Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceived congruent and incongruent attachment to parents and adolescent sex motives

Sexual motivations are one of the underlying psychosocial factors which influence sexual expression. Individuals are sexually motivated for a variety of reasons. For example, some may engage in sexual activity for intimacy needs, while others may behave sexually to increase self-confidence. Understanding sexual motivations becomes particularly important during adolescence, as motivations are likely to guide socio-sexual development during subsequent years of adulthood. Attachment theory explains that diverse motivations are cultivated as a result of attachment styles. Existing research uses the adult-adult attachment model to assess sex motives. This thesis extends previous research (e.g. Schachner, D.A. & Shaver, P.R., 2004) by analyzing the link between parent-adolescent attachments and sex motives. More specifically, this research addresses the question of whether adolescents' perceived congruent and incongruent attachment styles to parents are related to five sex motives: intimacy, enhancement, self-affirmation, peer and partner approval sex motives. The "incomplete buffering hypothesis" (Verschueren & Marcoen, 1999, p. 185) guides hypotheses concerning incongruent attachment styles. The incomplete buffering hypothesis refers to the partial averaging of incongruent attachments. The combination of one secure attachment to one parent buffers the effects of an insecure attachment to the other parent. Two hundred and forty-four adolescents from a Vancouver secondary school were administered the Sex Motives Scale (SMS; Cooper, Powers, & Shaprio, 1998), five additional sex motive items (Schachner & Shaver, 2004) and the Adolescent Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ; West, Rose, Spreng, Sheldon-Keller, & Adam, 1998). Cluster analyses did not produce theoretically justifiable preoccupied classifications. Given that the preoccupied group could not be included in ANOVA models; post hoc analyses enabled further exploration between the relationship of adolescents' perceived maternal and paternal attachment security and sex motives by means of Ordinary Least Square (OLS) hierarchical regressions. Findings from ANOVA tests indicate that adolescents' perceived attachments to parents were significantly related to their intimacy and self-affirmation sex motives, where the latter generally supports the buffering hypothesis. Results from post hoc analyses indicate interaction effects between maternal and paternal attachment security on intimacy and enhancement sex motives, and a main effect between paternal attachment and self-affirmation sex motives. T-tests found adolescent males score significantly higher than adolescent females on enhancement and peer approval sex motives. Both ANOVA and regression analysis found unexpected findings where males score higher on self-affirmation sex motives than females. The results are discussed in regards to the theoretical implications of multiple attachment organizations as well as the practical implications for adolescent sexual health.
Angiotensin II activates collagen type I gene in the renal vasculature of transgenic mice during inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis: evidence for an endothelin-mediated mechanism.

BACKGROUND Hypertension is frequently associated with renal vascular fibrosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether angiotensin II (Ang II) is involved in this fibrogenic process. METHODS AND RESULTS Experiments were performed on transgenic mice harboring the luciferase gene under the control of the collagen I-alpha(2) chain promoter [procolalpha(2)(I)]. Hypertension was induced by chronic inhibition of NO synthesis (N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, L-NAME). Procolalpha(2)(I) activity started to increase in the renal vasculature after 4 weeks of L-NAME treatment (P<0.01) and at 14 weeks reached 3- and 8-fold increases over control in afferent arterioles and glomeruli, respectively (P<0.001). Losartan, an AT(1) receptor antagonist, given simultaneously with L-NAME prevented the increase of procolalpha(2)(I) levels and attenuated the development of renal vascular fibrosis without normalizing systolic pressure increase. Because we found previously that endothelin mediated renal vascular fibrosis in the L-NAME model, the interaction between Ang II, endothelin, and procolalpha(2)(I) was investigated in ex vivo and short-term in vivo experiments. In both conditions, the Ang II-induced activation of procolalpha(2)(I) in renal cortex was blocked by an endothelin receptor antagonist. CONCLUSIONS During chronic inhibition of NO, the collagen I gene becomes activated, leading to the development of renal vascular fibrosis. Ang II is a major player in this fibrogenic process, and its effect on collagen I gene is independent of systemic hemodynamics and is at least partly mediated by the profibrogenic action of endothelin.
Male Sea Lampreys, Petromyzon marinus L., Excrete a Sex Pheromone from Gill Epithelia1

