Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cross-sectional and longitudinal predictors of well-being: invariance across 25 years

This study addressed: (a) whether any changes in well-being over time could be attributed to participants’ aging or to economic or historical events; (b) whether predictors (e.g. age, religiosity, and financial status) were similarly associated with well-being in cohorts of college seniors assessed at different times; and (c) whether predictors of well-being were similar for the same cohort over a 25-year time span. Using three cohorts of emerging adults (1982, n = 189; 2007, n = 188; and 2010, n = 79) and a subsample of the 1982 cohort followed across 25 years (n = 83), the findings indicated that well-being declined over time, possibly due to historical influences rather than changes associated with aging. Well-being was similarly predicted by religiosity, relationship status, and financial status across cohorts. Longitudinal analyses indicated that earlier religiosity was inversely associated with later financial status and later financial status was associated with higher well-being.
Risk of Diabetes Mellitus in Persons with and without HIV: A Danish Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

Objective In a nationwide, population-based cohort study we assessed the risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) in HIV-infected individuals compared with the general population, and evaluated the impact of risk factors for DM in HIV-infected individuals. Methods We identified 4,984 Danish-born HIV-infected individuals from the Danish HIV Cohort Study and a Danish born population-based age- and gender-matched comparison cohort of 19,936 individuals (study period: 1996–2009). Data on DM was obtained from the Danish National Hospital Registry and the Danish National Prescription Registry. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) and impact of risk factors including exposure to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) and antiretroviral drugs were estimated by Poisson regression analyses. Results In the period 1996–1999 risk of DM was higher in HIV-infected individuals compared to the comparison cohort (adjusted IRR: 2.83; 95%CI: 1.57–5.09), both before (adjusted IRR: 2.40; 95%CI: 1.03–5.62) and after HAART initiation (adjusted IRR: 3.24; 95% CI: 1.42–7.39). In the period 1999–2010 the risk of DM in HIV-infected individuals did not differ from that of the comparison cohort (adjusted IRR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.72–1.13), although the risk was decreased before HAART-initiation (adjusted IRR: 0.45; 95%CI: 0.21–0.96). Increasing age, BMI and the presence of lipoatrophy increased the risk of DM, as did exposure to indinavir, saquinavir, stavudine and didanosine. Conclusion Native HIV–infected individuals do not have an increased risk of developing DM compared to a native background population after year 1998. Some antiretroviral drugs, not used in modern antiretroviral treatment, seem to increase the risk of DM.
Maternal Mortality in Rural Senegal. The Experience of the New Ninéfescha Hospital

Africa continues to suffer from an acute lack of healthcare provision. Is the construction of new healthcare facilities sufficient to improve the health of the population? This is certainly a question raised when the opening of a new hospital fails to bring about any rapid improvement in health indicators. What are the reasons for the slowness of change here? Does it stem from a mismatch between supply and demand? Or from "cultural barriers" hindering the spread of modern ideas? This article investigates possible factors in the case of a modern hospital built in Bandafassi, a rural area of Senegal where facilities had previously been scarce. Data collected over several decades through demographic surveillance of the local population showed that there was no noticeable decline in maternal mortality immediately following the hospital's opening. To identify the reasons for this failure, we conducted several surveys of local people's health-seeking behaviour and the way they utilized this facility, notably for childbirth. Four years on, villagers were still making very little use of the hospital. Few women went there either for antenatal visits or to give birth. The hospital management ascribed this failure to the villagers themselves and, more particularly, to their traditions. These surveys, however, indicate that the heart of the problem lies in a mismatch between the services offered by the hospital and local people's actual needs.
Differences between alcoholic and non alcoholic female psychiatric patients

ABSTRACT: Sixty‐four consecutive DSM‐III alcoholic female psychiatric patients (A‐group) were compared with 65 non alcoholic women from the same psychiatric units. The A‐women more often had nervous sisters. They were younger at the first intercourse, had had more frequent intercourses during the last year, more often had a poor relationship with their children. They had had more heterosexual partners, living‐together relationships and divorces, and had more often a dependent adult relationship. The mean age of the first nervous symptoms and of coming to psychiatry was significantly lower in the A‐group, and they had more suicidal attempts and criminality. During childhood, adolescence and adult age, they reacted more often to losses with acting out and alcohol abuse. Nervous problems and close contact difficulties seem to have manifested themselves mostly before the alcohol abuse was established.
Involvement of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in the adaptive protection of human lymphocytes after hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment.

