Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Safety of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in children 6 to 23 months old.

CONTEXT Beginning with the winter season of 2004-2005, influenza vaccination has been recommended for all children 6 to 23 months old in the United States. However, its safety in young children has not been adequately studied in large populations. OBJECTIVE To screen for medically attended events in the clinic, emergency department, or hospital after administration of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in children 6 to 23 months old. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Retrospective cohort using self-control analysis, with chart review of significant medically attended events at 8 managed care organizations in the United States that comprise the Vaccine Safety Datalink. Participants were all children in the Vaccine Safety Datalink cohort 6 to 23 months old who received trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine between January 1, 1991, and May 31, 2003 (45,356 children with 69,359 vaccinations). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Any medically attended event significantly associated with trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in risk windows 0 to 3 days, 1 to 14 days (primary analysis), 1 to 42 days, or 15 to 42 days after vaccination, compared with 2 control periods, one before vaccination and the second after the risk window. All individual ICD-9 codes as well as predefined aggregate codes were examined. RESULTS Before chart review, only 1 diagnosis, gastritis/duodenitis, was more likely to occur in the 14 days after trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (matched odds ratio [OR], 5.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.22-24.81 for control period 1, and matched OR, 4.33; 95% CI, 1.23-15.21 for control period 2). Thirteen medically attended events were less likely to occur after trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine, including acute upper respiratory tract infection, asthma, bronchiolitis, and otitis media. After chart review, gastritis/duodenitis was not significantly associated with trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (matched OR, 4.00; 95% CI, 0.85-18.84 for control period 1; matched OR, 3.34; 95% CI, 0.92-12.11 for control period 2). CONCLUSIONS In the largest population-based study to date of the safety of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in young children, there were very few medically attended events, none of which were serious, significantly associated with the vaccine. This study provides additional evidence supporting the safety of universally immunizing all children 6 to 23 months old with influenza vaccine.
Perceived Fairness and Relationship Satisfaction During the Transition to Parenthood

The current study examined the influence of perceived fairness of household labor and childcare on relationship satisfaction among new parents. Emotional spousal support and negative spousal interactions were analyzed as potential mediators, using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from couples transitioning to parenthood (N = 92). At 9 months postpartum, mothers’ perceived fairness of household labor and childcare were related to their relationship satisfaction through emotional spousal support. Negative interactions mediated the association between mothers’ perceived fairness of childcare and relationship satisfaction, concurrently and longitudinally across the transition. For fathers, there was no evidence of mediation. However, spousal effects of fathers’ perceived fairness of childcare on mothers’ relationship satisfaction was found longitudinally. Overall, the results demonstrate the importance of emotional spousal support and negative spousal interactions when understanding the influence of new mothers’ perceived fairness of family labor on their relationship satisfaction.
Economic Premise Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (prem) Facilitating Cross-border Mobile Banking in Southern Africa Understanding the Demand for Mobile Banking in Southern Africa

The use of mobile banking in Southern Africa is widely recognized as an increasingly important component of national and regional economic development. Mobile banking can benefit countries in two key ways: First, mobile banking may enable faster and more efficient financial transfers, increasing the volume of trade and subsequent payments to workers and their families. This dynamic is especially important for informal trade, which is practiced primarily by low-income, unbanked international, regional, and domestic migrants. Second, mobile banking greatly increases access to finance for a large segment of the unbanked populace in developing countries. In Africa, where borders often were drawn arbitrarily , cross-border trade is an important business activity for a large subset of the population. Developing mobile banking capacity offers great potential for facilitating trade in both goods and financial services. This report provides a description of the supply-side factors influencing the development of mobile banking services— remittances, informal trade, and the financial and telecommunications landscape. On the basis of this description, the report highlights the key regulatory issues facing Southern African countries; and it concludes with recommendations for overcoming the constraints to developing accessible mobile banking in Africa. Mobile banking in this report refers to a range of mobile phone–based financial transactions (including actual payments made with a mobile phone and mobile phone access to banking services). The demand for mobile banking services is occasioned by the two key areas of migrant remittances and cross-border payments for trade-related transactions. The first area—migrant remittances—is driven by the strong migration patterns that exist in Southern Africa; and migration patterns, in turn, are important for increasing the demand for mobile banking services. Although determining the exact number of migrants is difficult because available data only capture the flow of registered migrants), estimates suggest that the number of migrants sending remittances is high. Significantly, the available data also indicate that a no-The use of mobile banking is an increasingly important component of national and regional economic development in Southern Africa. Mobile banking can help bring the large unbanked population into the formal financial sector, and can facilitate cross-border trade by easing the difficulty for small businesses and traders to make financial transactions. For mobile banking to reach its full potential in Southern Africa, however, African governments must establish more efficient regulatory frameworks and implement well-designed pilot programs to gain more insight into the challenges facing a full rollout of mobile banking.
Officers as Mirrors Policing, Procedural Justice and the (Re)Production of Social Identity

