Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Singular Modernity: Essay on the Ontology of the Present

The concepts of modernity and modernism are amongst the most controversial and vigorously debated in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory. In this new, muscular, intervention Fredric Jameson, perhaps the most influential and persuasive theorist of postmodernity explores these notions in a fresh and illuminating manner. The extraordinary revival of discussions of modernity, as well as of new theories of artistic modernism, demands attention in its own right. It seems clear that the provisional disappearance of alternatives to capitalism plays its part in the universal attempt to revive 'modernity' as a social ideal. Yet the paradoxes of the concept illustrate its legitimate history and suggest some rules for avoiding its misuse as well. In this major new interpretation of the problematic, Jameson concludes that both concepts are tainted but nonetheless yield clues as to the nature of the phenomena they purported to theorize. His judicious and vigilant probing of both terms which can probably not be banished at this late date helps us clarify our present political and artistic situations.
Educational Inequalities in Perinatal Outcomes: The Mediating Effect of Smoking and Environmental Tobacco Exposure

Objective Socioeconomic status (SES) is adversely associated with perinatal outcomes. This association is likely to be mediated by tobacco exposure. However, previous studies were limited to single perinatal outcomes and devoted no attention to environmental tobacco exposure. Therefore, this study aimed firstly to explain the role of maternal smoking in the association between maternal education and preterm birth (PTB), low birth weight (LBW) and small for gestational age (SGA), and secondly to explain whether environmental tobacco smoke mediates these associations further. Study Design This study was nested in a population-based cohort study in the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development (ABCD) study. Analyses were done in a sample of 3821 pregnant women of Dutch origin, using logistic regression analysis. Results Least educated women, who were more often smoking and exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, had a significantly higher risk of PTB (OR 1.95 [95% CI: 1.19–3.20]), LBW (OR 2.41 [95% CI: 1.36–4.27]) and SGA (OR 1.90 [95% CI 1.32–2.74]) than highly educated women. The mediating effect of smoking in the least educated women was 43% for PTB, 55% for LBW and 66% for SGA. Environmental tobacco smoke did not explain these associations further. After adjustment for maternal smoking, the association between lower maternal education and pregnancy outcomes was no longer significant. Conclusions Smoking explains to a considerable extent the association between lower maternal education and adverse perinatal outcomes. Therefore, tobacco-interventions in lower educated women should be primarily focussed on maternal smoking to reduce PTB, LBW, and SGA. Additional attention to environmental tobacco exposure does not seem to reduce educational inequalities in perinatal outcomes.
Recognizing and Organizing Opinions Expressed in the World Press

The activities of the MPQA project were organized around an end-user task designed to utilize information about perspective—the task of clustering responses to yes/no questions based on perspective. In this task, a questioner may ask a yes/no question (e.g., question (1) above). The system operates as follows: first the question is used as a query to retrieve relevant documents; second, perspective information is identified in the documents; third, passages from the documents are clustered based on their text and perspective features. These clusters are meant to provide an organization of the documents with regard to perspective information to help the questioner understand them. The remainder of the paper covers the following: The Tasks section discusses the tasks addressed by the MPQA project. The Framework section describes a framework for annotating, learning, and using information about perspective. The Results section reports the results of our preliminary annotation study, machine learning experiments, and clustering experiments. In the annotation study, we found that annotators agreed on about 85% of direct expressions of opinion, about 50% of indirect expressions of opinion, and achieved up to 80% kappa agreement on the rhetorical use of perspective. While we will not present the annotation scheme or agreement study in detail, the results demonstrate the feasibility of annotating information about perspective. For machine learning experiments, we trained a very simple classifier for direct expressions of opinion, which achieved 66.4% F-measure, nearly 10% over a baseline system. While we have not yet attempted to learn indirect perspective expressions and other aspects of the annotation scheme, we consider this preliminary result to be an indication of the feasibility of automatic recognition of perspective information. Finally, we evaluated our initial implementation of yes/no clustering with perspective. The results were mixed: for some topics, perspective information helped to cluster “yes” answer passages together quite effectively, while for other topics, the information about perspective did not help. The partial success gives us hope that perspective information will be useful in question answering, but clearly there is a great deal of work to be done.
High Serum Adipocyte Fatty Acid Binding Protein Is Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (A-FABP) is a key mediator of obesity-related metabolic syndrome (MetS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between A-FABP concentration and MetS in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients. Fasting blood samples were obtained from 165 type 2 DM volunteers. MetS and its components were defined using diagnostic criteria from the International Diabetes Federation. Among 165 DM patients, 113 patients (68.5%) had MetS. Diabetic persons who had MetS had significantly higher A-FABP levels (P < 0.001) than those without MetS. Female DM persons had higher A-FABP level than man (P < 0.001). No statistically significant differences in A-FABP levels were found in use of statin, fibrate, or antidiabetic drugs. Multivariate forward stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that body fat mass (P < 0.001), logarithmically transformed creatinine (log-creatinine; P < 0.001), female DM patients (P < 0.001), and logarithmically transformed high sensitive C-reactive protein (log-hs-CRP; P = 0.013) were positively correlated, while albumin (P = 0.004) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR; P = 0.043) were negatively correlated with serum A-FABP levels in type 2 DM patients. In this study, higher serum A-FABP level was positively associated with MetS in type 2 DM patients.
Lagochilascaris minor: Specific antibodies are related with resistance to experimental infection in A/J strain of mice