Accumulating evidence suggests that HO-1 plays an important role in cellular protection against oxidant-mediated cell injury. Our previous studies on hyperbaric oxygen (HBO; i.e. exposure to pure oxygen under high ambient pressure) indicated clearly increased levels of HO-1 in lymphocytes of volunteers 24 h after HBO treatment (1 h at 1.5 bar). Experiments with the comet assay (alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis) revealed that the same cells were almost completely protected against the induction of DNA damage by a repeated exposure or in vitro treatment with H(2)O(2) 24 h after the first HBO. In order to further investigate the role of HO-1 in HBO-induced adaptive response, we now performed experiments with isolated human lymphocytes exposed to HBO in vitro (2 h at 3 bar). Our results show that also under cell culture conditions, lymphocytes exhibit an adaptive protection similar to that observed in our previous work with healthy human subjects. The time-course of HO-1 induction proceeds in parallel to the development of an adaptive protection against the induction of oxidative DNA damage. A comparable protection was not seen in V79 cells, indicating a specific difference between the two investigated cell systems. Treatment with the specific HO-1 inhibitor tin-mesoporphyrin IX (SnMP) led to a complete abrogation of HBO-induced adaptive protection in human lymphocytes. Our results indicate a functional involvement of HO-1 in the adaptive protection of human lymphocytes against the induction of oxidative DNA damage. The exact mechanism by which HO-1 contributes to an adaptive response remains to be elucidated.
Knowledge and Attitudes About the Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Survey of Custody Evaluators

A survey study (response rate n = 106, 75.7%) was conducted of professional custody evaluators to assess their beliefs and attitudes about the parental alienation syndrome (PAS). Three overarching research questions were addressed: (1) To what extent do custody evaluators endorse the concept of PAS (2) How, if at all, do custody evaluators assess PAS and aspects of it (including general quality of parent-child relationship, extent to which child has been coached and/or is unduly influenced, and extent of parental personality disorders associated with PAS), and (3) What factors were associated with the proportion of cases that evaluators concluded PAS had occurred. Results revealed general consensus regarding the concept of PAS (familiarity with it, importance of measuring it) as well as several areas of disagreement (whether it should be included in the DSM, whether it meets Daubert and Frye standards). Evaluators who reported greater familiarity with PAS also reported having cases with more good faith allegations of it, which itself was associated with concluding that PAS had occurred in a greater number of cases. Findings suggest several avenues for improved practice and for future research.
Human decidual cells activity in women with spontaneous abortions of probable CMV aetiology during the first trimester of gestation. An immunohistochemical study with CMV-associated antigen.

AIM To determine the expression of CMV-associated antigen in the human decidual endometrial stromal cells in spontaneous abortions with no evidence of maternal relapse during the first trimester of gestation. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We examined 15 placentas resulting from intrauterine fetal death after spontaneous abortion during the 8th, 10th, and 12th week of gestation respectively, and in which CMV reactivation was ruled out from serological evaluation of the pregnant women at admission, versus equal controls after voluntary abortion following well-documented maternal viral recurrence. In addition, a panel of monoclonal antibodies for the identification of leukocytes (CD45/LCA), B-lymphocytes (CD20/L-26), and T-lymphocytes (CD45RO/UCHL1), was performed. All women received hormonal medication to support gestation, in the cases of spontaneous abortions. RESULTS Immunohistochemical examination using a specific antibody against cytomegalovirus showed large multinucleated infected cells with intranuclear inclusions, located primarily in the decidual stroma within a lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate in the cases of spontaneous abortions. No evidence of infection was observed in the chorionic villi. In the cases of voluntary abortions same findings were observed in the relevant areas, and a strong evidence of infection was observed in the chorionic villi. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates 1) that the decidual endometrial stromal cells can express the CMV-associated antigen prior to serological manifestation of the viral replication, 2) the expression of the antigen is higher in cases of hormonal administration to support gestation. In these cases a mild mononuclear infiltrate of UCHL1 (T marker) positive cells, accompanies the CMV-associated antigen positive cells.
Cognitive Schemata in Depressed Adolescent Girls and Their Mothers

Schemata (and other cognitions) were investigated in depressed adolescent girls and their mothers and were compared to those in a control group. Links between adolescent and maternal cognitions were also examined. There were 14 girls and mothers in the clinical group and 15 in the control group. The depressed adolescents had higher total scores on a measure of schemata than the control adolescents, and higher scores on several of its sub-scales. They also scored more highly on two other measures of cognition (dysfunctional attitudes and negative automatic thoughts). The mothers of the depressed adolescents were more depressed than mothers of control adolescents. However, the two groups of mothers did not differ on the measures of cognition, including schemata. Depression and schemata in adolescents were related to these variables in their mothers but only in the depressed group. Possible explanations for the findings, including the nature of the link between mood and cognition in the groups studied, are considered. Implications for cognitive theory and therapy in depressed adolescents are briefly discussed.
Bayesian Inference for Logistic Regression Models using Sequential Posterior Simulation

