Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Role of immunological factors in the development of myopic choroidal neovascularization].

AIM To study the concentration of cytokines in the aqueous humor of the anterior chamber in patients with myopic choroidal neovascularization (mCNV) and to compare the results to their ophthalmic status. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 19 patients (19 eyes) with mCNV treated with intravitreal ranibizumab were included in the study. The control group consisted of 15 patients (15 eyes) with myopia who had cataract surgery. Age, sex, and refractive error distribution were similar to that in the study group. All patients underwent a detailed ophthalmic examination as well as immunological study of the aqueous humor for cytokines concentrations using flow fluorometry (Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine Panel, 27-Plex, Bio-Rad Laboratories, USA). RESULTS Significant differences in concentrations of 10 cytokines were found between the mCNV and study groups. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level was twice as low in patients with mCNV as that in the controls (191.15±142.3 pg/ml and 320.06±170.05 pg/ml, respectively) (p<0.05). The other 9 cytokines were higher in mCNV, namely, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-BB), inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-2, IL-15, IL-17А and IL-5, IL-13, respectively), tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), and chemokines (IL-8, RANTES). The degree of myopia as well as morphological and functional changes in the macular zone were shown to be in close correlation with cytokines involved in inflammation and VEGF. VEGF level appeared to be negatively related to axial eye length, refractive error, and three cytokines: IL-13, INF-γ, and RANTES. At the same time, numerous (6, 8 and more) close correlations were established between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors. CONCLUSION Patients with mCNV have been found to have higher than usual levels of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors as well as a significantly decreased VEGF concentration. Immunological status of these patients differs from that in other ocular neovascular diseases suggesting possible involvement of alternative pathogenetic mechanisms.
Course of infection and development of immunity in experimental infection of mice with Listeria serotypes

NMRI mice were experimentally infected with Listeria monocytogenes serotypes 1/2b, 3a, 4b, and 4d and Listeria innocua serotype 6b by different means. The course of infection was monitored, using bacteriological and histological methods. The following typical features of experimental infection with the various L. monocytogenes and L. innocua serotypes were observed. (i) On the basis of the mean lethal dose, L. monocytogenes 4b, 4d, and 1/2b proved to be mouse pathogenic, although to different degrees, L. monocytogenes 3a and L. innocua can be regarded as nonpathogenic for NMRI mice. The virulence of L. monocytogenes serotype 4d was increased 1,000-fold after adaptation to mice. (ii) Primary infection with any serotype of L. monocytogenes or L. innocua resulted in protection against a lethal challenge with the most virulent serotype, 4b. This protective immunity could be transferred by spleen cells. Compared with the duration of immunity achieved by infection with L. monocytogenes serotype 4b, the protection induced by infection with L. innocua was short lived and dose dependent. The data obtained also suggest that immunity after experimental infection with any serotype of L. monocytogenes or L. innocua is produced only when the animal host is filled with bacteria. (iii) The distribution of the germs in the internal organs of the mouse shortly after infection was dependent on the route of infection rather than on the serotype used. (iv) The main difference among the Listeria serotypes tested was their ability to multiply within the host and to induce a granulomatous inflammation. The results indicate that mouse pathogenicity and virulence of Listeria spp. cannot be defined only by the capacity of the bacteria to infect or kill conventional mice. Such a definition should include an analysis of the immune system of the host, a kinetic study of experimental infection, and a histomorphological evaluation of the lesions induced.
Democracy: universality and diversity

The argument of this paper is that the justification of democracy's core principles of popular control over government in conditions of political equality, and the defense of them against paternalist alternatives, requires appeal to basic features of political decision-making and of human nature, respectively—its capacities and limitations—which are universal in their scope, and do not stop at borders. It follows that if a democratic form of government is appropriate anywhere, it must be so everywhere, though differences of social structure and historical tradition may make it more difficult to establish and sustain in practice in some countries than in others. However, these common features do not entail uniformity. The fundamental freedoms necessary to popular self-government in any form encourage diversity, and allow it to find full expression in the public sphere. Yet, there is a limit to the movements and beliefs that are compatible with democracy, and that comes when they reject one or other of its core principles. At the same time, some of democracy's characteristic elements—freedoms of expression and association, electoral competition for office, majoritarian procedures—can serve to exacerbate societal conflict, especially though not only in newly democratizing countries. In such circumstances only the establishment of a process of inclusive dialogue, involving respect for difference and an understanding of the requirements of political equality, can serve to resolve such conflicts. In other words, a commitment to democracy's core principles is needed to moderate the effects of some of its own typical procedures.
Asymmetric Peer Effects in Physician Prescription Behavior: The Role of Opinion Leaders

We quantify the impact of social interactions and peer effects in the context of prescription choices by physicians. Using detailed individual-level prescription data, along with self-reported social network information, we document that physician prescription behavior is significantly influenced by the behavior of research-active specialists, or "opinion leaders" in the physician's reference group. We leverage a natural experiment in the category, whereby new guidelines released about the therapeutic nature of the focal drug generated conditions where physicians were more likely to be influenced by the behavior of specialist physicians in their network. We find important, statistically significant peer effects that are robust across model specifications. We use the estimates to measure the incremental value to firms of directing targeted sales-force activity to these opinion leaders, and present estimates of the social multiplier of detailing in this category.
Remission in dermatitis herpetiformis: a cohort study.

