Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Breast cancer in Tunisia: association of body mass index with histopathological aspects of tumors.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested a link between obesity and breast cancer (BC). However, there is no universal consensus, especially in population based studies. Because only few studies have been conducted on African women, we aimed here to assess the relationship between BMI at time of diagnosis and the BC histopathological features among Tunisian patients according to menopausal status using a hospital-based prospective cohort study. MATERIALS AND METHODS Clinical and pathological data were collected from 262 patients stratified on four groups according to their BMI. The relationship between BMI and histopathological features at diagnosis was analysed using univariate and multivariate analysis. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the performance of BMI in predicting of high tumor grade, in comparison to ki-67 index of proliferation. RESULTS Obesity was correlated with larger tumors, advanced grade and with ER-PR- Her2+ BC subtype. An association of BMI with tumor size and tumor grade was observed in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Additionally, a significant association between BMI and ER+, ER+PR+Her2+ and ER-PR-Her2+ status was revealed for premenopausal patients, while only ER+PR+Her2+ was associated with BMI for postmenopausal women. Finally, our results showed that compared to Ki67 proliferation index, BMI is a useful prognostic marker of high grade BC tumors. CONCLUSIONS These data are the first to show that in Tunisia obese women suffering from BC have significantly larger tumors and advanced tumor grade and that higher BMI might influence tumor characteristics and behavior.
Why Homeschooling Happened.

Teaching children at home is nothing new. Parents, extended family, and tutors have been doing so for ages. What’s new is that in recent decades increasing numbers of people have been teaching children at home as a self-conscious act of protest against mainstream society. Homeschooling is now a political movement. How did that happen? How did homeschooling go from being something that was done as a matter of course by thousands of Americans early in our history, to something that was hardly done at all as more and more Americans embraced formal schools, to something that has re-emerged in our time as a powerful educational alternative? These were the questions I sought to answer in my book Homeschool: An American History. * One aspect of the story that is particularly worthy of comment is the remarkable fact that in the late 1970s and 1980s many people on both the left and the right of the political spectrum began to advocate and practice homeschooling. Why?
Second to fourth digit ratio in Nigerian Igbos and Yorubas

This study was carried out to investigate any tribal and sexual differences in the second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) of Igbos and Yorubas in Nigeria. Eight hundred and forty (840) Nigerian adolescents were used for the study. These comprised 210 Igbo males, 210 Igbo females, 210 Yoruba males and 210 Yoruba females. A digital venier caliper was used to measure the length of the second digit (2D) and fourth digit (4D). The ratio 2/4D was then calculated for each subject. Result from the study showed 2/4D was sexually dimorphic in the two tribes. Males demonstrated lower digit ratio (0.96 on the right hand of Igbos and Yorubas and 0.94 on the left hand of the two tribes) than females (0.97 on the right hand and 0.95 on the left hand). The differences observed between males and females in both tribes were significant (p 0.05). Thus, digit ratio amongst Yorubas and Igbos is sexually dimorphic and may not necessarily be affected by tribe and ethnicity. It may be more related by latitude as suggested by various researchers.
Therapeutic trials in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: Insulin sensitizers and related methodological issues

Insulin sensitizers are attractive candidate therapies for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis mainly because of the strong association between this disease and insulin resistance. This review provides a critical overview of the mechanisms of action, clinical trial results, and safety issues of metformin and glitazones in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. It also highlights methodological challenges for trial design and proposes endpoints for future proof of principle, registrational, and postmarketing trials. (HEPATOLOGY 2010;52:2206‐2215)
Meta‐learning ability – a crucial component for the professional development of teachers in a changing context

Reviews of teachers professional development show that it is a highly complicated area, in which it is difficult to offer a unified and comprehensive view of the growing development of teachers. This study looks into the development of teachers by tracking their practices in a problematic teaching area: ‘learning through play’. Four Hong Kong kindergarten teachers participated in a qualitative study that investigated their implicit knowledge of teaching. The findings show that there is a close relationship between the informants' teaching approaches and their self‐learning patterns. The result raises doubt about the staged developmental perspectives of teacher development. The significance of meta‐learning ability, which is found to be an essential component for the professional development of teachers in a changing context, is revealed.
Exponentially Tilted Empirical Likelihood