Abstract During the period when they are producing sperm, male sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus L.) release a sex pheromone 7α, 12α, 24-trihydroxy-5α-cholan-3-one-24-sulfate (3 keto-petromyzonol sulfate, 3ketoPZS) that induces search and preference behaviors in ovulating females. In this study, we conducted a series of experiments to demonstrate that release of this pheromone into water takes place exclusively through the gills. In a behavioral maze, water conditioned with the anterior region of spermiating males induced an increase of search and preference behaviors in ovulating females. Similar behavior was not elicited by water conditioned by the posterior region. The anterior region washings and whole-body washings from spermiating males also elicited large and virtually identical electro-olfactogram responses from female sea lampreys, while the posterior washings produced negligible responses. Further, mass spectrometry and immunoassay confirmed that virtually all the 3ketoPZS released into water was through the gills. Immunocytochemistry revealed some gill epithelial cells and hepatocytes from spermiating males contained dense immunoreactive 3ketoPZS, but not those from prespermiating males. These results demonstrate that 3ketoPZS is released through the gill epithelia and suggest that this pheromone or its precursor may be produced in the liver.
On density estimation from ergodic processes

We consider the problem of Lp-consistent density estimation from the initial segments of strongly dependent processes. It is shown that no procedure can consistently estimate the one-dimensional marginal density of every stationary ergodic process for which such a density exists. A similar result is established for the problem of estimating the support of the marginal distribution of an ergodic process.
Measures of substance consumption among substance users, DSM-IV abusers, and those with DSM-IV dependence disorders in a nationally representative sample.

OBJECTIVE Neither the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised (DSM-III-R), nor the DSM-IV uses measures of substance consumption as part of the diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders. Therefore, this report examined the extent to which frequency and/or quantity of consumption across a broad spectrum of substances are associated with DSM-IV diagnoses of specific substance use disorders and whether there are informative hierarchical levels of consumption among users, abusers, and those who are substance dependent in the U.S. general population. METHOD The analyses focused on consumption data from respondents of the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Disorders. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict DSM-IV diagnoses of dependence or abuse based on the continuous consumption measures. RESULTS Among individuals who used substances, the substances with the greatest liability for dependence were nicotine first and cocaine second. For nearly all substances investigated, users without specific substance use disorders demonstrated lower levels of quantity and frequency of consumption relative to those with DSM-IV abuse and dependence disorders. Dose-response curves for the log odds of abuse and dependence suggested unidimensionality of abuse and dependence for frequency of alcohol drinking; frequency of cannabis use; frequency of opioid use; frequency of hallucinogen use; and, to a lesser extent, frequency of amphetamine use. However, the dose-response curves for the quantity of alcohol consumed demonstrated differential patterns for abuse and dependence such that alcohol dependence has a distinctly greater "quantity of use" relationship than that found among alcohol-abusing individuals. CONCLUSIONS These results confirm the findings of others concerning the unidimensionality of abuse and dependence diagnoses when consumption variables alone are examined and suggest that consumption measures may be useful metrics gauging severity.
Reading, language and memory skills: a comparative longitudinal study of children with Down syndrome and their mainstream peers.

BACKGROUND Many of today's young adults with Down syndrome never had the opportunity to learn to read. However, an increasing number of children with Down syndrome are currently attending mainstream schools and being taught to read. As a consequence, it is now possible to systematically study reading development in children with Down syndrome. AIMS The aim of this study was to chart the development of reading, language, and memory skills in children with Down syndrome and to investigate the relationships between these abilities. SAMPLE Twenty-four children with Down syndrome aged between 4 and 12 were followed over two years and compared to 31 children matched for reading age, and 42 children of average reading ability, selected from the same mainstream classes as the children with Down syndrome. METHOD Standardised assessments were administered annually to obtain measures of reading, spelling, language, memory, and general intelligence. RESULTS The children with Down syndrome had relatively advanced single word reading ability compared to their other cognitive skills. The reading progress of the children with Down syndrome did not differ significantly from that of the reading matched group even after two years. Different cognitive abilities were highly correlated with one another in all groups. However, after controlling for age, many of the partial correlations between reading and the other measures were reduced to non-significant levels. CONCLUSIONS Most children with Down syndrome are capable of learning to read single words. However, there was no evidence over this two-year period to support the hypothesis that learning to read will help to enhance language and memory development in children with Down syndrome.
Analysis of Joint Transmit–Receive Diversity in Downlink MIMO Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

