Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neutrophil alpha-defensins cause lung injury by disrupting the capillary-epithelial barrier.

RATIONALE The involvement of neutrophil activation in the sentinel, potentially reversible, events in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury (ALI) is only partially understood. alpha-Defensins are the most abundant proteins secreted by activated human neutrophils, but their contribution to ALI in mouse models is hindered by their absence from murine neutrophils and the inability to study their effects in isolation in other species. OBJECTIVES To study the role of alpha-defensins in the pathogenesis of ALI in a clinically relevant setting using mice transgenic for polymorphonuclear leukocyte expression of alpha-defensins. METHODS Transgenic mice expressing polymorphonuclear leukocyte alpha-defensins were generated. ALI was induced by acid aspiration. Pulmonary vascular permeability was studied in vivo using labeled dextran and fibrin deposition. The role of the low-density lipoprotein-related receptor (LRP) in permeability was examined. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Acid aspiration induced neutrophil migration and release of alpha-defensins into lung parenchyma and airways. ALI was more severe in alpha-defensin-expressing mice than in wild-type mice, as determined by inspection, influx of neutrophils into the interstitial space and airways, histological evidence of epithelial injury, interstitial edema, extravascular fibrin deposition, impaired oxygenation, and reduced survival. Within 4 hours of insult, alpha-defensin-expressing mice showed greater disruption of capillary-epithelial barrier function and ALI that was attenuated by systemic or intratracheal administration of specific inhibitors of the LRP. CONCLUSIONS alpha-Defensins mediate ALI through LRP-mediated loss of capillary-epithelial barrier function, suggesting a potential new approach to intervention.
Korean Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly

Children's attitudes toward the elderly in Korea were examined. A total of 480 children, 240 in the rural area of the Kyunggi Province and 240 from the urban area of Seoul were randomly selected from kindergarten, second, fourth and sixth grades of elementary schools. The test, Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly (The CATE), (1980), the Word Association, Semantic Differential, and parts of the Pictures Series, were used to assess attitudes. Chi-Square and the Hotelling t-test statistics were used to analyze the data. Korean children, those living in both rural and urban areas, evaluated YOUNG PEOPLE more positively than OLD PEOPLE. On the total score of the Semantic Differential, and on six of the individual items, YOUNG PEOPLE were rated more positively than OLD PEOPLE. The young were rated as more helpful, healthier, cleaner, prettier, happier, and richer than the old. Old people were evaluated as more good and friendlier. There were no differences on the items wonderful/terrible and right/wrong. The results indicated few differences between rural and urban Korean children's attitudes toward the elderly. Children in the rural areas of Korea felt more positive about their own aging than the urban children and were able to give an alternative name for elder. They also rated elders as happier and richer than urban children, and young people as friendlier and more right.
Children and Youth in Neighborhood Contexts

Neighborhoods are increasingly studied as a context where children and youth develop; however, the extent of neighborhoods' impact remains debatable because it is difficult to disentangle this impact from that of the family context, in part because families have some choice as to where they live. Evidence from randomized experiments, studies using advanced statistical models, and longitudinal studies that control for family characteristics indicates that neighborhoods do matter. In nonexperimental studies, small to moderate associations were found, suggesting that children and adolescents living in high-income neighborhoods had higher cognitive ability and school achievement than those living in middle-income neighborhoods, and children and adolescents living in low-income neighborhoods had more mental and physical health problems than those living in middle-income neighborhoods. The home environment has been shown to be partly responsible for the link between neighborhood and children's development. For adolescents, neighborhood effects are partially accounted for by community social control. Experimental studies in which families were randomly assigned to move to low-poverty neighborhoods from housing projects found larger neighborhood effects than nonexperi-mental research, particularly for boys' outcomes. Additional issues reviewed are relevant neighborhood characteristics, theoretical models explaining the pathways underlying neighborhood effects, methods for research assessing neighborhood processes, and policy implications.
Butyrate protects against disruption of the blood‐milk barrier and moderates inflammatory responses in a model of mastitis induced by lipopolysaccharide

