Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of MC1R Variants and Host Phenotypes With Melanoma Risk in CDKN2A Mutation Carriers: A GenoMEL Study

Background Carrying the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A) germline mutations is associated with a high risk for melanoma. Penetrance of CDKN2A mutations is modified by pigmentation characteristics, nevus phenotypes, and some variants of the melanocortin-1 receptor gene (MC1R), which is known to have a role in the pigmentation process. However, investigation of the associations of both MC1R variants and host phenotypes with melanoma risk has been limited. Methods We included 815 CDKN2A mutation carriers (473 affected, and 342 unaffected, with melanoma) from 186 families from 15 centers in Europe, North America, and Australia who participated in the Melanoma Genetics Consortium. In this family-based study, we assessed the associations of the four most frequent MC1R variants (V60L, V92M, R151C, and R160W) and the number of variants (1, ≥2 variants), alone or jointly with the host phenotypes (hair color, propensity to sunburn, and number of nevi), with melanoma risk in CDKN2A mutation carriers. These associations were estimated and tested using generalized estimating equations. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results Carrying any one of the four most frequent MC1R variants (V60L, V92M, R151C, R160W) in CDKN2A mutation carriers was associated with a statistically significantly increased risk for melanoma across all continents (1.24 × 10−6 ≤ P ≤ .0007). A consistent pattern of increase in melanoma risk was also associated with increase in number of MC1R variants. The risk of melanoma associated with at least two MC1R variants was 2.6-fold higher than the risk associated with only one variant (odds ratio = 5.83 [95% confidence interval = 3.60 to 9.46] vs 2.25 [95% confidence interval = 1.44 to 3.52]; Ptrend = 1.86 × 10−8). The joint analysis of MC1R variants and host phenotypes showed statistically significant associations of melanoma risk, together with MC1R variants (.0001 ≤ P ≤ .04), hair color (.006 ≤ P ≤ .06), and number of nevi (6.9 × 10−6 ≤ P ≤ .02). Conclusion Results show that MC1R variants, hair color, and number of nevi were jointly associated with melanoma risk in CDKN2A mutation carriers. This joint association may have important consequences for risk assessments in familial settings.
Melatonin Counteracts at a Transcriptional Level the Inflammatory and Apoptotic Response Secondary to Ischemic Brain Injury Induced by Middle Cerebral Artery Blockade in Aging Rats

Abstract Aging increases oxidative stress and inflammation. Melatonin counteracts inflammation and apoptosis. This study investigated the possible protective effect of melatonin on the inflammatory and apoptotic response secondary to ischemia induced by blockade of the right middle cerebral artery (MCA) in aging male Wistar rats. Animals were subjected to MCA obstruction. After 24 h or 7 days of procedure, 14-month-old nontreated and treated rats with a daily dose of 10 mg/kg melatonin were sacrificed and right and left hippocampus and cortex were collected. Rats aged 2 and 6 months, respectively, were subjected to the same brain injury protocol, but they were not treated with melatonin. mRNA expression of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), Bcl-2-associated death promoter (BAD), Bcl-2-associated X protein (BAX), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), and sirtuin 1 was measured by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. In nontreated animals, a significant time-dependent increase in IL-1β, TNF-α, BAD, and BAX was observed in the ischemic area of both hippocampus and cortex, and to a lesser extent in the contralateral hemisphere. Hippocampal GFAP was also significantly elevated, while Bcl-2 and sirtuin 1 decreased significantly in response to ischemia. Aging aggravated these changes. Melatonin administration was able to reverse significantly these alterations. In conclusion, melatonin may ameliorate the age-dependent inflammatory and apoptotic response secondary to ischemic cerebral injury.
The Effect of Age on Technique Variability and Outcome Variability during a Leg Press

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of aging on power generation and joint coordination during a leg press, in order to increase understanding of how functional movements are affected during the aging process. 44 older and 24 younger adults performed eight sub-maximal power repetitions on a seated leg press dynamometer. Peak power and velocity (at 40% maximum resistance) were measured along with the coordination (coupling angle) of the lower limb joints using the vector coding technique. The younger adults produced significantly greater peak power than the older adults (mean ± SD; 762 W ± 245 vs 361 W ± 162, p < 0.01) and at higher peak velocities (mean ± SD; 1.37 m/s ± 0.05 vs 1.00 m/s ± 0.06, p < 0.01). The older adults produced less consistent values of peak power than younger adults, evidenced by a higher coefficient of variation (mean ± SD; 7.6% ± 5.2 vs 5.0% ± 3.0, p < 0.01), however, there was significantly less variability in the coupling angles displayed by the older adults compared to the younger adults (mean ± SD; 2.0° ± 1.1 vs 3.5° ± 2.7, p < 0.01 (ankle-knee); 1.7° ± 0.6 vs 4.1° ± 3.0, p < 0.01 (knee-hip)). The results of this study demonstrate that older adults display higher outcome variability but lower variability in technique (coordination). The more rigid movement strategies displayed by the older adults potentially reflects an increased risk of overuse injury due to repetitive demands on the same structures, or the reduced ability to respond to unexpected situations due to a lack of flexibility in joint control.
Assessment of ovarian reserve in adult childhood cancer survivors using anti-Müllerian hormone.