Newey and Smith (2001) have recently shown that Empirical Likelihood (EL) exhibits desirable higher-order asymptotic properties, namely, that its O ¡ n−1 ¢ bias is particularly small and that biascorrected EL is higher-order efficient. Although EL possesses these properties when the model is correctly specified, this paper shows that the asymptotic variance of EL in the presence of model misspecification may become undefined when the functions defining the moment conditions are unbounded. In contrast, the Exponential Tilting (ET) estimator avoids this problem under mild regularity conditions. Since ET does not share the higher-order asymptotic properties of EL, there is a need for an estimator that combines the qualities of both estimators. This paper introduces a new estimator called Exponentially Tilted Empirical Likelihood (ETEL) that is shown to have the same O ¡ n−1 ¢ bias and the same O ¡ n−2 ¢ variance as EL, while maintaining a well-defined asymptotic variance under model misspecification. ∗The author would like to thank Alberto Abadie, Yuichi Kitamura, and participants at seminars given at University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, and UCLA for helpful comments. This work is made possible through financial support from the National Science Foundation via grant SES-0214068.
Performance analysis of a low-complexity detection for OFDM Index Modulation over Nakagami-m fading

The performance of a low-complexity detection technique for OFDM-IM over the Nakagami-m fading channel has been analyzed. The orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM) has recently been used in conjunction with the subcarriers using on-off keying modulation. The result shows improved performance in comparison with the conventional OFDM. The closed-form expression for the average pairwise error probability (PEP) over the Nakagami-m fading channel is derived.
Pairwise Attribute Normalization ∗

We propose a theory of multi-attribute choice with foundation in the neuroscience of sensory perception. The theory relies on a pairwise comparison of attributes by means of divisive normalization, a neural computation widely observed in cortex across many sensory modalities and species. The theory captures and unifies a number of previously disparate phenomena observed in the empirical literature, including the decoy effect, compromise effect, similarity effect, “majority rules” intransitive preference cycles, attribute-splitting effects, and comparability biases. A general formulation of the theory contains standard binary utility representations as a special case. The relation between pairwise normalization and the previously-established concept of attribute salience found in the economics literature is also
OCA1 in Different Ethnic Groups of India is Primarily Due to Founder Mutations in the Tyrosinase Gene

Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is a heterogeneous group of autosomal recessive disorders characterized by an abnormally low amount of melanin in the eyes, skin and hair, and associated with common developmental abnormalities of the eye. Defects in the tyrosinase gene (TYR) cause a common type of OCA, known as oculocutaneous albinism type 1 (OCA1). The molecular basis of OCA has been studied extensively in different population groups, but very little information is available on Indian patients. Our investigation covering thirteen ethnic groups of India, some representing >20 million people, revealed that among 25 OCA families 12 were affected with OCA1, and that these cases were primarily due to founder mutations in TYR. We detected nine mutations and eight SNPs in TYR, of which six mutations (five point mutations & one gross deletion) were novel. In contrast to most reports describing compound heterozygotes, the presence of homozygotes in 10 out of the 12 pedigrees underscores the lack of intermixing between these ethnic groups in India. Haplotype analysis suggested a few founder chromosomes causing the disease in the majority of the patients. Direct detection of the mutations prevalent in specific ethnic groups could be used for carrier detection and genetic counselling.
Influence of malaria transmission intensity and the 581G mutation on the efficacy of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy: systematic review and meta‐analysis

To estimate where intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp) using sulphadoxine–pyrimethamine (SP) could be withdrawn as an intervention due to declining malaria transmission intensity, or due to increasing prevalence of the Plasmodium falciparum dihydropteroate synthetase resistance mutation at codon 581G.
THE PSYCHIC MANIFESTATIONS IN PARALYSIS AGITANS

While paralysis agitans is not a common affection, its frequency being put by the majority of observers at about 1 per cent. of all nervous diseases, it has been recognized as a distinct clinical entity since 1817, when its neurologic syndromes were first described by Parkinson, a well developed case of "shaking palsy" presents no difficulty in the matter of diagnosis. It would seem, however, that the psychic manifestations of this disease have to a great extent been overshadowed by the neurologic symptoms; most writers dismiss the mental changes with the statement that there may be present in this disease some irritability and in cases occuring late in life some defects of memory, while still other observers assert that as a rule the mind remains entirely clear. Unquestionably, there are many cases of paralysis agitans that are uncomplicated by well marked mental symptoms; but, on the other hand, there are
Thinking about penal equivalents

Authors have pointed to multiple dimensions of crime and punishment, and in particular, the need to understand both the roles of instrumental and expressive elements. The latter dimension - the expressive or symbolic purpose of punishment - has been viewed as a specific reason for the relatively low success rate of decreasing the use of imprisonment, particularly with respect to public acceptability. I argue that in addition, there has not been adequate attention paid to the roles of factors such as the nature of the offence and the age of the offender. The purpose of this article is to offer a lens through which to think about penal equivalents, and the nuances of various connections among multiple dimensions of punishment. What is lacking from criminal justice literature and legislation is a broader framework for understanding the relationship among purposes of sentencing, sanctions, offences and offenders - how a specific sanction is seen as accomplishing specific purposes only with respect to certain offences and offenders. The present analysis draws on a random sample of residents in Ontario, Canada about their views of the acceptability of fines and community service orders as penal substitutes for custodial sentences across different offence and offender scenarios.
Genetic variability and efficiency of DNA microsatellite markers for paternity testing in horse breeds from the Brazilian Marajó archipelago