We study multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO)-based downlink heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets) with joint transmit-receive diversity using orthogonal space-time block coding at the base stations (BSs) and maximal-ratio combining (MRC) at the users. MIMO diversity with MRC receivers is particularly appealing in cellular networks due to the relatively low hardware complexity at both the BS and the user device. Using stochastic geometry, we develop a tractable stochastic model for analyzing such HetNets taking into account the irregular and multitier BS deployment. We derive the coverage probability for both interference-blind (IB) and interference-aware (IA) MRC as a function of the relevant tier-specific system parameters such as BS density and transmit (Tx) power, number of Tx antennas, and path-loss law. Important insights arising from our analysis for typical HetNets are as follows: 1) IA-MRC becomes less favorable than IB-MRC with Tx diversity due to the smaller interference variance and increased interference correlation across receive (Rx) antennas; 2) ignoring spatial interference correlation significantly overestimates the performance of IA-MRC; and 3) for a small number of Rx antennas, selection combining may offer a better performance-complexity tradeoff than MRC.
Prediction of Patient Survival by Healthcare Professionals in a Specialist Palliative Care Inpatient Unit: A Prospective Study

Accurate prognostication is an enormous challenge for professionals caring for patients with advanced disease. Few studies have compared the prognostic accuracy of different professional groups within a hospice setting. The aim of this study was to compare the ability of 5 professional groups to estimate the survival of patients admitted to a specialist palliative care unit. No group accurately predicted the length of patient survival more than 50% of the time. Nursing and junior medical staff were most accurate while care assistants were least accurate. When in error, senior clinical staff tended to under-estimate survival. Independent mobility on admission was the only variable predictive of length of survival. Thus, professional groups differ in their prognostic accuracy. An awareness of a group's propensity to over- or under-estimate prognosis should be incorporated into future work on prognostication models.
Impact of Health on Productivity Growth in India

Health is a very essential component of human development because healthy workers are more productive. Using the conventional growth accounting method the study first estimates the aggregate TFP growth for the Indian economy. It examines the impact of health on TFP growth for the Indian economy. It has been observed that TFP growth in India has been fluctuating in nature. Granger Causality tests show that there is a one way relationship between health as captured by life expectancy at birth and TFP growth for Indian economy. The regression analysis reveals that improvement of health condition as measured by life expectancy at birth in India affects TFP growth positively and significantly. Therefore, the study suggests that government should invest more to deliver better health care facilities which would further help in enhancing the productivity of the economy.
Review of Mass Spectrometry–Based Metabolomics in Cancer Research

Metabolomics, the systematic investigation of all metabolites present within a biologic system, is used in biomarker development for many human diseases, including cancer. In this review, we investigate the current role of mass spectrometry–based metabolomics in cancer research. A literature review was carried out within the databases PubMed, Embase, and Web of Knowledge. We included 106 studies reporting on 21 different types of cancer in 7 different sample types. Metabolomics in cancer research is most often used for case–control comparisons. Secondary applications include translational areas, such as patient prognosis, therapy control and tumor classification, or grading. Metabolomics is at a developmental stage with respect to epidemiology, with the majority of studies including less than 100 patients. Standardization is required especially concerning sample preparation and data analysis. In the second part of this review, we reconstructed a metabolic network of patients with cancer by quantitatively extracting all reports of altered metabolites: Alterations in energy metabolism, membrane, and fatty acid synthesis emerged, with tryptophan levels changed most frequently in various cancers. Metabolomics has the potential to evolve into a standard tool for future applications in epidemiology and translational cancer research, but further, large-scale studies including prospective validation are needed. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(12); 2182–201. ©2013 AACR.
Pan‐Arctic sea ice‐algal chl a biomass and suitable habitat are largely underestimated for multiyear ice

There is mounting evidence that multiyear ice (MYI) is a unique component of the Arctic Ocean and may play a more important ecological role than previously assumed. This study improves our understanding of the potential of MYI as a suitable habitat for sea ice algae on a pan‐Arctic scale. We sampled sea ice cores from MYI and first‐year sea ice (FYI) within the Lincoln Sea during four consecutive spring seasons. This included four MYI hummocks with a mean chl a biomass of 2.0 mg/m2, a value significantly higher than FYI and MYI refrozen ponds. Our results support the hypothesis that MYI hummocks can host substantial ice‐algal biomass and represent a reliable ice‐algal habitat due to the (quasi‐) permanent low‐snow surface of these features. We identified an ice‐algal habitat threshold value for calculated light transmittance of 0.014%. Ice classes and coverage of suitable ice‐algal habitat were determined from snow and ice surveys. These ice classes and associated coverage of suitable habitat were applied to pan‐Arctic CryoSat‐2 snow and ice thickness data products. This habitat classification accounted for the variability of the snow and ice properties and showed an areal coverage of suitable ice‐algal habitat within the MYI‐covered region of 0.54 million km2 (8.5% of total ice area). This is 27 times greater than the areal coverage of 0.02 million km2 (0.3% of total ice area) determined using the conventional block‐model classification, which assigns single‐parameter values to each grid cell and does not account for subgrid cell variability. This emphasizes the importance of accounting for variable snow and ice conditions in all sea ice studies. Furthermore, our results indicate the loss of MYI will also mean the loss of reliable ice‐algal habitat during spring when food is sparse and many organisms depend on ice‐algae.
Emotional intelligence profiles and learning strategies in secondary school students

