Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Double-Aspect of Life

Life is based on two aspects: matter and a non-material, electrical component. In a dynamic system of reciprocal causality, matter and the so-called bioelectricity interact with one another, forming a functional unity. The aim of this essay is to summarize evidence for bioelectricity, for the sensitivity of biosystems to external physical factors and for the interactions of internal bioelectricity with internal biochemical structures. I propose non-material information of bioelectrical states to be just as inheritable from generation to generation as is the material genetic code.
The Effects of Boron on Arsenic‐Induced Lipid Peroxidation and Antioxidant Status in Male and Female Rats

The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible protective effects of boron, an antioxidant agent, against arsenic‐induced oxidative stress in male and female rats. In total, 42 Wistar albino male and female rats were divided into three equal groups: The animals in the control group were given normal drinking water, the second group was given drinking water with 100 mg/L arsenic, and the third group was orally administered drinking water with 100 mg/kg boron together with arsenic. At the end of the 28‐day experiment, arsenic increased lipid peroxidation and damage in the tissues of rats. However, boron treatment reversed this arsenic‐induced lipid peroxidation and activities of antioxidant enzymes in rats. Moreover, boron exhibited a protective action against arsenic‐induced histopathological changes in the tissues of rats. In conclusion, boron was found to be effective in protecting rats against arsenic‐induced lipid peroxidation by enhancing antioxidant defense mechanisms.
Long-term Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Endometrial Cancer Survivors in a Large, Population-Based Cohort Study

Background Endometrial cancer is the second most common cancer among female cancer survivors in the United States. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among endometrial cancer survivors. Studies that examine long-term cardiovascular outcomes among endometrial cancer survivors are critical. Methods Cohorts of 2648 endometrial cancer survivors diagnosed between 1997 and 2012 and 10 503 age-matched women from the general population were identified. Cardiovascular disease diagnoses were identified from electronic medical records and statewide ambulatory surgery and statewide inpatient data. Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) at one to five years, more than five to 10 years, and more than 10 years after cancer diagnosis. Results Between one and five years after diagnosis, increased cardiovascular risks among endometrial cancer survivors were observed for phlebitis, thrombophlebitis, and thromboembolism (HR = 2.07, 99% confidence interval [CI] = 1.57 to 2.72), pulmonary heart disease (HR = 1.74, 99% CI = 1.26 to 2.40), and atrial fibrillation (HR = 1.50, 99% CI = 1.07 to 2.11). At more than five to 10 years, some elevated risk persisted for cardiovascular diseases. Compared with patients who had surgery, patients who additionally had radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy were at increased risk for heart and circulatory system disorders between one and five years after cancer diagnosis. Older age and obesity were also risk factors for hypertension and heart disease among endometrial cancer survivors. Conclusions Endometrial cancer survivors are at higher risk for various adverse long-term cardiovascular outcomes compared with women from the general population. This study suggests that increased monitoring for cardiovascular diseases may be necessary for endometrial cancer patients for 10 years after cancer diagnosis.
Unipolar Mania: A Particular Aspect of Bipolar Disorder in Tunisia

Objective Unipolar mania is a clinical reality in our daily practice. Many authors suggested that bipolar patients can have only manic episodes without depressions. These findings lead us to explore more this particularity. Methods We conduct a retrospective, descriptive and comparative study including 173 patients, followed for bipolar disorder type I, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fifth edition criteria, during the period between January 2008 and December 2015. Two groups were identified. The first one was composed of 98 patients who had presented only manic episodes. The second group contained the rest of the sample. Unipolar mania was defined as the presence of three or more manic states without a depressive episode during the period of the study. Results One hundred seventy three patients were included in the study. The average age of the sample was 43 years old. The first episode was manic in 129 patients (74.6%). The dominant polarity was manic in 90.8% of the cases. Seasonal characteristic and psychotic symptoms were observed in respectively 11.0% and 53.2% of the sample. Rapid cycling evolution was observed among 2.3% of patients. The unipolar manic profile accounted for 56.6% of the population. This result is equivalent to an annual incidence of 8%. Comparing the two groups, we did not find a significant difference concerning the sociodemographic and clinical variables except for the number of suicide attempts (p=0.014). Conclusion Our study shows that unipolar mania is clinical evidence. More studies should be conducted in order to understand its nosological and psychopathological foundations.
Emotion Modeling in Social Simulation: A Survey

Emotions play a key role in human behavior. Being able to integrate them in models is therefore a major issue to improve the believability of agent-based social simulations. However, and despite the emergence of many emotional models usable for simulations in the last few years, many modelers still tend to use too simple ad hoc emotional models. To support this view, this article proposes a survey of the diierent practices of modelers in terms of implementations of emotional models, as well as a presentation of diierent emotional architectures that already exist and that could be used by modelers. The main goal is to understand how emotions are used today in social simulations, in order for the community to unify its uses of emotional agents.
Longitudinal study on the occurrence in pigs of colistin‐resistant Escherichia coli carrying mcr‐1 following the cessation of use of colistin