SummaryLagochilascaris minor is the causative agent of human lagochilascariosis, a disease that affects the neck region causing abscesses with eggs, adult parasites and L3/L4 larvae within purulent exudates. Nowadays, mice are considered intermediary hosts for the parasite. In previous study we observed that A/J mice experimentally infected with Lagochilascaris minor showed higher survival ratios than B10.A mice. Now, we denoted that A/J mice (resistant to experimental infection) produced higher levels of IgM, IgG and IgA against the crude extract (excepted for IgM) and secreted/excreted antigens of the parasite; on the other hand, B10.A mice (susceptible to experimental infection) produced higher levels of IgE in the later period of the experimental infection than A/J infected mice.
Efficacy of curcumin in the treatment for oral submucous fibrosis - A randomized clinical trial

Introduction: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a chronic, insidious disease that is associated with significant functional morbidity and an increased risk for malignancy. Turmeric and its active ingredient “curcumin” are being studied upon as chemopreventive agents in various diseases. The present study aims to determine the efficacy of curcumin in the treatment of OSF. Materials and Methods: Thirty clinically diagnosed OSF patients were divided into two groups, 15 patients in each group from the Outpatient Department. Test group patients were treated with Longvida (curcumin) lozenges and control group with Tenovate ointment (clobetasol propionate (0.05%). The treatment was given for 3 months duration and follow-up was done for 6 months. Both the groups were advised for physiotherapy exercises by mouth exercise device. The baseline and follow-up results were compared for IIO (interincisal distance on maximum mouth opening), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for normal food and VAS for spicy food. Results: The test group showed 5.93 (±2.37) mm increase in mouth opening compared to 2.66 (±1.76) mm of the control group. In relation to VAS scale with spicy and normal food the average reduction was 64 (42–73) and 77 (70.5–82) as compared to 34 (14.5–64.5) and 64 (46–75.5) respectively in control group. The test group results achieved in the treatment span was sustained in the follow-up (P < 0.05) compared to control group which showed statistically significant (P < 0.05) relapse. Conclusion: It can be concluded that combination strategies for the management of OSF which include the stoppage of causative ill habits, appropriate medicinal and physiotherapy management is more efficient than single therapeutic modality. It is evident from the study that curcumin holds good promise in the treatment of OSF in future.
Vigor in the Face of Fluctuating Rates of Reward: An Experimental Examination

Two fundamental questions underlie the expression of behavior, namely what to do and how vigorously to do it. The former is the topic of an overwhelming wealth of theoretical and empirical work particularly in the fields of reinforcement learning and decision-making, with various forms of affective prediction error playing key roles. Although vigor concerns motivation, and so is the subject of many empirical studies in diverse fields, it has suffered a dearth of computational models. Recently, Niv et al. [Niv, Y. , Daw, N. D. , Joel, D. , & Dayan, P. Tonic dopamine: Opportunity costs and the control of response vigor. Psychopharmacology (Berlin), 191, 507–520, 2007] suggested that vigor should be controlled by the opportunity cost of time, which is itself determined by the average rate of reward. This coupling of reward rate and vigor can be shown to be optimal under the theory of average return reinforcement learning for a particular class of tasks but may also be a more general, perhaps hard-wired, characteristic of the architecture of control. We, therefore, tested the hypothesis that healthy human participants would adjust their RTs on the basis of the average rate of reward. We measured RTs in an odd-ball discrimination task for rewards whose magnitudes varied slowly but systematically. Linear regression on the subjects' individual RTs using the time varying average rate of reward as the regressor of interest, and including nuisance regressors such as the immediate reward in a round and in the preceding round, showed that a significant fraction of the variance in subjects' RTs could indeed be explained by the rate of experienced reward. This validates one of the key proposals associated with the model, illuminating an apparently mandatory form of coupling that may involve tonic levels of dopamine.
An Effective Content-Aware Image Inpainting Method