OBJECTIVES To determine the percentage of patients with dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) who experience at least 2 years of remission and to identify factors associated with DH remission. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING National Institutes of Health (NIH). PATIENTS Patients seen at the NIH during the 1972-2010 period who had clinical findings consistent with DH, whose normal skin showed the presence of granular IgA deposits at the dermoepidermal junction on direct immunofluorescence (DIF) examination, whose age of disease onset was known, who had DH for at least 2 years, and who were followed up for at least 3 years after the initial NIH visit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Remission, defined as absence of skin lesions and symptoms of DH for more than 2 years while not taking sulfones (dapsone or sulfoxone), sulfapyridine, anti-tumor necrosis factor agents, or oral steroids and not adhering to a gluten-free diet. RESULTS Among 86 patients, in 10 (12%) the disease underwent remission (95% confidence interval, 6%-20%). Factors associated with DH remission included DH age of onset at 39 years or older vs onset at ages 8 to 38 years (unadjusted P = .02; adjusted P = .07) and DH onset year between 1960 and 1972 vs onset between 1935 and 1959 or after 1972 (P = .02 for global comparison of 4 onset-year groups). CONCLUSIONS Dermatitis herpetiformis can go into remission. Clinicians should attempt to wean patients with well-controlled DH from a gluten-free diet and/or use of sulfones or other therapies to determine if the DH might have remitted. Our findings provide insight into the pathogenesis and course of this disease and may serve to guide long-term management of patients with DH.
Giving permission to be fat? Examining the impact of body-based belief systems

Body image might be explained as “how we picture ourselves” and, while the image may or may not be accurate, it can affect decisions about physical, social, and emotional health. Schools are seen as potential sites for universal intervention programs to promote health, self-esteem, and size acceptance, and also to discourage unhealthy eating and body-based bullying. The implementation of a body image program is contextualized by embedded cultural ideals of body perfection, which affect students and teachers and potentially affect implementation. This research uses a case study methodology and a planned behaviour analysis framework to analyze the issues that emerge in the implementation of a body image and self-esteem curriculum across six schools. The findings provide a window on the complexity of behavioural beliefs, cultural beliefs, and perceptions of efficacy impacting a body image curriculum project. The authors see potential solutions in knowledge mobilization and critical body literacy.
Enhancing Evidence-Based Coaching Through The Development of a Coaching Psychology Competency Framework: Focus on the Coaching Relationship.

The overall aim of this thesis is to facilitate the development of evidence-based coaching through investigating a competency framework for Coaching Psychologists to enhance the coaching relationship towards a positive outcome. Coaching has been extensively applied to organisational and leadership development programmes in the past few decades. However, coaching is not an accredited profession because it is a cross-disciplinary methodology. There are still some gaps in the existing coaching related competency frameworks of main governing associations (e. g. BPS and ICF). Hence, it is essential to enhance evidence-based coaching practice by identifying effective attributes for Coaching Psychologists by means of a role analysis. The research was split into four main stages. Firstly, a Systematic Review on Coaching Psychology was conducted to determine further research focus. Review results ascertained that the coaching relationship is the key indicator in facilitating positive outcomes. Thus there is an urgent need to develop and validate a Coaching Psychology Competency Framework (CPCF) to generate a greater effect on the coaching relationship. Second, Critical incident reviews (N=25) were utilised to elicit the effective attributes a Coaching Psychologist should acquire in order to facilitate a constructive coaching process. A draft competency framework underpinned by 13 competencies and 100 behaviours was outlined. Subsequently, a cross-validation questionnaire study (N=107) with Coaching Alliance Inventory (CAI) was carried out to evaluate the reliability and validity of the draft CPCF. A total of 75 behavioural indicators sorted into three groups (e. g. Soft Skills) were retained for further examination. The final study examined the effectiveness of the CPCF by means of a pilot quasi-experiment (N=26) that compared a group which received relevant training and a control group that did not receive this training. The study results indicated coachee participants who received coaching from the training group had a better relationship with their coaches and stronger belief in achieving their goals. In summary, this is the first coaching competency framework which focuses on investigating to what extent psychological grounded interventions generate a greater impact on coaching alliance through an evidence-based research process. Three distinct groups of competencies disclosed a constructive coaching process is mainly underpinned by a coach’s psychological interpersonal skills (e. g. enhancing a coachee’s self-esteem and motivation) and learning facilitation (e. g. establishing realistic goals and tasks); which could be applied to varied purposes of coaching training design. A longitudinal field study with genuine coach-coachee dyads should be designed in the future research to examine whether CPCF could be a professional guideline for Coaching Psychologists to establish an effective coaching relationship based on real coaching context.
Matching Crimes Using Burglars' Modus Operandi: A Test of Three Models