Short‐chain fatty acids are fermentation end products produced by gut bacteria, which have been shown to ameliorate inflammatory bowel diseases and allergic asthma. However, the mechanism involved remains largely unknown. Here, we investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of sodium butyrate (SB) on LPS‐induced mastitis model.
The Disproportionate Representation of African Americans in Special Education

The overrepresentation of African American children and youth in special education programs for students with learning disabilities, severe emotional or behavioral disabilities, and mental disabilities has remained a persistent reality even after more than 20 years of recognition. After reviewing these recurring patterns, a critical-theory mode of inquiry is used to discuss how certain basic assumptions, world-views, beliefs, and epistemologies used by some special education knowledge producers serve to perpetuate the disproportionality drama. The author concludes by suggesting that the voices of qualitatively different knowledge producers, who are culturally and interculturally competent, are needed to bring resolution to this persistent challenge.
Acoustic analysis of dysarthria associated with multiple sclerosis

Approximately 40% of all individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) present some degree of speech impairment. MS speakers with dysarthria are a heterogeneous group and the speech disorder is characterized by disturbances of the temporal patterning of speech as well as articulatory and phonatory symptoms. Previous research also indicates that the neuromotor dysfunction manifests itself in the fundamental frequency of sustained phonation, even in the absence of other speech symptoms. The present study was designed with the specific purpose of exploring the temporal, spectral and phonatory acoustic features of five MS speakers as compared to those of two normal controls. It was found that the dysarthric symptoms of these MS speakers largely mirror their different underlying neuromotor dysfunctions, and that they exhibit temporal and articulatory deviation when compared to the normal speakers. It is also suggested that a Fourier spectrum analysis of the derived pitch of the sustained phonation in MS speakers is.
Similar outcomes among general medicine patients discharged on weekends.

BACKGROUND Hospitals reduce staffing levels and services on weekends. This raises the question of whether weekend discharges may be inadequately prepared and thus at higher risk for adverse events postdischarge. OBJECTIVE To compare death or nonelective readmission rates 30 days after weekend versus weekday discharge. DESIGN Retrospective cohort. SETTING All teaching hospitals in Alberta, Canada. PATIENTS General internal medicine (GIM) discharges (only 1 per patient). MEASUREMENTS Analyses were adjusted for demographics, comorbidity, and length of stay based on a previously validated index. RESULTS Of 7991 patients (mean age, 62.1 years; 51.9% male; mean Charlson 2.56; 57.5% LACE ≥10) discharged from 7 teaching hospitals, 1146 (14.3%) were discharged on a weekend. Although they had substantially shorter lengths of stay (5.64 days, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.35-5.93 vs 7.86 days, 95% CI: 7.71-8.00, adjusted P value < 0.0001) and were less likely to be discharged with homecare support (10.9% vs 19.3%) or to long-term care facilities (3.1% vs 7.8%), patients discharged on weekends exhibited similar rates of death or readmission at 30 days compared to those discharged on weekdays (10.6% vs 13.2%, adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.77-1.16), even among the 4591 patients deemed to be at high risk for postdischarge events based on LACE (length of hospital stay, acuity of admission, comorbidity burden quantified using the Charlson Comorbidity Index, and emergency department visits in the 6 months prior to admission) score ≥10 (16.8% vs 16.5% for weekday discharges, aOR: 1.09 [95% CI: 0.85-1.41]). CONCLUSIONS GIM patients discharged from teaching hospitals on weekends have shorter lengths of stay and exhibit similar postdischarge outcomes as patients discharged on weekdays.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Rising Concerns over Their Application in Treatment of Type One Diabetes Mellitus

