Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acute Health Care Service Use Among Elderly Home Care Clients

ABSTRACT Utilization of acute health care services accounts for a substantial proportion of health expenditures in Canada, and is associated with compromised health and autonomy for older persons. Using the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC), this cross-sectional study of 683 elderly home care recipients sought to distinguish clients who were more likely to use acute health care services; i.e., hospital admissions, emergency room visits. Clients with nutritional problems were 2.58 times more likely to have used acute health care services than clients without nutritional problems. Among clients with a poor social support system, those with nutrition problems were 5.95 times as likely to have used acute health care services. Poor self-rated health, and greater functional dependency were also significantly associated with acute health care use. This study provides a profile of elderly home care clients who are at risk of using acute health care services, which may facilitate targeted efforts to prevent unplanned acute health care use.
Do young children misunderstand their own emotions?

This study investigated children's ability to understand false beliefs and the emotions caused by false beliefs with a special focus on children's understanding of their own belief-based emotions. Forty-five children (25 boys and 20 girls) between the ages of 5 and 7 years were tested for their understanding of: (1) false belief of self and other; and (2) belief-based emotion of self and other. Testing procedures included a variation of the classic “Smarties” task (Hogrefe, Wimmer, & Perner, 1986). Children displayed a lag in their understanding of belief-based emotions as compared to false beliefs, even when they were asked to identify their own emotions. The findings are discussed in light of theories about how we gain knowledge of our own emotions.
Educational Characteristics of Students with High or Low Self-Concept.

In response to methodological concerns associated with previous research into the educational characteristics of students with high or low self-concept, the topic was re-examined using a significantly more representative sample and a contemporary self-concept measure. From an initial screening of 515 preadolescent, coeducational students in 18 schools, students significantly high or low in self-concept were compared using standardized tests in reading, spelling, and mathematics, and teacher interviews to determine students' academic and nonacademic characteristics. The teachers were not informed of the self-concept status of the students. Compared to students with low self-concept, students with high self-concept were rated by teachers as being more popular, cooperative, and persistent in class, showed greater leadership, were lower in anxiety, had more supportive families, and had higher teacher expectations for their future success. Teachers observed that students with low self-concept were quiet and withdrawn, while peers with high self-concept were talkative and more dominating with peers. Students with lower self-concepts were also lower than their peers in reading, spelling, and mathematical abilities. The findings support the notion that there is an interactive relationship between self-concept and achievement. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Interleukin (IL)-4 Indirectly Suppresses IL-2 Production by Human T Lymphocytes via Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor γ Activated by Macrophage-derived 12/15-Lipoxygenase Ligands*

The respective development of either T helper type 1 (Th1) or Th2 cells is believed to be mediated by the effects of cytokines acting directly on Th precursors (Thp). We have generated evidence for an indirect monocyte-dependent immunoregulatory pathway. Recently, interleukin (IL) 4 has been shown to produce “new” potential peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) ligands by inducing macrophage 12/15-lipoxygenase (12/15-LO). We have shown previously that the activated PPARγ is a profound inhibitor of IL-2 transcription in human T lymphocytes. It is hypothetically possible that IL-4 might indirectly affect IL-2 production by Thp cells via macrophage-derived PPARγ ligands. Using human monocytes and T lymphocytes from same donors, we have found that monocyte 12/15-LO products mediate the indirect inhibitory effect of IL-4 on anti-CD3- or phytohemagglutinin/phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate-stimulated IL-2 production by T lymphocytes. We further analyzed which major 12/15-LO metabolites contributed to the above inhibition. 13-Hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid (13-HODE), a 12/15-LO product, markedly blocked IL-2 production by human blood T lymphocytes, but not Jurkat T cells. Moreover, the IL-4-conditioned macrophage medium contained a sufficient amount of 13-HODE and anti-13-HODE antibody indeed neutralized the inhibitory effects of the IL-4-conditional medium on T-cell IL-2 production. Using human T lymphocytes and the PPARγ-transfected Jurkat T cells, we demonstrated the specific inhibition by 13-HODE of the transcription factors NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells) and nuclear factor κB, the IL-2 promoter reporter, and IL-2 production. However, 15-hydroxytetraenoic acid had little inhibitory effect. The potency of such inhibitory effects correlates well with the capability of the above metabolic lipids to activate PPARγ. These data provide a mechanism whereby IL-4 may indirectly affect Thp function via PPARγ activated by macrophage products of the 12/15-LO pathway.
Cross-cultural study of the childhood developmental trajectory of attention and impulse control

