Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The combined effects of serum lipids, BMI, and fatty liver on 18F-FDG uptake in the liver in a large population from China: an 18F-FDG-PET/CT study

ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to investigate the combined effects of serum lipids, BMI, and fatty liver on the liver uptake of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG). MethodsA total of 676 individuals were retrospectively studied. The mean standardized uptake value (SUV) was used to quantify liver 18F-FDG uptake. Univariate analyses and multivariate regression models identified variables that predicted the mean liver SUV before and after dichotomizing participants into low and high BMI groups. ResultsThe mean liver SUV (1.831±0.417) differed significantly among nutritional categories (P=0.005) and degrees of fatty liver (P<0.001). An increase in mean liver SUV was noted in individuals with mild and moderate fatty liver compared with normal individuals and in overweight individuals compared with underweight individuals, whereas a downward trend was identified in both individuals with severe fatty liver and those who were obese. BMI had the strongest association with severity of fatty liver (r=0.443, P<0.001). Triglyceride, HDL, apolipoprotein-A, age, and BMI were independent variables predicting liver SUV mean in the whole population, whereas fatty liver severity presented as an independent variable only in the low BMI population (P=0.031). ConclusionBMI, age, triglyceride, HDL, and apolipoprotein-A were independent variables predicting liver 18F-FDG uptake. Mild and moderate degree of fatty liver had a positive effect on liver 18F-FDG uptake, whereas a severe degree of fatty liver negatively affected 18F-FDG uptake. Attention should be paid to liver metabolism in patients with fatty liver before using liver as the comparator in determining focal 18F-FDG uptake elsewhere within the abdomen.
Condição auditiva de frentistas

OBJETIVO: avaliar os limiares auditivos nas frequencias convencionais e altas frequencias, e ainda a integridade do arco reflexo, em frentistas. METODO: foram avaliados frentistas de tres postos de gasolina da cidade de Santa Maria/RS. Apos adequacao aos criterios de inclusao, a amostra ficou composta por 24 frentistas expostos a combustiveis, 21 do genero masculino e tres do genero feminino, com faixa etaria entre 20 e 40 anos. Os exames utilizados foram audiometria tonal liminar, audiometria de altas frequencias e imitanciometria. O tempo de exposicao variou de um a 17 anos. O grupo controle foi composto por 24 sujeitos nao expostos a qualquer agente nocivo a audicao. RESULTADOS: a media dos limiares da audiometria tonal liminar e da audiometria de altas frequencias foi superior no grupo estudo em todas as frequencias testadas. Verificou-se diferenca de limiar estatisticamente significante nas frequencias de 0,5 (p=0,004), 2 (p=0,001) e 3 kHz (p=0,025), e nas frequencias de 9 (p=0,007) e 10 kHz (p=0,026). Os limiares das frequencias de 12,5 e 14 kHz nao diferiram estatisticamente (p>0,05). Em 16, 18 e 20 kHz foi observada maior ausencia de respostas no grupo estudo (p>0,05). Tambem se observou maior ausencia de reflexos acusticos (ipsi e contralateral) no grupo estudo, na orelha direita. Na orelha esquerda, nao houve diferenca entre os grupos, para a ocorrencia do reflexo ipsilateral. A ausencia de reflexo contralateral foi maior no grupo estudo em todas as frequencias testadas. CONCLUSAO: frentistas com limiares auditivos normais podem apresentar alteracoes cocleares e centrais.
Creating Something from Nothing: Resource Construction through Entrepreneurial Bricolage

A field study of 29 resource-constrained firms that varied dramatically in their responses to similar objective environments is used to examine the process by which entrepreneurs in resource-poor environments were able to render unique services by recombining elements at hand for new purposes that challenged institutional definitions and limits. We found that Lévi-Strauss's concept of bricolage—making do with what is at hand—explained many of the behaviors we observed in small firms that were able to create something from nothing by exploiting physical, social, or institutional inputs that other firms rejected or ignored. We demonstrate the socially constructed nature of resource environments and the role of bricolage in this construction. Using our field data and the existing literature on bricolage, we advance a formal definition of entrepreneurial bricolage and induce the beginnings of a process model of bricolage and firm growth. Central to our contribution is the notion that companies engaging in bricolage refuse to enact the limitations imposed by dominant definitions of resource environments, suggesting that, for understanding entrepreneurial behavior, a constructivist approach to resource environments is more fruitful than objectivist views.
Manganese acquisition is facilitated by PilA in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Manganese is an essential element required by cyanobacteria, as it is an essential part of the oxygen-evolving center of photosystem II. In the presence of atmospheric oxygen, manganese is present as manganese oxides, which have low solubility and consequently provide low bioavailability. It is unknown if cyanobacteria are able to utilize these manganese sources, and what mechanisms may be employed to do so. Recent evidence suggests that type IV pili in non-photosynthetic bacteria facilitate electron donation to extracellular electron acceptors, thereby enabling metal acquisition. Our present study investigates whether PilA1 (major pilin protein of type IV pili) enables the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6808 to access to Mn from manganese oxides. We present physiological and spectroscopic data, which indicate that the presence of PilA1 enhances the ability of cyanobacteria to grow on manganese oxides. These observations suggest a role of PilA1-containing pili in cyanobacterial manganese acquisition.
Reputations for Toughness in Patent Enforcement: Implications for Knowledge Spillovers via Inventor Mobility