Encounters with the criminal justice system shape people's perceptions of the legitimacy of legal authorities, and the dominant explanatory framework for this relationship revolves around the idea that procedurally just practice increases people's positive connections to justice institutions. But there have been few assessments of the idea-central to procedural justice theory-that social identity acts as an important social-psychological bridge in this process. Our contribution in this paper is to examine the empirical links between procedural justice, social identity and legitimacy in the context of policing in Australia. A representative two-wave panel survey of Australians suggests that social identity does mediate the association between procedural justice and perceptions of legitimacy. It seems that when people feel fairly treated by police, their sense of identification with the superordinate group the police represent is enhanced, strengthening police legitimacy as a result. By contrast, unfair treatment signals to people that they do not belong, undermining both identification and police legitimacy. © 2014 The Author.
Antimicrobial activity and cytocompatibility of silver nanoparticles coated catheters via a biomimetic surface functionalization strategy

Catheter-related bloodstream infections are a significant problem in the clinic and may result in a serious infection. Here, we developed a facile and green procedure for buildup of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the central venous catheters (CVCs) surface. Inspired by mussel adhesive proteins, dopamine was used to form a thin polydopamine layer and induce AgNPs formation without additional reductants or stabilizers. The chemical and physicochemical properties of AgNPs coated CVCs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and water contact angle. The Staphylococcus aureus culture experiment was used to study the antibacterial properties. The cytocompatibility was assessed by water soluble tetrazolium salts (WST-1) assay, fluorescence staining, and scanning electron microscopy analysis. The results indicated that the CVCs surface was successfully coated with compact AgNPs. AgNPs were significantly well separated and spherical with a size of 30–50 nm. The density of AgNPs could be modulated by the concentration of silver nitrate solution. The antibacterial activity was dependent on the AgNPs dose. The high dose of AgNPs showed excellent antibacterial activity while associated with increased cytotoxicity. The appropriate density of AgNPs coated CVCs could exhibit improved biocompatibility and maintained evident sterilization effect. It is promising to design mussel-inspired silver releasing CVCs with both significant antimicrobial efficacy and appropriate biological safety.
Acute intravenous administration of morphine perturbs sleep architecture in healthy pain-free young adults: a preliminary study.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Pain is a leading cause of sleep disturbances in medical illness. Providing effective analgesia is considered an important intervention to reduce these sleep disturbances. Opioids remain the treatment of choice to relieve postoperative pain in hospitalized patients. However, their effects on sleep in pain patients or normal subjects remain unclear, as previous studies have been conducted mainly with former opioid addicts. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate and describe the effects of acute clinical doses of morphine on sleep in healthy pain-free subjects. DESIGN Subjects were randomly assigned to untreated (baseline), morphine (intravenous injections of 0.1 [DOSAGE ERROR CORRECTED] mg/kg), and placebo (intravenous injections of 0.9% NaCI) conditions. SETTING Sleep laboratory. PARTICIPANTS Seven healthy pain-free, nonaddicts (5 women, 2 men; mean age = 25 +/- 1.6 years). MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Standard polysomnographic sleep and respiratory variables were measured during 3 experimental conditions. The treatment effect was analyzed with a Latin square cross-over design followed, when appropriate, by Tukey contrasts. Morphine altered sleep architecture by reducing slow-wave sleep (non-rapid eye movement stages 3-4) and rapid eye movement sleep, and by increasing non-rapid eye movement stage 2 sleep. Results did not reveal any statistical differences for other sleep and respiratory variables. CONCLUSIONS Similar to earlier findings in animals, nondependent opiate addicts, and postoperative patients, morphine was found to reduce duration of slow-wave sleep. Unlike previous reports, however, its acute administration produced a moderate reduction in rapid eye movement sleep and did not increase correlates of arousal (ie, awakenings, electroencephalogram arousals, wake after sleep onset). Future studies should correlate these findings in patients with pain and evaluate whether optimal pain relief with opioid therapy can improve sleep disturbances in pain patients.
A Content Analysis of Learning Disabilities Research & Practice: 1991–2007

The purpose of this review was to analyze the content of Learning Disabilities Research & Practice to identify prevalent topics and types and proportions of articles published from 1991 through 2007. Also analyzed was the nature of the research reported including designs, participants, interveners, and settings. Analysis indicated that the three most prevalent topics were reading, assessment and identification, and inclusion. Furthermore, 57 percent of the content reflects original research with almost half of these being descriptive in nature. Position papers constitute the most common form of nonresearch articles. Students with learning disabilities as well as those identified as being at risk were the populations studied most often and studies were largely conducted in elementary or middle school classrooms (either special education or general education) with the intervention delivered by a teacher in almost half the studies. More detailed results of the overall analysis along with discussion of the findings are also presented. Editor's comments: To mark the Division for Learning Disabilities’ (DLD) 25th anniversary, we have included two special articles. In the first, a content analysis of LDRP was conducted to provide a summary of the articles published in the journal since its inception. In the second article, Karen Rooney provides a summary of the DLD Showcase session at the recent Council for Exceptional Children's Conference held last spring in Boston. During this session, past presidents of DLD spoke about the past, present, and future of the learning disabilities field.
Differential Expression of MicroRNAs in Calcific Aortic Stenosis.