The maturation lag model explains inattention and impulsivity in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as delayed maturation along a normal developmental trajectory. The concept of a cross-culturally uniform developmental trajectory is tested by a comparison of the performance of 212 Mexican school children on the Test of Variable Attention (TOVA) with the performance of populations previously studied. An observed pattern of decreasing errors of omission (indicating improving ability to sustain attention) with increasing age did confirm the predictions of the existing developmental trajectory model, although the shape of this change was linear rather than curvilinear. A predicted age-related decrease in errors of commission (indicating improving impulse control) was not observed. Gender differences in attentional and impulse control measures among Mexican children, aged 6–12 years, were not significant, in contrast to the findings of previous US studies in which boys performed poorly compared with girls. Mexican children made significantly more errors of omission and commission than American children, indicating greater degrees of characteristic inattentive and impulsive behaviours in childhood. These results indicate that the assumption of a uniform developmental trajectory of these behaviours should be carefully considered before it is applied to understanding children’s behaviour in culturally diverse settings.
W or d / m a p / p i ng: How Understanding Spellings Improves Spelling Power

Spelling is a subject that often opens a chasm between haves and have-nots. Students with spelling power, the haves, pick up new spellings almost effortlessly, acing their spelling tests after a few minutes of review. In contrast, the have-nots may painstakingly copy out each word 10 times the night before the test and still fail the test the next day. Such frustrating experiences may kindle hopeless and helpless attitudes toward spelling, with a sense that no matter how much effort is expended, gains will be paltry and fleeting. Many students with learning disabilities and limited spelling skills try to memorize spellings, an inefficient strategy for learning words (Gaskins, Ehri, Cress, O’Hara, & Donnelly, 1996–1997). However, the sheer number of words to learn and the difficulty of remembering ordered letter strings without understanding how spellings map pronunciations make a rote approach futile. Struggling spellers need strategies for understanding spellings as pronunciation maps, enabling them to strategically generate most letters and minimize memorization. Spelling and Word Recognition
Effect of erectile dysfunction medications on coexisting sexual dysfunctions in couples: Partners' Preference Study

There is sparse information on how treatments for erectile dysfunction (ED) affects couples. This study investigated the effects of ED treatments on 100 heterosexual couples' sexual functioning and whether function achieved using a short-acting versus a long-acting ED medication differed significantly. Couples were randomized to use tadalafil or sildenafil for each of two 12-week study phases; they completed questionnaires (International Index of Sexual Function and Female Sexual Function Index) and kept sexual event diaries. All participants experienced significant improvements over baseline sexual functioning, while the men used short- or long-acting ED medications with no significant differences related to the duration of drug action recorded for either the men or women. Despite this lack of difference in efficacy there was a strong preference by women (79%) and their partners (16%) for the longer-acting medication. The reasons for this warrant further investigation. Understanding the effects on couples of the use of ED medications is a necessary aspect of ensuring ongoing sexual satisfaction in couples treated for ED.
Smoothness properties of a regularized gap function for quasi-variational inequalities

This article studies continuity and differentiability properties for a reformulation of a finite-dimensional quasi-variational inequality (QVI) problem using a regularized gap function approach. For a special class of QVIs, this gap function is continuously differentiable everywhere, in general, however, it has nondifferentiability points. We therefore take a closer look at these nondifferentiability points and show, in particular, that under mild assumptions all locally minimal points of the reformulation are differentiability points of the regularized gap function. The results are specialized to generalized Nash equilibrium problems. Numerical results are also included and show that the regularized gap function provides a valuable approach for the solution of QVIs.
Self-affirmation and the self-regulation of health behavior change

This paper considers the potential impact of self-affirmation—the process of reflecting upon important personal values or strengths—on the self-regulation of health behavior change. Self-affirmation appears to promote several key processes relevant to health behavior change, including more open-minded appraisal of otherwise threatening information, higher levels of mental construal, and reductions in the likelihood of self-control failure. It also appears to increase other-directed feelings, such as love. These effects of self-affirmation may provide people with the capacity to view the “big picture” and consider how their current activities relate to their longer term interests. An assessment is provided of the potential implications of self-affirmation at key phases of the self-regulation of health-behavior, from interpreting evidence to habit formation.
Proliferation and Differentiation of Progenitor Cells Throughout the Intact Adult Rat Spinal Cord

The existence of multipotent progenitor populations in the adult forebrain has been widely studied. To extend this knowledge to the adult spinal cord we have examined the proliferation, distribution, and phenotypic fate of dividing cells in the adult rat spinal cord. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was used to label dividing cells in 13- to 14-week-old, intact Fischer rats. Single daily injections of BrdU were administered over a 12 d period. Animals were killed either 1 d or 4 weeks after the last injection of BrdU. We observed frequent cell division throughout the adult rodent spinal cord, particularly in white matter tracts (5–7% of all nuclei). The majority of BrdU-labeled cells colocalized with markers of immature glial cells. At 4 weeks, 10% of dividing cells expressed mature astrocyte and oligodendroglial markers. These data predict that 0.75% of all astrocytes and 0.82% of all oligodendrocytes are derived from a dividing population over a 4 week period. To determine the migratory nature of dividing cells, a single BrdU injection was given to animals that were killed 1 hr after the injection. In these tissues, the distribution and incidence of BrdU labeling matched those of the 4 week post injection (pi) groups, suggesting that proliferating cells dividein situ rather than migrate from the ependymal zone. These data suggest a higher level of cellular plasticity for the intact spinal cord than has previously been observed and that glial progenitors exist in the outer circumference of the spinal cord that can give rise to both astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.
Development of Penal Policy in British West Africa: Exploring the Colonial Dimension