In 2015, colistin‐resistant Escherichia coli and Salmonella with the mcr‐1 gene were isolated from a pig farm in Great Britain. Pigs were subsequently monitored over a ~20‐month period for the occurrence of mcr‐1‐mediated colistin resistance and the risk of mcr‐1 E. coli entering the food chain was assessed.
Prior topical knowledge and L2 proficiency as determinants of strategic processing in English for Academic Purposes multi-texts comprehension

ABSTRACT There has been a substantial body of research, in L2, documenting the central importance of strategic knowledge in reading comprehension and exploring the variables likely to influence strategy use by readers. All this research has, however, been conducted within the single-text tradition of reading research. With a movement toward the multiple-texts-based construction of meaning in the current academic environments, surprisingly little is known about the factors influencing strategy use in this emerging type of literacy. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the processing strategies English for Academic Purposes (EAP) multiple-texts readers use as a function of varying levels of language proficiency and prior knowledge. The study participants were 48 L1-Persian undergraduates at different levels of English language proficiency and prior knowledge of the topic. Think-aloud reporting was used to obtain information regarding the strategic behavior of the participants while reading as series of technical reading documents. Results of the comparisons of processing strategies across different levels of language proficiency and prior knowledge revealed that both these factors exert significant effects on the frequency and types of processing strategies EAP readers employ while dealing with multiple technical documents.
Impact of glycemic status on longitudinal cognitive performance in men with and without HIV infection

Objectives: To determine the relationship between glycemic status and cognitive performance in men living with HIV (MLWH) and without HIV infection. Design: A prospective HIV/AIDS cohort study in four US cities between 1999 and 2016. Methods: Glycemic status was categorized as normal glucose, impaired fasting glucose, controlled diabetes mellitus and uncontrolled diabetes mellitus at each semiannual visit. Cognitive performance was evaluated using nine neuropsychological tests which measure attention, constructional ability, verbal learning, executive functioning, memory and psychomotor speed. Linear mixed models were used to assess the association between glycemic status and cognition. Results: Overall, 900 MLWH and 1149 men without HIV were included. MLWH had significantly more person-visits with impaired fasting glucose (52.1 vs. 47.9%) and controlled diabetes mellitus (58.2 vs. 41.8%) than men without HIV (P < 0.05). Compared with men with normal glucose, men with diabetes mellitus had significantly poorer performance on psychomotor speed, executive function and verbal learning (all P < 0.05). There was no difference in cognition by HIV serostatus. The largest effect was observed in individuals with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus throughout the study period, equivalent to 16.5 and 13.4 years of aging on psychomotor speed and executive function, respectively, the effect of which remained significant after adjusting for HIV-related risk factors. Lower CD4+ nadir was also associated with worse cognitive performance. Conclusion: Abnormalities in glucose metabolism were more common among MLWH than men without HIV and were related to impaired cognitive performance. Metabolic status, along with advanced age and previous immunosuppression, may be important predictors of cognition in the modern antiretroviral therapy era.
Lactobacillus frumenti Facilitates Intestinal Epithelial Barrier Function Maintenance in Early-Weaned Piglets

Increased intestinal epithelial barrier function damages caused by early weaning stress have adverse effects on swine health and feed utilization efficiency. Probiotics have emerged as the promising antibiotic alternatives used for intestinal barrier function damage prevention. Our previous data showed that Lactobacillus frumenti was identified as a predominant Lactobacillus in the intestinal microbiota of weaned piglets. However, whether the intestinal epithelial barrier function in piglets was regulated by L. frumenti is still unclear. Here, piglets received a PBS vehicle or PBS suspension (2 ml, 108 CFU/ml) containing the L. frumenti by oral gavage once a day during the period of 6–20 days of age prior to early weaning. Our data demonstrated that oral administration of L. frumenti significantly improved the intestinal mucosal integrity and decreased the serum endotoxin and D-lactic acid levels in early-weaned piglets (26 days of age). The intestinal tight junction proteins (including ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-1) were significantly up-regulated by L. frumenti administration. The serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels, intestinal secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) levels, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) levels were significantly increased by L. frumenti administration. Furthermore, our data revealed that oral administration of L. frumenti significantly increased the relative abundances of health-promoting microbes (including L. frumenti, Lactobacillus gasseri LA39, Parabacteroides distasonis, and Kazachstania telluris) and decreased the relative abundances of opportunistic pathogens (including Desulfovibrio desulfuricans and Candida humilis). Functional alteration of the intestinal bacterial community by L. frumenti administration was characterized by the significantly increased fatty acids and protein metabolism and decreased diseases-associated metabolic pathways. These findings suggest that L. frumenti facilitates intestinal epithelial barrier function maintenance in early-weaned piglets and may be a promising antibiotic alternative used for intestinal epithelial barrier function damage prevention in mammals.
Genetic Adaptation to Growth Under Laboratory Conditions in Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica

Experimental evolution under controlled laboratory conditions is becoming increasingly important to address various evolutionary questions, including, for example, the dynamics and mechanisms of genetic adaptation to different growth and stress conditions. In such experiments, mutations typically appear that increase the fitness under the conditions tested (medium adaptation), but that are not necessarily of interest for the specific research question. Here, we have identified mutations that appeared during serial passage of E. coli and S. enterica in four different and commonly used laboratory media and measured the relative competitive fitness and maximum growth rate of 111 genetically re-constituted strains, carrying different single and multiple mutations. Little overlap was found between the mutations that were selected in the two species and the different media, implying that adaptation occurs via different genetic pathways. Furthermore, we show that commonly occurring adaptive mutations can generate undesired genetic variation in a population and reduce the accuracy of competition experiments. However, by introducing media adaptation mutations with large effects into the parental strain that was used for the evolution experiment, the variation (standard deviation) was decreased 10-fold, and it was possible to measure fitness differences between two competitors as small as |s| < 0.001.
Young People Who Display Harmful Sexual Behaviors and Their Families: A Qualitative Systematic Review of Their Experiences of Professional Interventions

It is estimated that 30–50% of all childhood sexual abuse involves other young people as perpetrators. The treatment of harmful sexual behavior (HSB) in young people has evolved from interventions developed for use with adult perpetrators of sexual offenses. Increasingly, these approaches were not seen as appropriate for use with young people. The purpose of this qualitative systematic review was to establish what intervention components are viewed as acceptable or useful by young people and their families in order to inform the development of interventions for young people with HSB. We conducted searches across 14 electronic databases as well as contacting experts to identify relevant studies. Thirteen qualitative studies were included in the analysis, reporting findings from intervention studies from the United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland. Thematic analysis was used to combine findings from the studies of young people and parent/carers views. Five key themes were identified as critical components of successful interventions for young people with HSB. These included the key role of the relationship between the young person and practitioner, the significance of the role of parents and carers, the importance of considering the wider context in which the abuse has occurred, the role of disclosure in interventions, and the need to equip young people with skills as well as knowledge. The evidence was limited by the small number of studies that were mainly from the perspectives of adolescent males.
In Search of Validity Evidence in Support of the Interpretation and Use of Assessments of Complex Constructs: Discussion of Research on Assessing 21st Century Skills

ABSTRACT Assessing complex constructs such as those discussed under the umbrella of 21st century constructs highlights the need for a principled assessment design and validation approach. In our discussion, we made a case for three considerations: (a) taking construct complexity into account across various stages of assessment development such as the design, scaling, and interpretation aspects; (b) cognitive validity evidence that goes beyond traditional psychometric analyses of response patterns, and (c) cross-cultural validity. We analyze the four articles in this special issue with respect to these three considerations and discuss the kinds of evidence needed to support interpretation of scores from 21st century constructs.
Transient Hypothyroidism During Lactation Arrests Myelination in the Anterior Commissure of Rats. A Magnetic Resonance Image and Electron Microscope Study

Thyroid hormone deficiency at early postnatal ages affects the cytoarchitecture and function of neocortical and telencephalic limbic areas, leading to impaired associative memory and in a wide spectrum of neurological and mental diseases. Neocortical areas project interhemispheric axons mostly through the corpus callosum and to a lesser extent through the anterior commissure (AC), while limbic areas mostly project through the AC and hippocampal commissures. Functional magnetic resonance data from children with late diagnosed congenital hypothyroidism and abnormal verbal memory processing, suggest altered ipsilateral and contralateral telencephalic connections. Gestational hypothyroidism affects AC development but the possible effect of transient and chronic postnatal hypothyroidism, as occurs in late diagnosed neonates with congenital hypothyroidism and in children growing up in iodine deficient areas, still remains unknown. We studied AC development using in vivo magnetic resonance imaging and electron microscopy in hypothyroid and control male rats. Four groups of methimazole (MMI) treated rats were studied. One group was MMI-treated from postnatal day (P) 0 to P21; some of these rats were also treated with L-thyroxine (T4) from P15 to P21, as a model for early transient hypothyroidism. Other rats were MMI-treated from P0 to P150 and from embryonic day (E) 10 to P170, as a chronic hypothyroidism group. The results were compared with age paired control rats. The normalized T2 signal using magnetic resonance image was higher in MMI-treated rats and correlated with the number and percentage of myelinated axons. Using electron microscopy, we observed decreased myelinated axon number and density in transient and chronic hypothyroid rats at P150, unmyelinated axon number increased slightly in chronic hypothyroid rats. In MMI-treated rats, the myelinated axon g-ratio and conduction velocity was similar to control rats, but with a decrease in conduction delays. These data show that early postnatal transient and chronic hypothyroidism alters AC maturation that may affect the transfer of information through the AC. The alterations cannot be recovered after delayed T4-treatment. Our data support the neurocognitive delay found in late T4-treated children with congenital hypothyroidism.
What good leaders actually do: micro-level leadership behaviour, leader evaluations, and team decision quality