BACKGROUND Calcific aortic stenosis (CAS) is the most common heart valve disorder. To explore the underlying mechanisms, we investigated whether key microRNAs in calcified aortic valves are differentially expressed compared to those in the non-calcified valves. METHODS Calcified aortic valves from patients with aortic stenosis and non-calcified aortic valves (control) from patients with aortic insufficiency (n = 8 per group) were obtained during cardiac valve replacement surgery. The expression of miR-26a, miR-939, miR-374b*, miR-214, miR-16, miR-665, miR-130a, miR-193b, and miR-602 were evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). MiRanda and TargetScan programs were used to predict target genes, which were verified at the levels of mRNA and protein. RESULTS The expression of osteocalcin, osteopontin, Runx2, and osterix were significantly increased in the CAS group compared with the control group. The expression of miR-26a, miR-939, and miR-374b* were significantly decreased in the CAS group compared with those in the control group (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively), and the expression of miR-214 was significantly up-regulated in the CAS group compared with that in the control group (p < 0.01). No significant differences in the expression of miR-16, miR-665, miR-130a, miR-193b, and miR602 were observed between these two groups. TWIST1 was confirmed as a target for miR-214 and expression was decreased in the CAS group compared with that in the control group. CONCLUSIONS MiR-26a, miR-939, and miR-374b* expression was decreased and miR-214 was increased in the calcified aortic valves of CAS patients. miR-214 may promote aortic valve calcification by repressing TWIST1 expression.
Impact of decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate on Japanese acute stroke and its subtype.

OBJECTIVE Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at a high risk for cardiovascular diseases including stroke. However, the characteristics of the stroke subtypes in patients with CKD remain to be determined. METHODS We investigated the associations between stroke subtypes and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and traditional risk factors in 451 (males, 239; mean age, 71.1 y) acute stroke patients at our hospital between 2006 and 2010. RESULTS The stroke subtype was cardiogenic cerebral embolism in 129 (29%), cerebral hemorrhage in 104 (23%), unclassified cerebral infarction in 65 (14%), lacunar infarction in 65 (14%), subarachnoid hemorrhage in 41 (9%), atherothrombosis in 30 (7%), and transient ischemic attacks in 17 (4%). Among the 451 patients, 134 (30%) had CKD with eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m2. Compared with a group without CKD, mean age (75.9 vs. 69.0 years, p<0.05), the prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) (44% vs. 21%, p<0.01) and a history of cardiovascular disease (37% vs. 19%, p<0.01) were significantly higher in that with CKD. A comparison of stroke subtypes revealed a significantly higher incidence of cardiogenic cerebral embolism (36% vs. 26%, p<0.05) in the group with, than without CKD. CONCLUSION We showed the prevalence of CKD in about 30% of acute stroke patients, and those patients were older, had a significantly higher prevalence of AF and a higher rate of cardiogenic cerebral embolism compared with patients without CKD. Thus, strict control of blood pressure and management of AF should be important to prevent stroke among patients with CKD.
Ethanol-Induced Transcriptional Activation of Programmed Cell Death 4 (Pdcd4) Is Mediated by GSK-3β Signaling in Rat Cortical Neuroblasts

Ingestion of ethanol (ETOH) during pregnancy induces grave abnormalities in developing fetal brain. We have previously reported that ETOH induces programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4), a critical regulator of cell growth, in cultured fetal cerebral cortical neurons (PCNs) and in the cerebral cortex in vivo and affect protein synthesis as observed in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). However, the mechanism which activates PDCD4 in neuronal systems is unclear and understanding this regulation may provide a counteractive strategy to correct the protein synthesis associated developmental changes seen in FASD. The present study investigates the molecular mechanism by which ethanol regulates PDCD4 in cortical neuroblasts, the immediate precursor of neurons. ETOH treatment significantly increased PDCD4 protein and transcript expression in spontaneously immortalized rat brain neuroblasts. Since PDCD4 is regulated at both the post-translational and post-transcriptional level, we assessed ETOH’s effect on PDCD4 protein and mRNA stability. Chase experiments demonstrated that ETOH does not significantly impact either PDCD4 protein or mRNA stabilization. PDCD4 promoter-reporter assays confirmed that PDCD4 is transcriptionally regulated by ETOH in neuroblasts. Given a critical role of glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β) signaling in regulating protein synthesis and neurotoxic mechanisms, we investigated the involvement of GSK-3β and showed that multifunctional GSK-3β was significantly activated in response to ETOH in neuroblasts. In addition, we found that ETOH-induced activation of PDCD4 was inhibited by pharmacologic blockade of GSK-3β using inhibitors, lithium chloride (LiCl) and SB-216763 or siRNA mediated silencing of GSK-3β. These results suggest that ethanol transcriptionally upregulates PDCD4 by enhancing GSK-3β signaling in cortical neuroblasts. Further, we demonstrate that canonical Wnt-3a/GSK-3β signaling is involved in regulating PDCD4 protein expression. Altogether, we provide evidence that GSK-3β/PDCD4 network may represent a critical modulatory point to manage the protein synthetic anomalies and growth aberrations of neural cells seen in FASD.
A Qualitative Analysis of Turning Points in the Recovery Process

