Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The 20-Year Longitudinal Trajectories of Social Functioning in Individuals With Psychotic Disorders.

OBJECTIVE Social impairment is a long-recognized core feature of schizophrenia and is common in other psychotic disorders. Still, to date the long-term trajectories of social impairment in psychotic disorders have rarely been studied systematically. METHODS Data came from the Suffolk County Mental Health Project, a 20-year prospective study of first-admission patients with psychotic disorders. A never-psychotic comparison group was also assessed. Latent class growth analysis was applied to longitudinal data on social functioning from 485 respondents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and psychotic mood disorders, and associations of the empirically derived trajectories with premorbid social adjustment, diagnosis, and 20-year outcomes were examined. RESULTS Four mostly stable trajectories of preserved (N=82; 59th percentile of comparison group sample distribution), moderately impaired (N=148; 17th percentile), severely impaired (N=181; 3rd percentile), and profoundly impaired (N=74; 1st percentile) functioning best described the 20-year course of social functioning across diagnoses. The outcome in the group with preserved functioning did not differ from that of never-psychotic individuals at 20 years, but the other groups functioned significantly worse. Differences among trajectories were already evident in childhood. The two most impaired trajectories started to diverge in early adolescence. Poorer social functioning trajectories were strongly associated with other real-world outcomes at 20 years. Multiple trajectories were represented within each disorder. However, more participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders had impaired trajectories, and more with mood disorders had better functioning trajectories. CONCLUSIONS The results highlight substantial variability of social outcomes within diagnoses-albeit overall worse social outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders-and show remarkably stable long-term impairments in social functioning after illness onset across all diagnoses.
Human testicular (non)seminomatous germ cell tumours: the clinical implications of recent pathobiological insights

Human germ cell tumours (GCTs) comprise several types of neoplasias with different pathogeneses and clinical behaviours. A classification into five subtypes has been proposed. Here, the so‐called type II testicular GCTs (TGCTs), ie the seminomas and non‐seminomas, will be reviewed with emphasis on pathogenesis and clinical implications. Various risk factors have been identified that define subpopulations of men who are amenable to early diagnosis. TGCTs are omnipotent, able to generate all differentiation lineages, both embryonic and extra‐embryonic, as well as the germ cell lineage itself. The precursor lesion, composed of primordial germ cells/gonocytes, is referred to as carcinoma in situ of the testis (CIS) and gonadoblastoma of the dysgenetic gonad. These pre‐malignant cells retain embryonic characteristics, which probably explains the unique responsiveness of the derived tumours to DNA‐damaging agents. Development of CIS and gonadoblastoma is crucially dependent on the micro‐environment created by Sertoli cells in the testis, and granulosa cells in the dysgenetic gonad. OCT3/4 has high sensitivity and specificity for CIS/gonadoblastoma, seminoma, and embryonal carcinoma, and is useful for the detection of CIS cells in semen, thus a promising tool for non‐invasive screening. Overdiagnosis of CIS due to germ cell maturation delay can be avoided using immunohistochemical detection of stem cell factor (SCF). Immunohistochemistry is helpful in making the distinction between seminoma and embryonal carcinoma, especially SOX17 and SOX2. The different non‐seminomatous histological elements can be recognized using various markers, such as AFP and hCG, while others need confirmation. The value of micro‐satellite instability as well as BRAF mutations in predicting treatment resistance needs validation in prospective trials. The availability of representative cell lines, both for seminoma and for embryonal carcinoma, allows mechanistic studies into the initiation and progression of this disease. Copyright © 2009 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
RISK SOCIETY, MEDIA, AND POWER: THE CASE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

Risk society theory posits that the transformation of industrial to postindustrial society corresponded with a transformation of societal power structured by capital, to one structured by the ability to define risk. Perceptions of risk are, in part, socially constructed and created through the framing efforts of various institutional actors. The resulting struggle over meaning is particularly acute when the issues contain many unknown elements—as is the case with emerging technologies. Applying insights from media studies, frame analysis, and organizational theory, we analyze coverage of nanotechnology (NT) in popular press, trade, and general science publications. The findings document the extent to which the risks of this emerging technology are presented or ignored across, between, and within organizational subfields. The analysis empirically assesses a key proposition of risk society theory and reveals how institutional processes reflect and reproduce power differentials. We discuss the implications of the empirical findings for sociological theories of risk and society, power, and collective action.
Perceived Family Environment of Black Adolescent Alcohol Users and Nonusers