This paper examines the development of penal policy in British West Africa. The primary focus is to assess the extent to which penal policies in West Africa have been influenced by external geo-political and economic factors. The study concludes that traditional pre-colonial West African society had developed a complex system of social control that used non-incarcerative and community-based sanctions and emphasized reparation over retributive justice. British colonization of West Africa changed the familial-based system of punishment with the introduction of a penal system based primarily on incarceration that was designed first, to protect the economic interests of local subsidiaries of British companies doing business in West Africa, and second, to affirm British political hegemony. The introduction of British legal systems was therefore not a direct outcome of rising crime rates in West Africa, but the expediency of trade and the protection of capital. The study noted that Western advances in prison re.
“Communihood:” A Less Formal or More Local Form of Community in the Age of the Internet

After more than three decades of the expansion of information technology into every aspect of human life, it is time to stop utopian or dystopian imaginings about how this new technology can fundamentally change human and social life in general and communies and neighborhoods in particular. This paper criticizes the binary and deterministic social science approaches to the effects of information technology on community and neighborhood: a binary approach in distinguishing community versus neighborhood based on their attachment to location, and a deterministic approach where information technology is seen as active while society is passive. In contrast, this paper uses the concept of Thirdspace to define “communihood” not as an alternative to previous approaches, but as an inclusive and a realistic concept that includes characteristics of both community and neighborhood. In communihood, information technology is understood not as a deterministic force, but as a facilitating tool in social communications and information sharing. After defining communihood, location-based identity, hybrid diversity, and place-based power are introduced as three main characteristics of communihood.
Characterization of acid‐signaling in rat vagal pulmonary sensory neurons

Local tissue acidosis frequently occurs in airway inflammatory and ischemic conditions. The effect of physiological/pathophysiological‐relevant low pH (7.0 to 5.5) on isolated rat vagal pulmonary sensory neurons was investigated using whole‐cell perforated patch‐clamp recordings. In voltage‐clamp recordings, pulmonary sensory neurons exhibited distinct pH sensitivity and different phenotypes of inward current in responding to acidic challenge. The current evoked by pH 7.0 consisted of only a transient, rapidly inactivating component with small amplitude. The amplitude of this transient current increased when the proton concentration increased. In addition, a slow, sustained inward current began to emerge when pH ≤ 6.5 was applied. The I–V curve indicated that the transient component of acid‐elicited current was carried predominantly by Na+ which was dose‐dependently inhibited by amiloride, a common blocker of acid‐sensing ion channels (ASICs); whereas the sustained component was significantly attenuated by capsazepine, a selective antagonist of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1). Furthermore, these two components of acid‐elicited current also displayed distinct recovery kinetics from desensitization. In current‐clamp recordings, transient extracellular acidification depolarized the membrane potential and generated action potentials in these neurons. In summary, our results have demonstrated that low pH can stimulate rat vagal pulmonary sensory neurons through the activation of both ASICs and TRPV1. The relative roles of these two current species depend on the range of pH and vary between neurons.
Coalition Framing and the Challenge of a Consonant Frame Pyramid: The Case of a Collaborative Response to Homelessness

This article examines framing processes in a coalition context. We argue that, if they are to avoid debilitating frame disputes, coalitions seeking social change face the unique task of developing a "consonant frame pyramid," which aligns coalition, organizational, and individual frames. We show the usefulness of these concepts for understanding framing through analysis of a local coalition formed to better meet the needs of the homeless. Using information gathered via interviews, participant observation, and documents, we describe several of the organizational frames that were contending for adoption as the larger coalition's frame, and detail two of the frame disputes that developed. We explore the source of these frame disputes and the factors that influenced the emerging coalition frame. We contend that organizations vary in their ability to promote a coalition frame due to varying degrees of power, different organizational structures, and varying degrees of "fit" between organizational frames and the existing political opportunities and constraints. These findings reveal coalition frames as the emergent products of ongoing intraand inter-organizational dynamics, and help specify framing's links to mobilizing structures and political opportunity.
Evaluation of a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of immunoglobulin M antibody in diagnosis of human leptospiral infection