Image inpainting is a technique for restoring damaged old photographs and removing undesired objects from an image. The basic idea behind the technique is to automatically fill in lost or broken parts of an image using information from the surrounding area. The challenge of current inpainting algorithms is to restore both texture and structure characteristic information for large and thick damaged regions. This paper presents a new hybrid image inpainting method based on Bezier curves which combines the exemplar-based inpainting technique and the edge-based image restoration algorithm. For restoring image structures, we first use the segmentation result with iterative Otsu’s thresholding to obtain the information of edges. Bezier curves are then used to reconstruct the image skeletons in missing areas. It improves the limitation of the edge-based restoration approach which approximates incoming edges with only lines and circle arcs. The inpainting process is divided into two phases: the first phase restores the image structure by pixel-based interpolation, while the second phase fills holes for preserving texture information with patch-based inpainting method. Experimental results on both synthetic and real images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. By restoring the curvature structures and textures of the damaged regions, the proposed method achieves content-aware image inpainting.
A Raman Spectroscopic Investigation of Dentin and Enamel Structures Modified by Lactic Acid

Confocal Raman microspectrometry allows a thorough molecular analysis of mineralised dental tissues. The output information is provided in the form of curves representing the intensity of the signal according to the frequency, and its mathematical exploitation permits all sorts of comparative and quantitative analyses. By this process, we investigated the in vitro action of lactic acid on enamel and dentin from human permanent teeth. Modifications due to the acidic attack essentially concern phosphate grouping PO43–, which represents the mineral phase in enamel and dentin (hydroxyapatite): on Raman spectra, changes in intensity of the PO43– band are linked to the type of dentin, to its anatomical location, and to the age of the subject. The variability of the dentinal chemical structure was confirmed by a quantitative statistical analysis, revealing a significant spectral difference between coronal and root dentin.
Hepatitis C virus infection detected by antibody tests and the polymerase chain reaction as a cause of liver dysfunction in renal transplant recipients

Hepatitis C infection (HCV) is more prevalent in patients who have received kidney transplants than in the general population but the morbidity and mortality associated with infection in this group is unclear. Sera taken from 36 renal transplant recipients with chronic liver dysfunction and from 42 with normal liver function were tested for HCV infection by second generation ELISA (Abbott Laboratories) and second generation recombinant immunoblot assay (Chiron Corporation) (RIBA‐2). Evidence of HCV replication was sought by reverse transcription poly‐merase chain reaction (RT PCR) using primers from the 5′ nontranslated region (5′NTR).
Study of school education networks in Andalusia (Spain): Key to analysis from the evaluation of teachers centers´advisors

Every school constitutes a singular case when it comes to changes and improvements as each of them belongs to a social and cultural context with their own idiosyncrasy and needs. This article aims to study 12 in depth a research on educative networks organized in groups of teachers, focusing on its origin, structure, resources, organization and impact. The process of data gathering has followed a descriptivenarrative methodology, based on a qualitative research, and using a questionnaire for advisors in Teachers Centers within Seville, where they inform about the benefits of networking. The results of the analysis show that the development and setting of these networks occur in response to both the need of support that teachers are sometimes missing in their professional day to day; and the requirements of the regional inspection service of education, Servicio de Inspeccion Educativa, in order to cope with basic difficulties that may arise in the teaching-learning process, such as the reading and writing learning process or the improvement of the coexistence within the educational community. Feedback from this research proves the impact that the networking procedures have had in the educational community and centers, as well as its positive results and improvements in their development.
International Journal of Nanomedicine Dovepress Novel Rgd-lipid Conjugate-modified Liposomes for Enhancing Sirna Delivery in Human Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells

Background: Human retinal pigment epithelial cells are promising target sites for small interfering RNA (siRNA) that might be used for the prevention and/or treatment of choroidal neovascularization by inhibiting the expression of angiogenic factor; for example, by downregulating expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor gene. Methods: A novel functional lipid, DSPE-PEG-RGD, a Arg(R)-Gly(G)-Asp(D) motif peptide conjugated to 1,
Skp2 Regulates Subcellular Localization of PPARγ by MEK Signaling Pathways in Human Breast Cancer