We supplement broad definitions of leadership behaviour with the concept of micro-level leadership behaviour, leaders’ verbal and non-verbal visible conduct and interaction. For the context of team decision-making, we identify two potentially beneficial micro-level leadership behaviours, question asking and behavioural mimicry. Specifically, we propose that under conditions of informational complexity and unshared information, participative leadership is most appropriate for team decision-making, that its effects are mediated by inquiring and empathy, and that question asking and mimicry are the behavioural micro-level manifestations of inquiring and empathy. We thus hypothesize that the effect of participative leadership on team decision quality and leader evaluation is mediated by question asking and mimicry. We conduct a laboratory experiment with student teams working on a hidden profile decision-making task and measure question asking through behavioural coding and mimicry with motion sensors. Results show that the effect of participative leadership on decision quality is mediated by question asking, and that the effect of participative leadership on leader evaluation as transformational is mediated by leaders’ behavioural mimicry and question asking. Under control of these micro-level behaviours, team decision quality and leader evaluations were unrelated.
Deposition of phosphorylated amyloid‐β in brains of aged nonhuman primates and canines

1 Department of Neurology, University of Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany. 2 Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115. 3 University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697. 4 Sanders Brown Center on Aging, Department of Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536. 5 St. Kitts and Nevis, Eastern Caribbean, The Behavioral Science Foundation. 6 McGill University School of Medicine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Ocular injuries and eye care seeking patterns following injuries among cocoa farmers in Ghana.

BACKGROUND The work environment of cocoa farmers exposes them to several ocular hazards that predispose them to eye diseases and injuries. However, the extent of ocular injuries and health seeking patterns following these injuries are unknown among cocoa farmers in Ghana. OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of ocular injuries and health seeking behaviour following injury among cocoa farmers in Ghana. METHODS Five hundred and fifty six participants were recruited through simple random sampling using a multistage approach from four cocoa growing districts in Ghana. A structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant information such as demography, ocular hazards and injuries experienced. An ocular examination was also conducted to assess the eye health of the participants. Descriptive and regression statistics were used to analyze the data. The rate of ocular injuries was calculated by using the number of injuries reported that resulted in lost work time/days divided by the number of worker years at risk of injury (sum of years worked in cocoa farms for all the participants). RESULTS The rate of ocular injuries was 11.3/1000 worker years (95% CI: 9.4 - 31) which led to lost work time of 37.3/1000 worker years (95% CI: 34.1 - 40.8). The major causes of ocular injury were plants/branches (n=73, 51.1%), chemicals (n=27, 18.9%), cocoa pod/husk (n=14, 9.8%) and occurred mostly during weeding, harvesting and chemical spraying. Few (n=34, 6.1%) participants reported the use of ocular protection. Fifty-five (38.5%) participants visited the local chemical shops, while 37 (25.9%) visited hospitals/clinics for ocular treatment of their injuries. CONCLUSION There is a high rate of ocular injuries among cocoa farmers who make insufficient use of appropriate eye care services. There is the need for eye health education among cocoa farmers in Ghana.
Poly(rC) binding protein 2 (PCBP2) promotes the viability of human gastric cancer cells by regulating CDK2

Survival rates for patients with gastric cancer, especially the advanced form, remain poor and the development of targeted treatments is hampered by a lack of efficient biological targets. Poly(rC) binding protein 2 (PCBP2) is an RNA‐binding protein that contributes to mRNA stabilization, translational silencing and enhancement and it has been implicated as a promoter of gastric cancer growth. In the present study, we demonstrated that the expression level of PCBP2 was higher in human gastric cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal gastric tissues. A high level of PCBP2 was correlated with worse postoperative relapse‐free survival and overall survival rates of gastric cancer patients. Small hairpin RNA‐mediated depletion of PCBP2 dramatically decreased the viability of gastric cancer cells. Cyclin‐dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) was positively regulated by PCBP2 via a direct 3′ UTR binding pathway as determined using a ribonucleoprotein immunoprecipitation assay and a biotin pulldown assay. CDK2 mediated the promoting role of PCBP2. These results suggest that PCBP2 acts as an oncogene in human gastric cancer cells and that functionally depleting PCBP2 could be considered as a potential target for gastric cancer therapy.