The PanBio Leptospira immunoglobulin M (IgM) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a commercially available screening test for the diagnosis of acute leptospiral infection. The ability of the test to diagnose early or recent Leptospira interrogans infection was assessed by testing sera with known microagglutination test (MAT) titers to serovars pomona, hardjo, copenhageni, and australis. The IgM ELISA detected all 41 cases of early or recent leptospiral infection (sensitivity, 100%), with a positive ELISA result seen in many cases before MAT antibody titers reached 1:50. Thirty-eight of 41 patients showed seroconversion (fourfold or greater increase in titer by MAT, 2 of 41 patients had a single sample with elevated titer, and 1 patient from whom leptospires were isolated from a blood sample failed to show MAT titers, despite a seroconversion (negative to positive result) in the ELISA. Follow-up sera obtained from 8 of 12 patients (67%) for 3 to 48 months after the acute stage of illness showed persisting IgM antibody. However, the range of levels detected in these samples (maximum ELISA ratio, 2.0) was lower than the range seen when infection was recent. Reactivity in the IgM ELISA was observed for only 1 of 59 serum samples from asymptomatic donors (specificity, 98%) and 16 of 233 serum samples from patients with Ross River virus, brucella, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, mycoplasma, Q-fever, toxoplasma, hepatitis A virus, Treponema pallidum, or Borrelia burgdorferi infection (specificity, 93%), with the majority of these patients showing lower levels of IgM in comparison to those in patients with leptospiral infection. We conclude that this ELISA is sufficiently sensitive for use as an initial screen for leptospiral infections, with subsequent confirmation of positive test results by MAT.
RNA‐binding protein Vg1RBP regulates terminal arbor formation but not long‐range axon navigation in the developing visual system

Local synthesis of β‐actin is required for attractive turning responses to guidance cues of growth cones in vitro but its functional role in axon guidance in vivo is poorly understood. The transport and translation of β‐actin mRNA is regulated by the RNA‐binding protein, Vg1RBP (zipcode‐binding protein‐1). To examine whether Vg1RBP plays a role in axon navigation in vivo, we disrupted Vg1RBP function in embryonic Xenopus laevis retinal ganglion cells by expressing a dominant‐negative Vg1RBP and by antisense morpholino knockdown. We found that attractive turning to a netrin‐1 gradient in vitro was abolished in Vg1RBP‐deficient axons but, surprisingly, the long‐range navigation from the retina to the optic tectum was unaffected. Within the tectum, however, the branching and complexity of axon terminals were significantly reduced. High‐resolution time‐lapse imaging of axon terminals in vivo revealed that Vg1RBP‐GFP‐positive granules accumulate locally in the axon shaft immediately preceding the emergence a filopodial‐like protrusion. Comparative analysis of branch dynamics showed that Vg1RBP‐deficient axons extend far fewer filopodial‐like protrusions than control axons and indicate that Vg1RBP promotes filopodial formation, an essential step in branch initiation. Our findings show that Vg1RBP is required for terminal arborization but not long‐range axon navigation and suggest that Vg1RBP‐regulated mRNA translation promotes synaptic complexity. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 74: 303–318, 2014
Influence of differing macronutrient intakes on muscle glycogen resynthesis after resistance exercise.

The provision of additional protein (Pro) to a carbohydrate (CHO) supplement resulted in an enhanced rate of muscle glycogen resynthesis after endurance exercise (Zawadzki et al., J. Appl. Physiol. 72: 1854-1859, 1992). A comparison of isoenergetic CHO and CHO/Pro formula drinks on muscle glycogen resynthesis has not been examined after either endurance or resistance exercise. We studied the effect of isoenergetic CHO (1 g/kg) and CHO/Pro/fat (66% CHO, 23% Pro, 11% fat) defined formula drinks and placebo (Pl) given immediately (t = 0 h) and 1 h (t = +1 h) after resistance exercise in 10 healthy young men. They performed a whole body workout (9 exercises/3 sets at 80% 1 repetition maximum) with unilateral knee extension exercise [exercise (Ex) and control (Con) leg]. The CHO/Pro/fat and CHO trials resulted in significantly greater (P < 0. 05) plasma insulin and glucose concentration compared with Pl. Muscle glycogen was significantly lower (P < 0.05) for the Ex vs. Con leg immediately postexercise for all three conditions. The rate of glycogen resynthesis was significantly greater (P < 0.05) for both CHO/Pro/fat and CHO (23.0 +/- 4.5 and 19.3 +/- 6.1 mmol . kg dry muscle-1 . h-1, respectively) vs. Pl (Ex = 2.8 +/- 2.3 and Con = 1.4 +/- 3.6 mmol . kg dry muscle-1 . h-1). These results demonstrated that a bout of resistance exercise resulted in a significant decrease in muscle glycogen and that consumption of an isoenergetic CHO or CHO/Pro/fat formula drink resulted in similar rates of muscle glycogen resynthesis after resistance exercise. This suggests that total energy content and CHO content are important in the resynthesis of muscle glycogen.