The logistic specification has been used extensively in non-Bayesian statistics to model the dependence of discrete outcomes on the values of specified covariates. Because the likelihood function is globally weakly concave estimation by maximum likelihood is generally straightforward even in commonly arising applications with scores or hundreds of parameters. In contrast Bayesian inference has proven awkward, requiring normal approximations to the likelihood or specialized adaptations of existing Markov chain Monte Carlo and data augmentation methods. This paper approaches Bayesian inference in logistic models using recently developed generic sequential posterior simulaton (SPS) methods that require little more than the ability to evaluate the likelihood function. Compared with existing alternatives SPS is much simpler, and provides numerical standard errors and accurate approximations of marginal likelihoods as by-products. The SPS algorithm for Bayesian inference is amenable to massively parallel implementation, and when implemented using graphical processing units it is more efficient than existing alternatives. The paper demonstrates these points by means of several examples.
FGF2 is a target and a trigger of epigenetic mechanisms associated with differences in emotionality: Partnership with H3K9me3

Significance This study investigates the role of epigenetics as a predisposing factor that modifies inborn emotional reactivity and the vulnerability or resilience to affective disorders, such as major depression or substance abuse. It tests the hypothesis that specific modified histones contribute to basal differences in temperament that bias emotional responses to the environment. It further describes the role of a growth factor that can modify these epigenetic patterns as it alters affective behavior. Posttranslational modifications of histone tails in chromatin template can result from environmental experiences such as stress and substance abuse. However, the role of epigenetic modifications as potential predisposing factors in affective behavior is less well established. To address this question, we used our selectively bred lines of high responder (bHR) and low responder (bLR) rats that show profound and stable differences in affective responses, with bLRs being prone to anxiety- and depression-like behavior and bHRs prone to addictive behavior. We first asked whether these phenotypes are associated with basal differences in epigenetic profiles. Our results reveal broad between-group differences in basal levels of trimethylated histone protein H3 at lysine 9 (H3K9me3) in hippocampus (HC), amygdala, and nucleus accumbens. Moreover, levels of association of H3K9me3 at Glucocorticoid Receptor (GR) and Fibroblast growth Factor 2 (FGF2) promoters differ reciprocally between bHRs and bLRs in these regions, consistent with these genes’ opposing levels of expression and roles in modulating anxiety behavior. Importantly, this basal epigenetic pattern is modifiable by FGF2, a factor that modulates anxiety behavior. Thus, early-life FGF2, which decreases anxiety, altered the levels of H3K9me3 and its binding at FGF2 and GR promoters of bLRs rendering them more similar to bHRs. Conversely, knockdown of HC FGF2 altered both anxiety behavior and levels of H3K9me3 in bHRs, rendering them more bLR-like. These findings implicate FGF2 as a modifier of epigenetic mechanisms associated with emotional responsiveness, and point to H3K9me3 as a key player in the regulation of affective vulnerability.
Geographies of Isolation: How Workers (Don’t) Access Support for Problems at Work

: This paper is concerned with the social and spatial processes adopted by workers who face problems at work. Using interview data with minority ethnic workers in three local communities in London, the paper explores the mechanism people use to seek help and advice and what resources are available from local community organisations. Key findings suggest that many workers, both unionised and non-unionised find themselves isolated and unable to access the support they need.
Fluorinated COX-2 Inhibitors as Agents in PET Imaging of Inflammation and Cancer

COX-2 is a major contributor to the inflammatory response and cancer progression so it is an important target for prevention and therapy. COX-2 is absent or expressed at low levels in most epithelial cells but is found at high levels in inflammatory lesions, and many premalignant and malignant tumors. Thus, it is an attractive target for molecular imaging. We report a series of novel fluorinated imaging agents, derived from indomethacin or celecoxib that selectively inhibit COX-2. The most promising lead, compound 7, was a fluorinated derivative of celecoxib. Kinetic analysis revealed that this fluorinated compound is a slow, tight-binding inhibitor of COX-2 and exhibits minimal inhibitory activity against COX-1. Efficient incorporation of 18F into compound 7 by radiochemical synthesis and intravenous injection provided sufficient signal for in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. Selective uptake of 18F-7 was observed in inflamed rat paws compared with the noninflamed contralateral paws and uptake was blocked by pretreatment with the COX-2 inhibitor, celecoxib. Uptake of 18F-7 was not observed when inflammation was induced in COX-2–null mice. In nude mice bearing both a COX-2–expressing human tumor xenograft (1483) and a COX-2–negative xenograft (HCT116), 18F-7 selectively accumulated in the COX-2–expressing tumor. Accumulation was blocked by pretreatment of the animals with celecoxib. The in vitro and in vivo properties of compound 7 suggest it will be a useful probe for early detection of cancer and for evaluation of the COX-2 status of premalignant and malignant tumors. Cancer Prev Res; 4(10); 1536–45. ©2011 AACR.
Transforming sensor data to the image domain for deep learning — An application to footstep detection