’Hard’ forensic evidence (eg DNA) may be the best means of linking crimes, but it is often absent at burglary crime scenes. Modus operandi information is always present to some degree, but little is known of its significance in matching burglaries. This paper evaluates the ability of three algorithms to match a target crime to the actual offender within a database of 966 offences. The first (RCPA) uses only MO information, the second (RPAL) only temporal and geographic data and a third (COMBIN) is a combination of the two. A score of one indicates a perfect match between the target crime and the case selected by the algorithm. The lowest possible rank is 965 showing that 965 cases were selected before the target offence. The RPAL and COMBIN each achieve a perfect match for 24 per cent of the crimes and succeed in matching over half of the crimes at a score of 10 or less. For prolific offenders, using MO information alone is better than temporal and geographic data, although the best performance is achieved when in combination. Behavioural, spatial and temporal information is collected by many Police Services. The value and means of utilising such data in linking crimes is clearly demonstrated.
Cytoreductive Surgery plus Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy Improves Survival for Patients with Peritoneal Carcinomatosis from Colorectal Cancer: A Phase II Study from a Chinese Center

Background Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) is a difficult clinical challenge in colorectal cancer (CRC) because conventional treatment modalities could not produce significant survival benefit, which highlights the acute need for new treatment strategies. Our previous case-control study demonstrated the potential survival advantage of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) over CRS alone. This phase II study was to further investigate the efficacy and adverse events of CRS+HIPEC for Chinese patients with CRC PC. Methods A total of 60 consecutive CRC PC patients underwent 63 procedures consisting of CRS+HIPEC and postoperative chemotherapy, all by a designated team focusing on this combined treatment modality. All the clinico-pathological information was systematically integrated into a prospective database. The primary end point was disease-specific overall survival (OS), and the secondary end points were perioperative safety profiles. Results By the most recent database update, the median follow-up was 29.9 (range 3.5–108.9) months. The peritoneal cancer index (PCI) ≤20 was in 47.0% of patients, complete cytoreductive surgery (CC0-1) was performed in 53.0% of patients. The median OS was 16.0 (95% confidence interval [CI] 12.2–19.8) months, and the 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 70.5%, 34.2%, 22.0% and 22.0%, respectively. Mortality and grades 3 to 5 morbidity rates in postoperative 30 days were 0.0% and 30.2%, respectively. Univariate analysis identified 3 parameters with significant effects on OS: PCI ≤20, CC0-1 and adjuvant chemotherapy over 6 cycles. On multivariate analysis, however, only CC0-1 and adjuvant chemotherapy ≥6 cycles were found to be independent factors for OS benefit. Discussion CRS+HIPEC at a specialized treatment center could improve OS for selected CRC PC patients from China, with acceptable perioperative safety.
Is renal sinus fat invasion the same as perinephric fat invasion for pT3a renal cell carcinoma?

PURPOSE Perinephric and renal sinus fat invasion are classified as pT3a renal cell carcinoma (RCC) according to the 2002 American Joint Committee on Cancer. We investigated the prognostic significance of each of these pathological features using a cohort of pT3a patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Between 1970 and 2002, 205 patients without direct adrenal invasion underwent nephrectomy for pT3a clear cell RCC. The associations of fat invasion with death from RCC were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression models. RESULTS Of the 162 patients with perinephric fat invasion and 43 patients with renal sinus fat invasion 95 (59%) and 31 (72%), respectively, died of RCC. Patients with renal sinus fat invasion were 63% more likely to die of RCC compared with those with perinephric fat invasion (RR 1.63, 95% CI 1.09-2.46, p=0.018). In addition, the risk of death persisted in multivariate analysis after adjusting for regional lymph nodes and distant metastases (RR 1.91, 95% CI 1.26-2.89, p=0.002) and after adjusting for the Mayo Clinic SSIGN (stage, size, grade and necrosis) score (RR 1.90, 95% CI 1.25-2.88, p=0.003). CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that clear cell tumors invading the renal sinus fat are more aggressive than tumors with perinephric fat involvement. We believe both of these features should be individually assessed during routine pathological examination. External validation is needed before suggesting a change to the TNM staging system.
THE ONLINE JOURNALIST BETWEEN IDEALS AND AUDIENCES