"Job hopping" by scientists and engineers is an important channel for knowledge diffusion. Little is known, however, about the effectiveness of actions firms take to reduce the outward flow of know-how and talent from their own organizations. Building on theories of reputation-building and strategic deterrence, this study investigates the moderating effects of corporate reputations for "toughness" in the enforcement of patents. Drawing on a unique database of enforcement activity, inter-firm inventor mobility events, and patent citations in the U.S. semiconductor industry, we find that a firm's litigiousness significantly curtails the dissemination of knowledge anticipated from employee departures, particularly to firms that are relatively disadvantaged to fund or withstand a legal dispute (i.e., that are small, young, or private). The overall effects are similar in magnitude for California-based firms relative to firms headquartered in other states. The study sheds new light on the strategic levers firms use to capture value from investments in human capital and R&D.
Super-moonshine for Conway's largest sporadic group

We study a self-dual N=1 super vertex operator algebra and prove that the full symmetry group is Conway's largest sporadic simple group. We verify a uniqueness result which is analogous to that conjectured to characterize the Moonshine vertex operator algebra. The action of the automorphism group is sufficiently transparent that one can derive explicit expressions for all the McKay-Thompson series. A corollary of the construction is that the perfect double cover of the Conway group may be characterized as a point-stabilizer in a spin module for the Spin group associated to a 24 dimensional Euclidean space.
Effects of game location and final outcome on game-related statistics in each zone of the pitch in professional football

Abstract The aim of this large-scale study of elite professional football teams was to identify the independent and interactive effects of game location and final outcome on football game-related statistics according to the zone of the pitch in which they occurred. The sample consisted of 1900 games played over five seasons (from 2003–2004 to 2007–2008) of the Spanish Professional Football League. Factor analysis with principal components was applied to the game-related statistics recorded from the games, which limited the analysis to four factors (Factor 1: Turnovers in zone 5.2 and Crosses in zone 4; Factor 2: Goals and shots in zone 5.1, Turnovers in zone 4, and Ball recover in zone 2; Factor 3: Goals and shots in zone 5.2; and Factor 4: Turnovers in zone 5.1). Zone 2 was between the defensive semi-circle area and midfield circle, Zone 4 was between the midfield circle and offensive semi-circle area, Zone 5.1 was the offensive goal area, and Zone 5.2 was the offensive small area). A mixed linear model was applied to identify the effects of game location and final outcome on the previously identified factors. Game location and final outcome main effects were identified for all factors, with home and winning teams having better values. The interaction Location×Outcome was only significant for Factor 4 (Turnovers in zone 5.1). When playing at home, teams had higher frequencies for all analysed variables, probably resulting from home advantage factors such as facility familiarity and/or crowd. Additionally, winning teams’ exhibited different and consistent profiles from drawing and losing teams, mainly discriminated by their ability to recover the ball in Zone 2 and to organize the offence using penetrative passes to Zones 5.2 and 5.1 to increase the number of shots and consequently goals. The trends identified may provide important information for modelling high-level performances.
Suppression of growth and increased cellular attachment after expression of DAL‐1 in MCF‐7 breast cancer cells

The differentially expressed in adenocarcinoma of the lung (DAL‐1) gene, which shares significant homology with members of the 4.1/ezrin/radixin/moesin/neurofibromatosis 2 (ERM/NF2) protein family, has previously been shown to suppress growth in lung cancer cell lines. This gene localizes to chromosome band 18p11.3, which undergoes loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in nonsmall cell lung carcinomas and a significant proportion of ductal carcinomas in situ (DCIS) of the breast. This finding suggests that alteration of gene(s) (possibly DAL‐1) within this chromosomal region may be important early in the progression of breast disease. We generated MCF‐7 cell lines expressing DAL‐1 constitutively or under the control of an inducible promoter and analyzed the effect of DAL‐1 expression on growth. These investigations revealed that the DAL‐1 protein suppresses the growth of MCF‐7 cells and may do so in part through the induction of apoptosis. In addition, expression of DAL‐1 increased attachment of these cells to a variety of extracellular matrices. This is the first evidence that the DAL‐1 protein functions at the interface between cell adhesion and apoptosis in controlling cell growth. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Long-Term Sequelae of Childhood Sexual Abuse in Women: A Meta-Analytic Review