BACKGROUND The aim was to assess possible treatment-induced gonadal damage in a cohort of adult female childhood cancer survivors (CCS) using anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), the most sensitive marker of ovarian reserve. METHODS A total cohort of 185 survivors was compared with 42 control subjects. The median follow-up time was 18.1 years (range 4.1-43.2 year). RESULTS Median AMH concentrations in the analysed cohort were not different from controls (median 1.7 versus 2.1 microg/l; P = 0.57). However, AMH levels were lower than the 10th percentile of normal values in 27% (49/182) of our survivors. In addition, 43% (79/182) had AMH levels lower than 1.4 microg/l, a previously established cut-off value which predicts ongoing pregnancy after assisted reproduction. There were no differences in AMH levels in subgroups classified according to disease. However, survivors treated with three or more procarbazine containing chemotherapy cycles had significantly lower AMH levels than controls (median 0.5 microg/l; P = 0.004). Also survivors treated with abdominal or total body irradiation had significantly lower AMH levels than controls (median < 0.1 microg/l; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS AMH can be used to identify subgroups of CCS at risk for decreased fertility or premature ovarian failure. In these survivors, options for fertility preservation should be considered prior to starting treatment since they may be at risk for poor chances of pregnancy after assisted reproductive treatment.
Relationships and identity of gay men in Mexico: A qualitative approach

ABSTRACT Relationships are a fundamental element of human and social interactions because they provide us with meanings around physical and abstract objects that allow us to make sense of our reality and identities. There is little Mexican research regarding how gay men construct a sense of identity through their social interactions. This article describes the relationships that gay men in Mexico City have within their families, with their friends, and with their partners. Fifteen in-depth interviews are analyzed through elements of Grounded Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis. Results show that family reproduced homophobia with participants that taught them that their gay identity is socially unaccepted. This is deconstructed through friendships with other gay men. Partner relationships are lived as one of the last milestones in the construction of a gay identity. Some men question hegemonic values around sexuality through polyamorous and polygamous relationships. Conclusions show the importance of these social relationships for gay men's emotional well-being, but that their relationships are often impacted by cultural and interpersonal homophobia.
Expected Returns and Volatility of Fama-French Factors

In this paper, I show that the variance of Fama-French factors, the variance of the momentum factor, as well as the correlation between these factors, predict an important fraction of the time- series variation in post-1990 aggregate stock market returns. This predictability is particularly strong from one month to one year, and it dominates that afforded by the variance risk premium and other popular predictor variables such as P/D ratio, the P/E ratio, the default spread, and the consumption-wealth ratio. In a simple representative agent economy with recursive preferences, I model the portfolio weight in each asset as a function of a stock's characteristics and show that the market return can be predicted by these variances.
Heterogeneity in Ventricular Zone Neural Precursors Contributes to Neuronal Fate Diversity in the Postnatal Neocortex

The recent discovery of short neural precursors (SNPs) in the murine neocortical ventricular zone (VZ) challenges the widely held view that radial glial cells (RGCs) are the sole occupants of this germinal compartment and suggests that precursor variety is an important factor of brain development. Here, we use in utero electroporation and genetic fate mapping to show that SNPs and RGCs cohabit the VZ but display different cell cycle kinetics and generate phenotypically different progeny. In addition, we find that RGC progeny undergo additional rounds of cell division as intermediate progenitor cells (IPCs), whereas SNP progeny generally produce postmitotic neurons directly from the VZ. By clearly defining SNPs as bona fide VZ residents, separate from both RGCs and IPCs, and uncovering their unique proliferative and lineage properties, these results demonstrate how individual neural precursor groups in the embryonic rodent VZ create diversity in the overlying neocortex.
Printed in the United Kingdom DOI: 10.1017/S0305000903215634 REVIEWS