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disorder that leads to beta cell destruction and lowered insulin production. In recent years, stem cell therapies have opened up new horizons to treatment of diabetes mellitus. Among all kinds of stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to be an interesting therapeutic option based on their immunomodulatory properties and differentiation potentials confirmed in various experimental and clinical trial studies. In this review, we discuss MSCs differential potentials in differentiation into insulin-producing cells (IPCs) from various sources and also have an overview on currently understood mechanisms through which MSCs exhibit their immunomodulatory effects. Other important issues that are provided in this review, due to their importance in the field of cell therapy, are genetic manipulations (as a new biotechnological method), routes of transplantation, combination of MSCs with other cell types, frequency of transplantation, and special considerations regarding diabetic patients' autologous MSCs transplantation. At the end, utilization of biomaterials either as encapsulation tools or as scaffolds to prevent immune rejection, preparation of tridimensional vascularized microenvironment, and completed or ongoing clinical trials using MSCs are discussed. Despite all unresolved concerns about clinical applications of MSCs, this group of stem cells still remains a promising therapeutic modality for treatment of diabetes.
Linguistic Minorities and Education in Japan

Abstract The increasing visibility and assertiveness of language minorities in Japan now pose a serious issue for government policy which has hitherto been committed to the historical ideology of a monoracial and monolingual state. Language education policy in Japan is currently predicated upon the need for ‘internationalisation but nowhere does internationalisation include support, or at least encouragement, for community and indigenous languages, or regional dialects. Nowhere is there official acknowledgment that in the public school system, there are languages and language varieties other than standard Japanese, nor that schools might benefit from recognition of ‘Other’ languages. It is well‐known that the idea of a diverse Japan has been systematically avoided by the so‐called Nihonjinron theories, an ethnocentrist body of writings which purports to value cultural difference whilst emphasising the uniqueness of ‘being Japanese’. This ideology is becoming increasingly challenged as many local communiti.
High-Throughput FPGA QC-LDPC Decoder Architecture for 5 G Wireless by Swapnil Mhaske

OF THE THESIS High-Throughput FPGA QC-LDPC Decoder Architecture for 5G Wireless by Swapnil Mhaske Thesis Director: Professor Predrag Spasojevic Wireless data traffic is expected to increase by a 1000 fold by the year 2020 with more than 50 billion devices connected to these wireless networks with peak data rates upto 10 Gb/s . The next generation of wireless cellular technology (being collectively termed as 5G) is slated to operate in the mm-wave (30-300GHz) spectrum which comes with challenges such as, reliance on line of sight (LOS) communication, short range of communication, increased shadowing and, rapid fading in time. This will necessitate additional signal processing techniques such as large antenna arrays and beamsteering which will further reduce the processing budget available to the channel coding system. In an effort to design and develop a channel coding solution suitable to such systems, in this thesis we propose strategies to achieve a high-throughput FPGA-based decoder architecture for a QC-LDPC code based on circulant-1 identity matrix construction. We present a novel representation of the parity-check matrix (PCM) providing a multifold throughput gain. Splitting of the node processing algorithm enables us to achieve pipelining of blocks and hence layers. By partitioning the PCM into not only layers but superlayers, we derive an upper bound on the pipelining depth with respect to the size of the superlayer for the compact representation. To validate the architecture, a decoder for the IEEE 802.11n (2012) QC-LDPC is implemented on the Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA
Immunohistochemical Staining in the Distinction Between Primary Endometrial and Endocervical Adenocarcinomas: Another Viewpoint