In this study, 15 microsatellite DNA loci used in comparative tests by the International Society for Animal Genetics were applied to the evaluation of genetic diversity and management, and the efficiency of paternity testing in Marajoara horses and Puruca ponies from the Marajo Archipelago. Based on the genotyping of 93 animals, mean allelic diversity was estimated as 9.14 and 7.00 for the Marajoara and Puruca breeds, respectively. While these values are similar to those recorded in most European breeds, mean levels of heterozygosity were much lower (Marajoara 49%, Puruca 40%), probably as a result of high levels of inbreeding in the Marajo populations. The mean informative polymorphic content of this 15-marker system was over 50% in both breeds, and was slightly higher in the Marajoara horses. The discriminative power and exclusion probabilities derived from this system were over 99% for both populations, emphasizing the efficacy of these markers for paternity testing and genetic management in the two breeds.
Boundary spanners, network capital and the rise of edu-businesses: the case of News Corporation and its emerging education agenda

This paper provides a critical analysis of News Corporation and argues that through the acquisition of high profile policy actor, Joel Klein, News Corporation has been able to assemble significant network capital to position itself as an entity apparently responsible for the public good and with a role to play in public policymaking. My aim in this paper was to document and analyse how the contexts of policy influence in education are evolving through the involvement of multinational edu-businesses and the quasi-privatisation of the education policy community globally. I analyse the place of education in News Corporation’s current business strategy as exemplary of the changing role that businesses are playing in education policy processes nationally and globally and argue that we are seeing the emergence of powerful new policy actors. This analysis is set against the emerging literature that seeks to analyse the increasing influence of edu-businesses on education policy processes and locates these developments within considerations of changing educational governance structures, new privatisations and public–private partnerships in education. It is argued that boundary spanners like Klein with their intimate ‘inside knowledge’ of state structures are mobilising network capital to frame policy problems and advocate policy solutions in ways that are attractive to education policymakers while also being commercially beneficial to News Corporation and their shareholders.
The effect of heliotrine, a pyrrolizidine alkaloid, on human liver cells in culture.

Abstract The effects of heliotrine on human embryo hepatocytes in culture and on cells of a continuous cell line derived from human liver were investigated. Cell necrosis did not occur but cytological changes consisting mainly of cytoplasmic vacuolation were produced in the hepatocytes. Progressive hypertrophy of the hepatocytes and of cells of the continuous line was observed. The enlargement of the cells increased both with the concentration and the period of exposure to the alkaloid. Heliotrine inhibited the synthesis of nucleic acids and protein by all the cell types present in primary cultures of the liver. The experimental data indicated that the action of heliotrine was primarily on the synthesis of DNA but some inhibition of RNA synthesis also occurred. It is proposed that heliotrine acts mainly in the major groove of the DNA helix inhibiting the DNA polymerase but there is also an effect on the RNA polymerase in the minor groove. The mechanism of action of heliotrine could be similar to the action of some of the antibiotics, in particular aflatoxin B1.
Crimean‐congo hemorrhagic fever virus–tick survey in endemic areas in Bulgaria

The Balkan Peninsula and Bulgaria in particular, is a well‐known endemic region for Crimean‐Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF). This study describes the prevalence of Crimean‐Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) among tick populations from areas, previously recognized with emerging cases of CCHF disease in humans. These include regions from the Southeastern (regions of Kardzhali and Haskovo) and Central (region of Stara Zagora) parts of the country. For the period 2006–2010 a total of 911 adult ticks, collected from livestock in endemic areas were studied for presence of CCHFV by an immunofluorescence‐hemocytes assay (IFHA) and a reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR). The detection rate of CCHFV in the tick population was 2.09%. The prevalence of the virus was determined between 2.01% and 4.83% in the regions of Kardzhali and Haskovo, respectively (Southeastern Bulgaria). In the Central part of the country CCHFV infestation of the ticks was observed in 1.46% (region of Stara Zagora). The results confirmed the mosaic dispersion of CCHFV in the investigated regions. The principal infection vector in the surveyed areas was confirmed to be Hyalomma marginatum marginatum. Rhipicephalus sanguineus and Ixodes ricinus were also detected and may play a role in the transmission of CCHFV. Species distribution of CCHFV‐positive ticks was as follows: H. m. marginatum—4.93%; R. sanguineus—2.33%; I. ricinus—1.02%. The combination of IFHA and RT‐PCR that are used in this study are useful tools in the algorithm for monitoring endemic areas in Bulgaria. J. Med. Virol. 84:608–614, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Novel Glucagon-like Peptide-1 (GLP-1)/Glucagon Hybrid Peptide with Triple-acting Agonist Activity at Glucose-dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide, GLP-1, and Glucagon Receptors and Therapeutic Potential in High Fat-fed Mice*