Nuclear hormone receptor family member PPARγ plays an important role in mammary gland tumorigenesis. Previous studies have shown PPARγ has cytoplasmic activities upon tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate (TPA) stimulation. However, the clinical pathological significance of cytoplasmic PPARγ is not completely understood in human breast cancer. Skp2 is oncogenic, and its frequent amplification and overexpression correlated with the grade of malignancy. In this study, the role of cytoplasmic PPARγ and Skp2 expression was investigated in human breast cancer progression. Therefore, immunohistochemical analysis was performed on formalin-fixed paraffin sections of 70 specimens. Furthermore, Western blot and immunofluorescence microscopy analysis were used to study the relationship between expression of cytoplasmic PPARγ and Skp2 expression in human breast cancer cells in vitro. Results showed that the expression of cytoplasmic PPARγ was positively correlated with Skp2 expression (p < 0.05), and correlated significantly with estrogen receptor (p = 0.026) and pathological grade (p = 0.029), respectively. In addition, Skp2 overexpression can provoke cytoplasmic localization of PPARγ upon MEK1-dependent mechanisms in human breast cancer cells by nuclear-cytosolic fractionation technology and immunofluorescence microscopy analysis. Using RNA interference technology, we also found that down-regulated Skp2 reduced the phosphorylation level of MEK1 and significantly reversed TPA-induced nuclear export of PPARγ in MDA-MB-231 cells. The changes in the subcellular localization of PPARγ may represent a novel target for selective interference in patients with breast cancer.
Stigma and family relationships of middle-aged gay men in recovery

ABSTRACT The primary objective of this study was to explore how middle-aged gay men in recovery cope with stigma and family relationships. For gay men, perceptions of acceptance of their sexual orientation and degree of social connectedness can play a role in their recovery from alcohol and substance use disorders. Yet gay men may have a more difficult time accessing certain family-level health resources because their families of origin may stigmatize, reject, or silence them on account of their sexual orientation. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore how participants in recovery constructed and coped with their experiences of stigma, family relationships, and alcohol and substance use. Participants (30 gay men ages 50 to 64) completed a questionnaire and interview. We used constructivist grounded theory method and minority stress theory as a theoretical framework to interpret the data. We identified the following themes: Internalization of Stigma, Changes in Coping Strategies, and Ongoing Stigma. Future research should explore how to incorporate familial support into gay men's recovery, address ongoing internalized stigma, and develop a social response to stigma, rather than leaving it to individuals to confront on their own.
Helminth parasites of the Mediterranean gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus (Sauria: Gekkonidae), from Texas, United States with a summary of helminths of this host

One hundred-thirty six Mediterranean geckos, Hemidactylus turcicus, were collected between December 1986 and March 2016 in Hardin (n = 7), Harris (n = 57), and Tom Green (n = 72) counties, Texas, USA. , and examined for helminth parasites. Fifty-two H. turcicus (38%) were infected with at least one helminth species. Found were a trematode, Mesocoelium meggitti, three cestodes, Mesocestoides sp. (tetrathyridia), Oochoristica ameivae and Oochoristica scelopori, and four nematodes, Cosmocercoides variabilis, Oswaldocruzia pipiens, Parapharyngodon cubensis, and larvae of Physaloptera sp. Oochoristica ameivae, O. scelopori, P. cubensis, Physaloptera sp. , and Os. pipiens represent new host records for H. turcicus and M. meggitti is reported from Texas for the first time. A summary of the helminth parasites of both native and non-native H. turcicus is presented.
Real-Time Social Support Through a Mobile Virtual Community to Improve Healthy Behavior in Overweight and Sedentary Adults: A Focus Group Analysis

Background The onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus can be prevented or delayed by lifestyle changes. Communication technologies such as a mobile phone can be used as a means of delivering these lifestyle changes. Objectives The purposes of this analysis were to explore applicability of potential components of a mobile phone-based healthy lifestyle program and to understand motivators and barriers to continued engagement in a mobile phone healthy lifestyle program. Methods We conducted 6 focus groups (4 female and 2 male groups) in May and June 2010 with 35 focus group participants. The qualitative data were analyzed by 3 researchers using a qualitative description method in an ATLAS.ti software program. Inclusion criteria for enrollment in a focus group were as follows: (1) being aged from 30 to 69 years, (2) speaking and reading English, (3) having a sedentary lifestyle at work or during leisure time (screened by the Brief Physical Activity Survey questionnaire), and (4) having a body mass index (BMI) >25 kg/m2 (Asian >23 kg/m2) based on self-reported weight and height or 5) having a self-reported prediabetic condition. Results The mean age was 51 (SD 10.6) years; 54% (n = 19) were white; 71% (n = 25) used a mobile phone at least once a week during the last month prior to the study enrollment; and mean BMI was 32.5 (SD 6.5) kg/m2. In the qualitative analyses, the following 4 major themes and their subthemes emerged: (1) real-time social support (real-time peer support from participants who are similarly engaged in a diet or physical activity program, and professional support from health care providers or a researcher), (2) tailoring of mobile phone programs (3) self-monitoring and motivation, and (4) potential barriers and sustainability of the program (fear of failing, age and mobile technologies, and loss of interest over time). Conclusions Participants from a wide range of age and racial groups expressed interest in a mobile phone-based lifestyle program. Such a program that incorporates the themes that we identified may be able to help motivate participants to increase their physical activity and to improve their diet.