Recovery from serious psychiatric disabilities is a multidimensional, nonlinear process that consists, in part, of a transformation from illness-dominated identities to identities centered on empowerment and agency. This transformation may be punctuated by critical turning points. Analysis of these turning points may provide insight into the recovery process and how recovery can be initiated and advanced. In this qualitative study, in-depth personal interviews were conducted with 16 psychiatric survivors who were also providers of consumer-operated services. Participants were asked to discuss the critical turning points instrumental in their recovery processes. Analysis of these turning points using grounded theory revealed that participants played an active role with the help of supportive allies in initiating and sustaining their recoveries and that recovery consisted of a complex and ongoing struggle against multiple constraints to establish more positive identities. Implications of these results for mental health practice will be discussed.
Facilitation of Inferior Frontal Cortex by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Induces Perceptual Learning of Severely Degraded Speech

Perceptual learning requires the generalization of categorical perceptual sensitivity from trained to untrained items. For degraded speech, perceptual learning modulates activation in a left-lateralized network, including inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and inferior parietal cortex (IPC). Here we demonstrate that facilitatory anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCSanodal) can induce perceptual learning in healthy humans. In a sham-controlled, parallel design study, 36 volunteers were allocated to the three following intervention groups: tDCSanodal over left IFG, IPC, or sham. Participants decided on the match between an acoustically degraded and an undegraded written word by forced same-different choice. Acoustic degradation varied in four noise-vocoding levels (2, 3, 4, and 6 bands). Participants were trained to discriminate between minimal (/Tisch/-FISCH) and identical word pairs (/Tisch/-TISCH) over a period of 3 d, and tDCSanodal was applied during the first 20 min of training. Perceptual sensitivity (d′) for trained word pairs, and an equal number of untrained word pairs, was tested before and after training. Increases in d′ indicate perceptual learning for untrained word pairs, and a combination of item-specific and perceptual learning for trained word pairs. Most notably for the lowest intelligibility level, perceptual learning occurred only when tDCSanodal was applied over left IFG. For trained pairs, improved d′ was seen on all intelligibility levels regardless of tDCS intervention. Over left IPC, tDCSanodal did not modulate learning but instead introduced a response bias during training. Volunteers were more likely to respond “same,” potentially indicating enhanced perceptual fusion of degraded auditory with undegraded written input. Our results supply first evidence that neural facilitation of higher-order language areas can induce perceptual learning of severely degraded speech.
Conceptions of effective teaching in higher education: extending the boundaries

This paper examines university teachers’ conceptions of effective teaching. It reports a small illuminatory study of eight teachers. Their narratives identify rich insights. Conceptions of ‘learning through dialogue’, ‘community of learners’ and ‘meta-learning’ emerge as crucial in supporting students’ learning. These conceptions extend understanding of effective teaching in higher education and illuminate how teachers transform their teaching to transform learning. Insights emerge about the importance of social contexts. Theoretical dimensions informing pedagogy, knowledge construction, relationships between teaching and research, and professional learning are congruent: dialogue and collegiality are key. What inhibits teachers’ effectiveness is the ‘performativity’ culture especially setting aside preferred ways of operating as colleagues. A model is constructed to explain opposing standpoints.
Metabolic biomarkers for predicting cardiovascular disease

Cardiac and peripheral vascular biomarkers are increasingly becoming targets of both research and clinical practice. As of 2008, cardiovascular-related medical care accounts for greater than 20% of all the economic costs of illness in the United States. In the age of burgeoning financial pressures on the entire health care system, never has it been more important to try to understand who is at risk for cardiovascular disease in order to prevent new events. In this paper, we will discuss the cost of cardiovascular disease to society, clarify the definition of and need for biomarkers, offer an example of a current biomarker, namely high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and finally examine the approval process for utilizing these in clinical practice.