The authors conducted a meta-analytic review of the relationship between a history of child sexual abuse (CSA) and psychological problems in adult women in 38 studies meeting rigorous research criteria. Across all symptoms, a significant association was found between history of CSA and adult symptomatology. Analysis of the role of moderating variables indicated the associations were stronger among subjects recruited from clinical populations. When individual symptom domains were examined, anxiety, anger, depression, revictimization, self-mutilation, sexual problems, substance abuse, suicidality, impairment of self-concept, interpersonal problems, obsessions and compulsions, dissociation, posttraumatic stress responses, and somatization all yielded significant associations with sexual abuse. These results are discussed in light of their relevance to research methodology and clinical intervention.
Life skills as predictors of engagement in health risk behaviours: a survey of secondary school learners

There is consensus that education on the prevention of health risk behaviour and an increased repertoire of life skills could facilitate a reduction in health risk behaviours. This article reports on the results of a survey among 1027 grades 8-10 learners aged 13-18 years and profiles their engagement in smoking, drug use, drinking and sexual activity. It reports on the hypothesis testing for the relationship between life skills, as measured by the Life Effectiveness Questionnaire (LEQ), and engagement in the above mentioned health risk behaviours, as measured by the Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance Survey (YRBSS). The results concur with South African national surveys of youth risk behaviour regarding the nature and extent of engagement in health risk behaviours. Regression analyses indicated that the combination of the
World War II, Missing Men and Out of Wedlock Childbearing

Based on county-level census data for the German state of Bavaria in 1939 and 1946, we use World War II as a natural experiment to study the effects of sex ratio changes on out-of-wedlock fertility. Our findings show that war-induced shortfalls of men to women significantly increased the nonmarital fertility ratio at mid century, a result that proves robust to the use of alternative sex ratio definitions, post-war measures of fertility, and estimation samples. The magnitude of this increase furthermore appears to depend on the future marriage market prospects that women at the time could expect to face in the not-too-distant future. We find the positive effect on the nonmarital fertility ratio of a decline in the sex ratio to be strongly attenuated by the magnitude of county- level shares of prisoners of war. Unlike military casualties and soldiers missing in action, prisoners of war had a sizeable positive probability of returning home from the war. Both current marriage market conditions, therefore, and foreseeable improvements in the future marriage market prospects of women appear to have influenced fertility behavior in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
Prejudice in the police: On the processes underlying the effects of selection and group socialisation

The principal aim of this study is to determine why police officers are generally found to be more prejudiced towards disadvantaged groups than are the standard population. Two independent processes were expected to account for this effect: Selection and group socialisation. Using a cross-sectional design (N = 170), firstly, we compared, newly recruited police officers with a control population (selection effect), and secondly, police officers with 1 year of training with the newly recruited ones (group socialisation effect). Results reveal a significant effect of both selection and group socialisation, the two being underlined by distinct processes; right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) in the case of the former and internalisation of a prejudice norm in the case of the latter. Finally, the results show that group identification moderates the change in internalisation of the prejudice norm. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Protocols and Challenges to the Creation of a Cross-Disciplinary Journal

In 2006, the Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy (OJRRP) was launched. The publication is an example of the ability of academia to create narrowly defined scholarly journals aimed at a small, targeted readership while relying on a meagre budget. This article discusses the factors that fostered the creation of hundreds of online-only journals, as well as providing a case study of the creation of OJRRP and the long-term implications of online cross-disciplinary publications. Areas covered include sponsorship, editorial board, editorial staff, software, link rot, code, promotional activities, tracking and supporting usage, and, perhaps most importantly, long-term sustainability. The OJRRP experience is presented along with lessons learned in each area.
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome affects liver histology and inflammatory cell activation in pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, regardless of obesity/insulin resistance.