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have become the state-of-the-art in various computer vision tasks, but they are still premature for most sensor data, especially in pervasive and wearable computing. A major reason for this is the limited amount of annotated training data. In this paper, we propose the idea of leveraging the discriminative power of pre-trained deep CNNs on 2-dimensional sensor data by transforming the sensor modality to the visual domain. By three proposed strategies, 2D sensor output is converted into pressure distribution imageries. Then we utilize a pre-trained CNN for transfer learning on the converted imagery data. We evaluate our method on a gait dataset of floor surface pressure mapping. We obtain a classification accuracy of 87.66%, which outperforms the conventional machine learning methods by over 10%.
The Effects of Multiaxial and Uniaxial Unstable Surface Balance Training in College Athletes

Eisen, TC, Danoff, JV, Leone, JE, and Miller, TA. The effects of multiaxial and uniaxial unstable surface balance training in college athletes. J Strength Cond Res 24(7): 1740-1745, 2010-The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of 2 different types of unstable surface balance training (uniaxial on a rocker board [RB] and multiaxial on a dynadisc [DD]) on balance in division 1 collegiate athletes in sports that are at high risk for ankle sprains. Subjects (n = 36) consisted of male soccer players and female volleyball and soccer players who were equally and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups (CON, DD, and RB). Balance training consisting of balancing on 1 leg on either the RB or DD, while repeatedly catching a 1-kg ball was performed 3 times per week for 4 weeks. Balance was tested with the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) before, halfway through, and at the completion of the balance training. Control (CON) subjects also were given the balance test but did not participate in the training. A 3-way repeated analysis of variance revealed that no group individually changed SEBT scores from pre (CON, 0.98 ± 0.086; DD, 0.98 ± 0.083; RB, 0.97 ± 0.085) to post (CON, 1.00 ± 0.090; DD, 1.01 ± 0.088; RB, 1.02 ± 0.068) after balance training. When the 2 treatment groups were combined (DD and RB), the p value decreased and came closer to significance (p = 0.136). When all 3 groups were combined, there was a significant difference in SEBT scores from pretraining (CON + DD + RB; 0.98 ± 0.085) to posttraining (CON + DD + RB; 1.01 ± 0.082), which likely indicates low statistical power. The increase in physical activity the subjects experienced during the return to in-season activity, may have contributed to the significant differences in SEBT scores over time but not between DD or RB training. Therefore, a threshold level of physical activity may exist that is necessary to maintain balance during the off-season.
Mutual Affect Therapy and the Emergence of Transformational Empathy

The early founders of humanistic psychology made clear the priority of empathy in effective psychotherapy. In the past decade, an understanding of emotional communication has been enhanced by research in neurobiology and brought to popular attention by those writing under the banner of “emotional intelligence. ” This article presents a novel approach to empathy in which the therapist searches for a memory-evoking affect sufficiently similar to that of the client to experience that shared affect more fully and vividly. Clients receiving such empathy using this mutual affect approach appear to experience a deeper level of validation and emotional clarification. Referred to as Mutual Affect Therapy, this approach is put in the context of the literature on empathy and illustrated by two examples in the author’s experience.
Gli3-mediated somitic Fgf10 expression gradients are required for the induction and patterning of mammary epithelium along the embryonic axes

Little is known about the regulation of cell fate decisions that lead to the formation of five pairs of mammary placodes in the surface ectoderm of the mouse embryo. We have previously shown that fibroblast growth factor 10 (FGF10) is required for the formation of mammary placodes 1, 2, 3 and 5. Here, we have found that Fgf10 is expressed only in the somites underlying placodes 2 and 3, in gradients across and within these somites. To test whether somitic FGF10 is required for the formation of these two placodes, we analyzed a number of mutants with different perturbations of somitic Fgf10 gradients for the presence of WNT signals and ectodermal multilayering, markers for mammary line and placode formation. The mammary line is displaced dorsally, and formation of placode 3 is impaired in Pax3ILZ/ILZ mutants, which do not form ventral somitic buds. Mammary line formation is impaired and placode 3 is absent in Gli3Xt-J/Xt-J and hypomorphic Fgf10 mutants, in which the somitic Fgf10 gradient is shortened dorsally and less overall Fgf10 is expressed, respectively. Recombinant FGF10 rescued mammogenesis in Fgf10-/- and Gli3Xt-J/Xt-J flanks. We correlate increasing levels of somitic FGF10 with progressive maturation of the surface ectoderm, and show that full expression of somitic Fgf10, co-regulated by GLI3, is required for the anteroposterior pattern in which the flank ectoderm acquires a mammary epithelial identity. We propose that the intra-somitic Fgf10 gradient, together with ventral elongation of the somites, determines the correct dorsoventral position of mammary epithelium along the flank.