adolescent abortion rates have increased the most in Belgium, the Netherlands and Scotland (22-42%), and have decreased the most in Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Slovakia and Slovenia (40-55%). The proportion of abortions obtained by adolescents was higher in North America (18%) than in Europe overall (11%), although the proportion in Northern Europe (18%) was the same as that in North America. CONCLUSIONS Higher abortion rates in particular age-groups probably reflect higher-than-average levels of unmet need for contraception or difficulty using methods consistently and effectively, and a stronger desire to avoid childbearing. Each of the patterns observed has implications for service and information needs within countries.
Representing Discourse Coherence: A Corpus-Based Study

This article aims to present a set of discourse structure relations that are easy to code and to develop criteria for an appropriate data structure for representing these relations. Discourse structure here refers to informational relations that hold between sentences in a discourse. The set of discourse relations introduced here is based on Hobbs (1985). We present a method for annotating discourse coherence structures that we used to manually annotate a database of 135 texts from the Wall Street Journal and the AP Newswire. Alltexts were independently annotated by two annotators. Kappa values of greater than 0.8 indicated good interannotator agreement. We furthermore present evidence that trees are not a descriptively adequate data structure for representing discourse structure: In coherence structures of naturally occurring texts, we found many different kinds of crossed dependencies, as well as many nodes with multiple parents. The claims are supported by statistical results from our hand-annotated database of 135 texts.
Local distance functions: A taxonomy, new algorithms, and an evaluation

We present a taxonomy for local distance functions where most existing algorithms can be regarded as approximations of the geodesic distance defined by a metric tensor. We categorize existing algorithms by how, where and when they estimate the metric tensor. We also extend the taxonomy along each axis. How: We introduce hybrid algorithms that use a combination of dimensionality reduction and metric learning to ameliorate over-fitting. Where: We present an exact polynomial time algorithm to integrate the metric tensor along the lines between the test and training points under the assumption that the metric tensor is piecewise constant. When: We propose an interpolation algorithm where the metric tensor is sampled at a number of references points during the offline phase, which are then interpolated during online classification. We also present a comprehensive evaluation of all the algorithms on tasks in face recognition, object recognition, and digit recognition.
Non-Citizen Mexican Youth in US Higher Education: A Closer Look at the Relationship between State Tuition Policies and College Enrollment 1

This paper examines state policies that extend or deny in-state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Using the Current Population Survey (1997–2010), we assess changes in college enrollment among Mexican-born non-citizens — a proxy for the undocumented population. In contrast to previous analyses, we find that policies extending in-state tuition to undocumented youth do not directly affect rates of college enrollment. However, we find that Mexican-born non-citizen youth residing in states that deny in-state tuition have a 12.1 percentage point lower probability of being enrolled in college than their peers living in states with no such policies.
Illusions of Parental Control: Parenting and Smoking Onset in Dutch and Swedish Adolescents1

Parental control is assumed to be associated with smoking onset: Parents who exert control on their children and monitor their children's behavior are less likely to have children who start to smoke. However, the empirical evidence for this assumption is mostly from cross-sectional studies. The present research examined the prospective associations between parental control and smoking onset among Dutch and Swedish adolescents and their parents. Findings revealed nonsignificant links between general parental control and smoking onset in both samples, and no link between smoking-specific parental control and smoking onset in the Dutch sample, thereby questioning the assumption that parental control prevents adolescent smoking onset.
Astrocytic TRPV1 ion channels detect blood‐borne signals in the sensory circumventricular organs of adult mouse brains

The circumventricular organs (CVOs), including the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT), subfornical organ (SFO), and area postrema (AP) sense a variety of blood‐borne molecules because they lack typical blood‐brain barrier. Though a few signaling pathways are known, it is not known how endogenous ligands for transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor 1 ion channel (TRPV1) are sensed in the CVOs. In this study, we aimed to examine whether or not astrocytic TRPV1 senses directly blood‐borne molecules in the OVLT, SFO, and AP of adult mice. The reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction and Western analysis revealed the expression of TRPV1 in the CVOs. Confocal microscopic immunohistochemistry further showed that TRPV1 was localized prominently at thick cellular processes of astrocytes rather than fine cellular processes and cell bodies. TRPV1‐expressing cellular processes of astrocytes surrounded the vasculature to constitute dense networks. The expression of TRPV1 was also found at neuronal dendrites but not somata in the CVOs. The intravenous administration of a TRPV1 agonist resiniferatoxin (RTX) prominently induced Fos expression at astrocytes in the OVLT, SFO, and AP and neurons in adjacent related nuclei of the median preoptic nuclei (MnPO) and nucleus of the solitary tract (Sol) of wild‐type but not TRPV1‐knockout mice. The intracerebroventricular infusion of RTX induced Fos expression at both astrocytes and neurons in the CVOs, MnPO, and Sol. Thus, this study demonstrates that blood‐borne molecules are sensed directly by astrocytic TRPV1 of the CVOs in adult mammalians.
Use of cRNA probes for the detection of enteroviruses by molecular hybridization