Several studies have reported on the use of antibodies to monoclonal carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and vimentin (VIM) to distinguish between adenocarcinomas of endometrial (EM) and endocervical (EC) origin, with variably enthusiastic results. It is still unclear whether site of origin or pathway of differentiation (endometrioid [em] versus mucinous [m]) is more important in predicting immunohistochemical differences. In the present study, paraffin blocks from adenocarcinomas of known origin were retrieved and immunostained with monoclonal antibodies to VIM and CEA, as well as cytokeratins (CK) 4, 18, and 20, estrogen receptor (ER), and progesterone receptor (PR). Positivity was scored on a scale from 0 to 12, with emphasis on the pattern of differentiation (tumors with mixed patterns received separate scores for the em and m foci). Mean CEA scores for emEM (n = 27), mEM (17), mEC (10), and emEC (6) were 0.4, 0.9, 5.1, and 1.2, respectively. VIM scores were 6.9, 1.3, 0, 4.4; ER, 5.7, 4.2, 0, 1.6; PR, 7.6, 2.8, 0.1, 6.0; CK4, 9.2, 4.4, 8.5, 10.6; CK18, 6.4, 3.4, 5.5, 8.4; CK20, 0.7, 0, 0.5, 0.4. Both site and differentiation influenced these results, with the latter more important for VIM and PR, the former for ER, both for CEA (only mEC was frequently strongly positive), and neither for the CKs studied. No one stain or combination reliably distinguished endometrial from endocervical origin. The only immunostaining pattern that might identify a site of origin with more accuracy than hematoxylin & eosin evaluation alone is the combination of high VIM and ER scores in an endometrioid carcinoma, suggesting with about 95% accuracy in this series an endometrial origin of the tumor.
Three Strikes as a Public Policy: The Convergence of the New Penology and the McDonaldization of Punishment

This article analyzes the theoretical principles of the recently legislated “three strikes and you're out” laws. In many respects, these are related to the “new penology” that shifted the focus of criminological and penological interest from the individual offender toward the control of aggregates. Furthermore, the analysis relates the three-strikes measures to the cultural model of the “McDonaldization” of society in which the principles of the fast-food restaurant dominate many aspects of American society. These principles include efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control mainly by non-human technology. The analysis in this article, which focuses especially on the three-strikes law in California, suggests that three-strikes laws can be viewed as a part of the McDonaldization trend.
The strategy and attribution questionnaire: Psychometric properties.

It has been suggested that people's cognitive and attributional strategies influence the extent to which they are successful in various situations. A 60-item self-report scale for measuring these strategies was developed. This Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire (SAQ) comprised ten subscales: (1) Success expectations, (2) Task-irrelevant behaviour, (3) Seeking social support, (4) Reflective thinking and (5) Master-orientation in an achievement situation, and (6) Success expectations, (7) Task-irrelevant behaviour, (8) Avoidance, (9) Master-orientation and (10) Pessimism in an affiliative context. An attempt to validate these subscales was made by correlating them with Rosenberg's Self-esteem and Self-stability Scales, a revised Beck's Depression Inventory, the Peer Relationship Measure, and the levels of task-irrelevant behaviour, test-anxiety, and grades in a university examination. This was done with a sample of 488 undergraduates at the University of Helsinki. The results showed that the SAQ subscal.
Feedback on Household Electricity Consumption: Learning and Social Influence Processes

In this paper, we present results from a project aiming to develop a new feedback technology to support sustainable living in private households. Against the backdrop of a review of the relevant literature and based on qualitative family interviews and registration of the households' electricity consumption, we evaluate the effects of giving households detailed feedback about their electricity consumption on a small liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. Twenty Danish households participated in the study over a 5-month period. A new feedback system was developed in a user-involved innovation process. The average electricity saving in participating households is estimated to 8.1%, compared with a 0.8% saving in the control group. The qualitative interviews revealed that the feedback made household electricity consumption more visible and salient, and empowered electricity consumers to take action with respect to lowering their energy consumption. In addition, the feedback stimulated social influences processes related to energy savings between spouses as well as between (teenage) children and their parents. Notably, families with teenage children appear to be particularly receptive to this type of feedback.
A Randomized Controlled Trial Study of the ABRACADABRA Reading Intervention Program in Grade 1.