The authors set three major goals for the book: to increase our understanding of the ‘relationship between lexical semantics and morphology in language acquisition’ (p. 8), to review and evaluate pertinent hypotheses ‘with respect to empirical evidence from crosslinguistic studies of English, Chinese, and Japanese, in both first and second language acquisition’ (p. 8), and to investigate ‘the learner’s remarkable ability to extract input patterns and form linguistic associations’ (p. 9). The authors accomplish these goals, and in doing so, they have written a book that makes a valuable contribution to the issue of language learning.The authors promote a prototype hypothesis that is supported by a connectionistmodel.Their fundamental claim is that ‘children create a semantic representation of tense–aspect morphology which is restricted to the prototype of the morphological category’ (p. 66). This argument is focused on two prototypes. One prototype has the semantic features of dynamic, telic, punctual, and resultative. The morphemes that are connected to this prototype are as follows: the perfective aspectmarker -le inChinese, the past tense form -ta in Japanese, and the simple past -ed /irregular in English. The second prototype has the features dynamic and atelic, and this semantic concept is connected to the following: the progressive marker zai in Chinese, the durative marker -te iin Japanese, and the progressive marker -ing in English. The two prototypes will be referred to as the perfective achievement (PA) and the imperfective activity (IA). What is the nature of the knowledge attributed to the child byprototype theory? The child can construct a semantic feature set, and he/she can form an association. For example, a child learning English might associate the verb to spill with the -ed morpheme, and he/she might connect to crywith -ing. Given the constraints of the theory, what is the nature of the knowledge that has NOT been explicitly attributed to the child? Regarding aspect, we cannot infer that the child uses a morpheme to code external versus internal perspective (or bounded versus unbounded), and regarding tense, there is no basis to infer that the child knows how to specify deictic relations such as event time prior to/subsequent to speech time. In short, we cannot infer that these morphemes represent operators that have independent status within the child’s grammatical system. Obviously, the authors are aware that it is impossible to explain the acquisition of aspect without also considering tense and modality. One of the strengths of the book is that the authors maintain their focus on aspect. J. Child Lang. 30 (2003), 237–251. f 2003 Cambridge University Press Printed in the United Kingdom
Qualidade de vida em idosos portadores de Hipertensão Arterial e Diabetes Mellitus

O presente estudo tem com objetivo avaliar a qualidade de vida de idosos. Trata-se de um estudo transversal, descritivo-quantitativo, com amostra constituida por 50 idosos cadastrados em uma Estrategia de Saude da Familia do interior da Bahia. Os instrumentos utilizados para a coleta dos dados foram o Mini-Exame do Estado Mental, o questionario sociodemografico e economico e o WHOQOL-OLD e WHOQOL- BREF. Para a analise dos dados foi utilizado o programa estatistico SPSS®, versao 20.0. Na avaliacao da qualidade de vida observou-se que os participantes obtiveram as piores pontuacoes nos dominios psicologico (51,30 pontos) e ambiente (59,98 pontos) e as facetas mais comprometidas foram Autonomia (44,96 pontos) e Atividades passadas, presentes e futuras (48,80 pontos). Conclui-se que o processo de envelhecimento dos individuos participantes do estudo esta relacionado a fatores que refletem em impactos negativos na qualidade de vida.
Health-Related Physical Fitness among Young Goalball Players with Visual Impairments

Introduction The purpose of our study was to determine the passing rates on health-related physical fitness tests of young goalball players. More specifically, we compared their passing rates according to gender and visual impairment classification. Methods Participants included 40 Brazilian goalball players with visual impairments (20 female [B1 = 7, B2 = 8, B3 = 5]; 20 male [B1 = 6, B2 = 4, B3 = 10]), with a mean age 17.3 (SD = 1.6). The Brockport Physical Fitness Test, a health-related, criterion-referenced protocol, was employed to evaluate percentage of body fat, shoulder stretch, back-saver sit and reach, trunk lift, curl-ups, push-ups, and the one-mile run or walk. Results A significant difference was found in passing rates between genders only in the one-mile run or walk. More than half the participants were able to pass in at least four out of the seven tests. No significant differences were found between groups regarding the proportion of athletes who reached the protocol standards. Discussion Irrespective of gender or visual impairment classification, the participants of this study had high passing rates on most tests. Nonetheless, athletes had low passing rates on specific areas (cardiovascular and muscular strength), which need to be acknowledged. Future studies with a bigger sample could seek to determine the effects of specific training regimens not only on youths, but also on adult groups. Implications for practitioners As a Paralympic sport likely to be of interest to visually impaired children and adolescents, goalball seems to be a feasible game to support the achievement of ideal physical activity levels in this population, leading to higher levels of health-related physical fitness.
Investigation of Recurrent Melioidosis in Lao People's Democratic Republic by Multilocus Sequence Typing