Background: Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), and glucagon have important gluco-regulatory actions. Results: Fusion of amino acid sequences of GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon produces hybrid peptides with triple-acting agonist activity. Conclusion: Hybrid peptides possess beneficial biological actions equivalent, or superior to, activation of single receptors. Significance: Multitargeting peptides offer a new class of therapeutics for obesity and diabetes. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), and glucagon bind to related members of the same receptor superfamily and exert important effects on glucose homeostasis, insulin secretion, and energy regulation. The present study assessed the biological actions and therapeutic utility of novel GIP/glucagon/GLP-1 hybrid peptides. Nine novel peptides were synthesized and exhibited complete DPP-IV resistance and enhanced in vitro insulin secretion. The most promising peptide, [dA2]GLP-1/GcG, stimulated cAMP production in GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon receptor-transfected cells. Acute administration of [dA2]GLP-1/GcG in combination with glucose significantly lowered plasma glucose and increased plasma insulin in normal and obese diabetic (ob/ob) mice. Furthermore, [dA2]GLP-1/GcG elicited a protracted glucose-lowering and insulinotropic effect in high fat-fed mice. Twice daily administration of [dA2]GLP-1/GcG for 21 days decreased body weight and nonfasting plasma glucose and increased circulating plasma insulin concentrations in high fat-fed mice. Furthermore, [dA2]GLP-1/GcG significantly improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity by day 21. Interestingly, locomotor activity was increased in [dA2]GLP-1/GcG mice, without appreciable changes in aspects of metabolic rate. Studies in knock-out mice confirmed the biological action of [dA2]GLP-1/GcG via multiple targets including GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon receptors. The data suggest significant promise for novel triple-acting hybrid peptides as therapeutic options for obesity and diabetes.
Critical period plasticity and sensory function in a neuroligin-3 model of autism

Extensive experience-dependent refinement of cortical circuits is restricted to critical periods of plasticity early in life. The timing of these critical periods is tightly regulated by the relative levels of excitatory and inhibitory (E/I) neurotransmission during development. Genetic disruption of synaptic proteins that normally maintain E/I balance can result in severe behavioral dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, but the mechanisms are unclear. We propose that abnormal critical periods of sensory circuit refinement could represent a key link between E/I imbalance and the cognitive and behavioral problems in autism. In order to test this hypothesis, we characterized visual function and the critical period for ocular dominance in the neuroligin-3-R451C mouse model of autism. This autism-associated point mutation in the postsynaptic cell adhesion molecule neuroligin-3 (R451C) has been shown to enhance cortical inhibition. We first evaluated baseline vision using in vivo electrophysiological recording in the visual cortex (V1) of anesthetized adult mice. Many properties of V1 cells were normal, including retinotopy, ocular dominance, signal-to-noise ratio, and orientation and direction selectivity. Surprisingly, visual spatial acuity was unstable throughout development and dramatically increased in young adult mutant mice when compared with wild-type littermates, indicating abnormal local circuit processing. Ocular dominance plasticity was tested over development with monocular deprivation at different ages. Plasticity was limited to the end of the first postnatal month in wild-type mice, but this
Social support in people with chronic aphasia

Background & Aims : Stroke and aphasia can have a profound impact on people's social activities, and family and social relationships. This study looked at patterns of social support in people with chronic aphasia following stroke. It examined the relationship between social support and quality of life, exploring which aspects of social support (social network versus perceived social support) were most associated with health-related quality of life (HRQL). Methods & Procedures : A cross-sectional interview-based survey study was conducted. A cluster-sampling framework was used to recruit participants with chronic aphasia following stroke (> 1 year) from three different sites in the south-east of England. Measures included the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 item version (SAQOL-39), the MOS Social Support Survey (SSS), and a social network questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlation, t -tests, and ANOVAs were used as appropriate. Outcomes & Results : The results of those able to self-report (83 out of 95 participants, 87%) are reported here. In terms of social networks, the mode of the size of network was 4. Size of network was associated with HRQL for women only. Most participants (71%) reported they had the same amount of contact with their children following the stroke, while 64% reported they saw their friends less. Those who had the same level of contact with their family as before the stroke had the highest HRQL scores; those who saw them either less or more than before the stroke had lower HRQL. In terms of perceived social support, the SSS scores were negatively skewed with a mean (SD) of 3.69 (.95), suggesting that participants felt overall well supported. Two types of support were significantly correlated with HRQL: social companionship and informational support. Clinical implications : Therapy services for people with aphasia could consider ways to enhance social companionship and informational support as this may positively impact on HRQL. Implications could include complementing and supporting existing social networks, and facilitating access to information and social participation.