Subgenomic fragments of cDNA from poliovirus type 1 were inserted downstream from the SP6 or the T7 promoter in a Gemini riboprobe vector and their in vitro synthesized RNA transcripts were used as radiolabeled probes for the detection of enteroviral RNAs by molecular hybridization. The cRNA transcripts appeared to be more sensitive probes than the corresponding cDNAs. In vitro transcripts of the 5′ noncoding region (5′ nc riboprobe) were able to detect all of 14 reference enterovirus strains tested, as well as human rhinovirus 2, by dot blot hybridization with infected cell lysates. The same riboprobe also detected the enteroviral RNAs present in 16 of 18 samples of successive passages of stools in tissue culture and in some cases even in crude stool extracts. A riboprobe from the VP 1 region detected specifically poliovirus types 1,2, and 3 in lysates of infected cells and in 50% of the infected stool specimens tested. These probes could be of particular interest for the epidemic survey of poliovirus infections.
Prevalence of Gene Rearrangements in Mexican Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Population Study—Report from the Mexican Interinstitutional Group for the Identification of the Causes of Childhood Leukemia

Mexico has one of the highest incidences of childhood leukemia worldwide and significantly higher mortality rates for this disease compared with other countries. One possible cause is the high prevalence of gene rearrangements associated with the etiology or with a poor prognosis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The aims of this multicenter study were to determine the prevalence of the four most common gene rearrangements [ETV6-RUNX1, TCF3-PBX1, BCR-ABL1, and MLL rearrangements] and to explore their relationship with mortality rates during the first year of treatment in ALL children from Mexico City. Patients were recruited from eight public hospitals during 2010–2012. A total of 282 bone marrow samples were obtained at each child's diagnosis for screening by conventional and multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction to determine the gene rearrangements. Gene rearrangements were detected in 50 (17.7%) patients. ETV6-RUNX1 was detected in 21 (7.4%) patients, TCF3-PBX1 in 20 (7.1%) patients, BCR-ABL1 in 5 (1.8%) patients, and MLL rearrangements in 4 (1.4%) patients. The earliest deaths occurred at months 1, 2, and 3 after diagnosis in patients with MLL, ETV6-RUNX1, and BCR-ABL1 gene rearrangements, respectively. Gene rearrangements could be related to the aggressiveness of leukemia observed in Mexican children.
Shear wave elastography of the placenta in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus

To evaluate placental elasticty in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and non-diabetic controls. Thirty-three pregnant women with GDM according to the current criteria of the American Diabetes Association and 43 healthy pregnant women who were admitted to the antenatal clinic were recruited for this case–control study. Elasticity values of both the peripheral and the central parts of the placentas of the patients in both groups were determined by shear wave elastography (SWE) imaging. Mean elasticity values of both the central and the peripheral part of the placentas were significantly higher in GDM pregnancies (p < 0.001). No difference was observed in the mean elasticity values of the central and the peripheral part of the placentas in two groups (p > 0.05). SWE imaging technology might provide a quantitative assessment of the morphological pathologies of placentas in pregnant women with GDM.
Nurse-led liaison psychiatry service for older adults: service evaluation

AIMS AND METHOD To comprehensively describe a nurseled consultation liaison service for older adults by retrospectively reviewing all referrals received in 2006 and comparing them against other services and benchmark reports. RESULTS Of the 298 individuals referred to psychiatric services from other hospital wards, 120 were aged 85–94 years old (40%), 193 were male (65%) and 152 were referred from geriatrics (51%). A majority of 204 have not had previous contact with psychiatric services (69%). The most common diagnosis was dementia (33%, n =88), with 27% individuals ( n =65) being referred onwards to secondary care. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS This nurse-led service, using a novel approach of a support worker providing further community support, functions well compared with traditional consultation models. It helps identify many individuals with dementia and engages them into community psychiatric services.
Hierarchical relational models for document networks

We develop the relational topic model (RTM), a hierarchical model of both network structure and node attributes. We focus on document networks, where the attributes of each document are its words, that is, discrete observations taken from a fixed vocabulary. For each pair of documents, the RTM models their link as a binary random variable that is conditioned on their contents. The model can be used to summarize a network of documents, predict links between them, and predict words within them. We derive efficient inference and estimation algorithms based on variational methods that take advantage of sparsity and scale with the number of links. We evaluate the predictive performance of the RTM for large networks of scientific abstracts, web documents, and geographically tagged news.