This study reports a randomized controlled trial evaluation of a computer-based balanced literacy intervention, ABRACADABRA (http://grover.concordia.calabralversionl/abracadabra.html). Children (N = 144) in Grade I were exposed either to computer activities for word analysis, text comprehension, and fluency, alongside shared stories (experimental groups), or to balanced literacy approaches delivered by their classroom teachers (control group). Two computer-based interventions-a phoneme-based synthetic phonics method and a rime-based analytic phonics method-were contrasted. Children were taught 4 times per week for 12 weeks in small groups. There were significant improvements in letter knowledge in the analytic phonics program and significant improvements in phonological awareness, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension at immediate posttest and in phonological awareness and reading fluency at a delayed posttest in the synthetic phonics program. Effect size analyses confirmed that both interventions had a significant impact on literacy at both posttests.
Acceptance of Wearable Technology by People With Alzheimer’s Disease: Issues and Accommodations

The increasing number of cognitively impaired older adults who exhibit wandering tendencies raises safety concerns. The purpose of the current study was to research the State-of the-Art in Wearable Technologies for persons with Alzheimer’s Disease and identify challenges unique to this population and lessons learned. Inclusion criteria specified systems/devices that completed laboratory testing and were commercially available for usage by community-based Alzheimer’s family caregivers. Methods included a series of Internet product searches and telephone interviews with related corporate representatives and participant’s referrals. Results indicated many products in development or academic research use but only a limited number were available that met the study criteria. The interviews with key informants revealed features necessary to consider when making products to be worn by persons with cognitive impairment. In conclusion, there is no ideal solution and opportunities remain for marketplace innovations and for addressing the challenges associated with balancing safety and security.
Expression of CXC chemokine receptor-4 enhances the pulmonary metastatic potential of murine B16 melanoma cells.

The chemokine receptors CC chemokine receptor (CCR) 7 and CXC chemokine receptor (CXCR) 4 have been implicated in cancer metastasis. To evaluate whether CXCR4 is sufficient to increase tumor metastasis in an organ-specific manner, we transduced murine B16 melanoma cells with CXCR4 (CXCR4-B16) and followed the metastatic fate of the transduced cells in both i.v. and s.c. inoculation models of metastasis. CXCR4-B16 cells demonstrated marked increases (>10-fold) in pulmonary metastasis compared with vector (pLNCX2)-B16 after i.v. and s.c. inoculation of tumor cells. The increase in metastasis could be completely inhibited by T22, a small peptide antagonist of CXCR4. As early as 24 and 48 h after i.v. injection, CXCR4-B16 cells were significantly increased in the lung compared with control B16 cells by 5- and 10-fold (P < 0.05), respectively. CXCR4-B16 cells adhered better to both dermal and pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells relative to control B16 cells. Moreover, CXCL12 promoted the growth of CXCR4-B16 cells in vitro. Whereas expression of CXCR4 in B16 cells dramatically enhanced pulmonary metastasis, metastasis to the lymph nodes, liver, and kidney was rare. Immunohistochemical staining of both primary human cutaneous melanoma and pulmonary metastases revealed CXCR4 expression. Thus, CXCR4 plays a potentially important role in promoting organ-selective metastasis, possibly by stimulating tumor adhesion to microvascular endothelial cells and by enhancing the growth of tumor cells under stress.
Vidas em risco: a identidade profissional dos bombeiros militares

This article discourses the configuration of the professional identity of the Military Firemen from the region of the Greater Florianopolis, SC. To contemplate such general objective, the specific objectives and the theoretical referencial focused on: characterization of the profession, identity, work, professional choice and quality of life. As method, the research was defined as exploratory and descriptive, delineated as a survey. An half-open questionnaire was used. The data was analyzed in a qualitative and quantitative form. Participated in the research, 266 "pracas" of the 1st Firemen Battalion. With this research, it was possible to conclude that these professionals feel themselves carried through with their profession although complaints exist, which are not on the content of the profession, but on the lack of conditions to fulfil it and on organizacional aspects. These citizens "live" the profession even outside their working hours. It was also possible to verify that, as well as the theories affirm, the work is a constituent factor of the identity of the citizen.