How do online journalists define themselves? Journalistic self-perception plays a big part in understanding developments in the practice of online journalism in newsrooms. This article presents an analysis of the self-perceptions of online journalists using the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu and data from empirical longitudinal observations based on ethnographic fieldwork in three Danish newsrooms. The analytical concepts “journalistic doxa”, “news habitus” and “editorial capital” are applied in an analysis both of ethnographic observations of journalistic practice, and a series of interviews with 35 journalists and editors. This analysis shows that online journalists position themselves in opposition to the “old” forms of journalism, which include the use of such well-known journalistic resources as specialist knowledge, technical skills, and research and writing as professional tools. However, at the same time they accept the “old” as “better” journalism, which indicates that online journalism.
Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Okul Yaşamının Niteliğine İlişkin Algılarının Cinsiyet ve Fakülte Değişkenlerine Göre İncelenmesi

Bu arastirmanin amaci, universite ogrencilerinin okul yasaminin niteligine iliskin algilarini, cinsiyet ve fakulte degiskenlerine dayali olarak incelemektir. Tarama modeline dayali yurutulmus olan arastirmanin calisma grubunu Cankiri Karatekin Universitesinde ogrenim goren 308 ogrenci olusturmustur. Arastirma verileri ‘Fakulte Yasaminin Niteligi Olcegi-FYNO' ile toplanmistir. Arastirma kapsaminda toplanan veriler, betimsel teknikler ve cok-degiskenli istatistik tekniklerinden biri olan MANOVA ile analiz edilmistir. Arastirmada, katilimcilarin okul yasaminin niteligine iliskin algilarinin cinsiyete ve fakultelere gore anlamli sekilde farklilastigi saptanmistir. Arastirma bulgulari, kiz ogrencilerin okul yasaminin niteligine iliskin algilarinin, erkek ogrencilere gore daha yuksek oldugunu gostermistir. Fakulteler bazinda yapilan karsilastirmali analizler ise Orman Fakultesi ogrencilerinin okul yasaminin niteligine iliskin algilarinin, diger fakultelerde ogrenim goren ogrencilere gore daha yuksek oldugunu ortaya cikartmistir.
Protistan Diversity Estimates Based on 18S rDNA from Seawater Incubations in the Western North Atlantic 1

Abstract. Cloning/sequencing and fragment analysis of ribosomal RNA genes (rDNA) are becoming increasingly common methods for the identification of microbial taxa. Sequences of these genes provide many additional taxonomic characters for species that otherwise have few distinctive morphological features, or that require involved microscopy or laboratory culture and testing. These same approaches are now being applied with great success in ecological studies of natural communities of microorganisms. Extensive information on the composition of natural microbial assemblages is being amassed at a rapid pace through genetic analyses of environmental samples and comparison of the resulting genetic information with well‐established (and rapidly growing) public databases. We examined microbial eukaryote diversity in a natural seawater sample from the coastal western North Atlantic Ocean using two molecular biological approaches: the cloning and sequencing of rRNA genes and by fragment analysis of these genes using the terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T‐RFLP) method. A simple experiment was carried out to examine changes in the overall eukaryote (largely protistan) diversity and species composition (phylotype diversity) of a natural microbial assemblage when a seawater sample is placed in a container and incubated at ambient light and temperature for 72 h. Containment of the natural seawater sample resulted in relatively minor changes in the overall eukaryote diversity (species richness) obtained by either molecular method at three time points (time‐zero, time‐24 h, time‐72 h). However, substantial changes in the dominance of particular eukaryote phylotypes took place between the three sampling times. Only 18% of the total number of phylotypes observed in the study were observed at all three time points, while 65% (108 of 165) phylotypes were observed only at a single time point (54 unique phylotypes initially, 37 more unique phylotypes at 24 h, and 17 more at 72 h). The results of this study indicate that a high diversity of protistan taxa existed in the original seawater sample at very low abundance, and thus were not observed in the initial characterization of community structure. Containment resulted in significant shifts in the dominance of these taxa, enabling the presence of previously unobserved phylotypes to be documented after 24 or 72 h of incubation.
Freed: a system for creating multiple views of a digital collection during the design process

In this paper Freed is presented, a system that enables design students to spatially organize their digital collection, define relations between collection content and reflect on it. The system features a force-based layout that allows to explore spatial organizations, and hence to gain new insights. Its main advantage over existing software, is that it empowers the students to create different views of their digital collection. A view is a spatial organization of a selection of the collection content and its relations. It can e.g. be used for a specific design activity or project phase, for organizing work around a specific topic, or for explaining the perspective of a given student or stakeholder. Feedback of design students working with Freed during their design projects, and results from a workshop as measured by a questionnaire, show positive prospects for adoption of the system during the design process.