Melioidosis is an infectious disease caused by the saprophytic bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. In northeast Thailand and northern Australia, where the disease is highly endemic, a range of molecular tools have been used to study its epidemiology and pathogenesis. In the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) where melioidosis has been recognized as endemic since 1999, no such studies have been undertaken. We used a multilocus sequence typing scheme specific for B. pseudomallei to investigate nine cases of culture-positive recurrence occurring in 514 patients with melioidosis between 2010 and 2015: four were suspected to be relapses while the other five represented reinfections. In addition, two novel sequence types of the bacterium were identified. The low overall recurrence rates (2.4%) and proportions of relapse and reinfection in the Laos are consistent with those described in the recent literature, reflecting the effective use of appropriate antimicrobial therapy.
Do teachers leave the profession or move to another school when they don’t fit?

Abstract Teacher turnover is an international issue of continuing concern in education. While different antecedents of teachers’ turnover intention have been identified, teachers’ fit within the school (i.e. person-organisation [P–O] fit) in the context of turnover intention is still an emerging field of research. Building on the unfolding model of voluntary turnover, this study investigates the moderating role of teachers’ perceived employability on teachers’ P–O fit–job satisfaction–turnover intention relationship. Using survey data from 997 teachers across 74 schools, we conducted moderated mediation analysis. The analysis revealed different results for the hypothesised relationships depending on the specific dimension of turnover (i.e. intention to leave the profession or intention to move to another school). While P–O fit is directly related to the intention to move to another school, no evidence was found for a direct relation between P–O fit and the intention to leave the profession. Moreover, the results showed that the relation between P–O fit and the intention to leave/intention to move is mediated by job satisfaction. Yet, only for intention to leave, a small but significant moderating effect of perceived employability was found. These findings provide insight into the psychological processes of teachers wanting to leave the teaching profession or move to another school. Limitations, suggestions for further research and implications are also discussed in this article.
Multiple role women: A comparison of college students and employees

This study examined how multiple role working women and multiple role college women differed with respect to role strain. Female students from the university and female employees from local businesses served as participants (N=128). It was hypothesized that multiple role college women would experience more role strain and experience more status inconsistency than multiple role working women. In addition, it was hypothesized that social support, selfefficacy and quality of the role would be key factors in reducing role strain. Results from the survey given to participants supported all the hypotheses. Specifically, the student group did experience more role strain than the working group arid were more status inconsistent. Also supported was the fact that the higher the levels of selfefficacy and outcome expectancy a woman had, the less role strain she experienced. Results also indicated that social support and higher quality within roles helped to alleviate role strain. Suggestions for future research regarding role strain and its components are discussed.
Particle Swarm Optimization: Global Best or Local Best?

A number of empirical studies have compared the two extreme neighborhood topologies used in particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms, namely the star and the ring topologies. Based on these empirical studies, and also based on intuitive understanding of these neighborhood topologies, there is a faction within the PSO research community that advocates the use of the local best (lbest) PSO due to its better exploration abilities, diminished susceptibility to being trapped in local minima, and because it does not suffer from premature convergence as is the case with the global best (gbest) PSO. However, the opinions that emanated from these studies were based on a very limited benchmark suite containing only a few benchmark functions. This paper conducts a very elaborate empirical comparison of the gbest and lbest PSO algorithms on a benchmark suite of 60 boundary constrained minimization problems of varying complexities. The statistical analysis conducted shows that the general statements made about premature convergence, exploration ability, and even solution accuracy are not correct, and shows that neither of the two algorithms can be considered outright as the best, not even for specific problem classes.
A MODEL OF IMMIGRATION, INTEGRATION AND CULTURAL TRANSMISSION OF SOCIAL NORMS*

I present and study an evolutionary model of immigration and culturaltransmission of social norms in a set-up where agents are repeatedly matchedto play a one-shot interaction prisoner´s dilemma. Matching can be non-randomdue to limited integration (or population viscosity). The latter refers to atendency of individuals to have a higher rate of interaction with individuals oftheir type than with similar numbers of other agents. I derive a culturaltransmission mechanism in order to examine the influence of viscosity and ofother institutional characteristics of society on the evolutionary selection of prosocialnorms. The main findings are that strict norms, sustained by stronginternal punishment, need either viscosity or strong institutional pressures topersist, while norms of intermediate strength persist under a variety ofinstitutional characteristics. Endogenizing norm strength allows to identify twoscenarios in which pro-social norms survive: One of rigidity in whichseparation (high viscosity) leads to monomorphic equilibria with strict normsfor cooperation. And one of integration (low viscosity) where intermediatenorms persist in polymorphic equilibria. Furthermore, with endogenous norms,viscosity and cooperation are not linked in a monotone way.