RATIONALE Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are frequently encountered in obese children. Whether OSAS and intermittent hypoxia are associated with liver injury in pediatric NAFLD is unknown. OBJECTIVES To assess the relationship of OSAS with liver injury in pediatric NAFLD. METHODS Sixty-five consecutive children with biopsy-proven NAFLD (age, mean ± SD, 11.7 ± 2.1 yr; 58% boys; body mass index z score, 1.93 ± 0.61) underwent a clinical-biochemical assessment and a standard polysomnography. Insulin sensitivity, circulating proinflammatory cytokines, markers of hepatocyte apoptosis (cytokeratin-18 fragments), and hepatic fibrogenesis (hyaluronic acid) were measured. Liver inflammatory infiltrate was characterized by immunohistochemistry for CD45, CD3, and CD163, surface markers of leukocytes, T cells, and activated macrophage/Kupffer cells, respectively. OSAS was defined by an apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) greater than or equal to 1 event/h, and severe OSAS was defined by an AHI greater than or equal to 5 events/h. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Fifty-five percent of children with NAFLD had nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and 34% had significant (stage F ≥ 2) fibrosis. OSAS affected 60% of children with NAFLD; the presence and severity of OSAS were associated with the presence of NASH (odds ratio, 4.89; 95% confidence interval, 3.08-5.98; P = 0.0001), significant fibrosis (odds ratio, 5.91; 95% confidence interval, 3.23-7.42; P = 0.0001), and NAFLD activity score (β, 0.347; P = 0.029), independently of body mass index, abdominal adiposity, metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance. This relationship held also in nonobese children with NAFLD. The duration of hemoglobin desaturation (Sa(O2) < 90%) correlated with increased intrahepatic leukocytes and activated macrophages/Kupffer cells and with circulating markers of hepatocyte apoptosis and fibrogenesis. CONCLUSIONS In pediatric NAFLD, OSAS is associated with biochemical, immunohistochemical, and histological features of NASH and fibrosis. The impact of hypoxemia correction on liver disease severity warrants evaluation in future trials.
Ethics and Participation: Reflections on Research with Street Children

There are important ethical issues that must be carefully thought through when undertaking research with children. This paper explores how the context of such issues changes with the individual circumstances of the children involved, particularly when they are marginalised or excluded by wider society. By reflecting on experiences of research with Kampala street children, this paper highlights how participation throughout the research process can both raise and resolve ethical dilemmas. This is illustrated by reflecting on two examples, namely discussing sensitive topics and the dissemination of socio-spatial research findings. In conclusion, the paper demonstrates the importance of ethical sensitivity to the changing situations that arise when conducting research with street children and the importance of incorporating and involving them in both the research process and ethical dilemmas.
Attenuation of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus SIVmac239 Infection by Prophylactic Immunization with DNA and Recombinant Adenoviral Vaccine Vectors Expressing Gag

ABSTRACT The prophylactic efficacy of DNA and replication-incompetent adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) vaccine vectors expressing simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) Gag was examined in rhesus macaques using an SIVmac239 challenge. Cohorts of either Mamu-A*01(+) or Mamu-A*01(−) macaques were immunized with a DNA prime-Ad5 boost regimen; for comparison, a third cohort consisting of Mamu-A*01(+) monkeys was immunized using the Ad5 vector alone for both prime and boost. All animals, along with unvaccinated control cohorts of Mamu-A*01(+) and Mamu-A*01(−) macaques, were challenged intrarectally with SIVmac239. Viral loads were measured in both peripheral and lymphoid compartments. Only the DNA prime-Ad5-boosted Mamu-A*01(+) cohort exhibited a notable reduction in peak plasma viral load (sevenfold) as well as in early set-point viral burdens in both plasma and lymphoid tissues (10-fold) relative to those observed in the control monkeys sharing the same Mamu-A*01 allele. The degree of control in each animal correlated with the levels of Gag-specific immunity before virus challenge. However, virus control was short-lived, and indications of viral escape were evident as early as 6 months postinfection. The implications of these results in vaccine design and clinical testing are discussed.
Amygdala Connectivity during Involuntary Attention to Emotional Faces in Typical Development and Autism Spectrum Disorders

Involuntary attention to faces is a behavior seen from birth and is a key factor underlying the development of social skills. Maturation of social skills continues through increased regulation of involuntary attention to social stimuli. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders typified by inattention to faces and poor development of social skills. It has been hypothesized that abnormal activity of the amygdala, a region thought to respond to salience, may underlie abnormal social attention in ASD. However, the relationship between amygdala activity and involuntary attention to social stimuli is unclear, particularly in the context of developing social skill. To investigate these relationships, this dissertation describes three studies conducted evaluating the relationship between functional connectivity (FC) of the amygdala and involuntary attention to faces. The first study investigated amygdala FC during involuntary attentional orienting to emotional faces from late childhood through late adolescence, to better understand the relationship between amygdala FC and the development of mature social attention. Results found that amygdala FC with cognitive control regions increased with age, while FC with attentional orienting and emotion processing regions decreased with age. Results also showed a developmental shift from increased amygdala FC for negative stimuli in late childhood to increased amygdala FC for positive stimuli in late adolescence. The second study investigated amygdala FC during involuntary attentional orienting to emotional faces in children with ASD. Results found that amygdala FC was increased with cognitive control regions during orienting to both positive and negative emotions, but that FC with attentional orienting and emotion processing