Abstract The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship among emotional intelligence (EI) and learning strategies, identifying different emotional intelligence profiles and determining possible statistically significant differences in learning strategies through the identified profiles. Thousand and seventy one Spaniards secondary school students aged 14–17 participated in the study, completing the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24) and the Cuestionario de Estrategias de Aprendizaje [Learning Strategies Questionnaire] (LSQ). Cluster analysis identified four differentiated EI profiles: a group of adolescents with a low EI profile, a group with high scores in attention and low scores in repair, a high EI profile group, and a group of adolescents with predominance of low attention and high repair. The results also revealed statistically significant differences among the profiles in most of the learning strategies, in which students with high general EI and those with predominance of low attention and high repair use more learning strategies than the other groups, suggesting the importance of developing programmes of emotional skills to study in greater depth EI and its influence on students’ learning strategies.
Comparing Market Orientation Scales: A Content Analysis

Content analysis was used to compare the MKTOR and MARKOR market orientation scales in relation to the theoretical position that originally inspired their development. The underlying meanings of each scale appear to be significantly different. MARKOR integrates an organizationa l view of market orientation and develops an assessment the firm’s potentiality. MKTOR is more centered on the customer orientation and exhibits a “check list ” approach.
A Pattern Search Filter Method for Nonlinear Programming without Derivatives

This paper formulates and analyzes a pattern search method for general constrained optimization based on filter methods for step acceptance. Roughly, a filter method accepts a step that improves either the objective function value or the value of some function that measures the constraint violation. The new algorithm does not compute or approximate any derivatives, penalty constants, or Lagrange multipliers. A key feature of the new algorithm is that it preserves the division into SEARCH and local POLL steps, which allows the explicit use of inexpensive surrogates or random search heuristics in the SEARCH step. It is shown here that the algorithm identifies limit points at which optimality conditions depend on local smoothness of the functions and, to a greater extent, on the choice of a certain set of directions. Stronger optimality conditions are guaranteed for smoother functions and, in the constrained case, for a fortunate choice of the directions on which the algorithm depends. These directional conditions generalize those given previously for linear constraints, but they do not require a feasible starting point. In the absence of general constraints, the proposed algorithm and its convergence analysis generalize previous work on unconstrained, bound constrained, and linearly constrained generalized pattern search. The algorithm is illustrated on some test examples and on an industrial wing planform engineering design application.
A Randomized Trial Comparing Stenting With Balloon Angioplasty in Small Vessels in Patients With Symptomatic Coronary Artery Disease

Background—More than 30% of the lesions currently treated with interventional approaches are situated in vessels smaller in size than those representing an established indication for stenting. The objective of this randomized trial was to assess whether compared with PTCA, stenting of small coronary vessels is associated with a reduction of restenosis. Methods and Results—Patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease with lesions situated in native coronary vessels between 2 and 2.8 mm in size were randomly assigned to be treated with either stenting (n=204) or PTCA (n=200). Adjunct therapy consisted of abciximab, ticlopidine, and aspirin. Repeat angiography at 6-month follow-up was performed in 83% of the patients. The primary end point of the study was the incidence of angiographic restenosis (≥50% diameter stenosis) at follow-up; adverse clinical events, such as death, myocardial infarction, stroke, or target vessel revascularization, were assessed as secondary end points. After 7 months, there were no significant differences in the infarct-free survival rates between the 2 study groups: 96.6% for stent patients, and 97.0% for PTCA patients (P =0.80). Target vessel revascularization was needed in 20.1% of the stent patients and 16.5% of the PTCA patients (P =0.35). The primary end point of angiographic restenosis was found in 35.7% of the stent patients and 37.4% of the PTCA patients (P =0.74). The net lumen gain observed at follow-up was identical (0.76±0.78 in the stent group versus 0.76±0.63 mm in the PTCA group, P =0.93). Conclusions—Stenting and PTCA are associated with equally favorable results when used for treating lesions in small coronary vessels.