The purpose of this study was to examine Black American adolescents' substance use (alcohol) and their perceptions of their family environments. Eighty-six participants between ages 12 and 19 from a large mid-Atlantic medical facility who reported exposure to alcohol use were asked to complete Moos' Family Environment Scale (FES). The participants were divided into users and nonusers. Users were described as those who drank at least once a week and used at least medium amounts per occasion. Nonusers were defined as those who did not drink or used less than once a year. Substance users were hypothesized to perceive family environment less favorably than nonusers. A t-test was conducted to compare means of groups on each subscale of the FES. The independent variable was alcohol use (yes/no). Dependent variables were the scores on the FES subscales. Analyses of the data indicated that users and nonusers differed significantly (p<.05) on five of the ten subscales, specifically Cohesion, Conflict, Achievement, Intellectual, and Moral Religious Emphasis.
Association of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Glucose Metabolism in Subjects With or Without Obesity

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on glucose metabolism was different according to the presence or absence of obesity. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 1,344 subjects >40 years old from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study were included. OSA was detected by home portable sleep monitoring. Plasma glucose, HbA1c, and insulin resistance were compared according to OSA and obesity status. The associations between OSA and impaired fasting glucose (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), IFG + IGT, and diabetes were evaluated in subjects with and without obesity after adjusting for several confounding variables. The effect of visceral obesity on this association was evaluated in 820 subjects who underwent abdominal computed tomography scanning. RESULTS In subjects without obesity, fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after 75-g glucose loading, and HbA1c were higher in those with OSA than in those without after controlling for age, sex, and BMI. In addition, the presence of OSA in nonobese subjects was associated with a higher prevalence of IFG + IGT and diabetes after adjusting for several confounding variables (odds ratio 3.15 [95% CI 1.44–6.90] and 2.24 [1.43–3.50] for IFG + IGT and diabetes, respectively). Further adjustment for visceral fat area did not modify this association. In contrast, in those with obesity, none of the abnormal glucose tolerance categories were associated with OSA. CONCLUSIONS The presence of OSA in nonobese individuals is significantly associated with impaired glucose metabolism, which can be responsible for future risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
An Empirical Test of Holmes and Holmes’s Serial Murder Typology

This article presents the results of an empirical test of Holmes and Holmes’s serial murder classification scheme. Crime scene evidence from 100 U.S. serial murders, each the third in a distinct series, was content analyzed. The co-occurrence of content categories derived from the crime scene material was submitted to smallest space analysis. The features characteristic of the category of “power or control” killings were found to be typical of the sample as a whole, occurring in more than 50% of cases, and thus did not form a distinct type. Limited support was found for aspects of the lust, thrill, and mission styles of killing, but this support drew attention to differences in the ways victims were dealt with, through mutilation, restraints, or ransacking their property rather than the motivations implicitly inferred in Holmes and Holmes’s typology. The current results are presented as an empirical basis for the classification of serial killings on which more detailed models can be built.
Intranasal Administration of the Antisecretory Peptide AF-16 Reduces Edema and Improves Cognitive Function Following Diffuse Traumatic Brain Injury in the Rat

A synthetic peptide with antisecretory activity, antisecretory factor (AF)-16, improves injury-related deficits in water and ion transport and decreases intracranial pressure after experimental cold lesion injury and encephalitis although its role in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is unknown. AF-16 or an inactive reference peptide was administrated intranasally 30 min following midline fluid percussion injury (mFPI; n = 52), a model of diffuse mild-moderate TBI in rats. Sham-injured (n = 14) or naïve (n = 24) animals were used as controls. The rats survived for either 48 h or 15 days post-injury. At 48 h, the animals were tested in the Morris water maze (MWM) for memory function and their brains analyzed for cerebral edema. Here, mFPI-induced brain edema compared to sham or naïve controls that was significantly reduced by AF-16 treatment (p < 0.05) although MWM performance was not altered. In the 15-day survival groups, the MWM learning and memory abilities as well as histological changes were analyzed. AF-16-treated brain-injured animals shortened both MWM latency and swim path in the learning trials (p < 0.05) and improved probe trial performance compared to brain-injured controls treated with the inactive reference peptide. A modest decrease by AF-16 on TBI-induced changes in hippocampal glial acidic fibrillary protein (GFAP) staining (p = 0.11) was observed. AF-16 treatment did not alter any other immunohistochemical analyses (degenerating neurons, beta-amyloid precursor protein (β-APP), and Olig2). In conclusion, intranasal AF-16-attenuated brain edema and enhanced visuospatial learning and memory following diffuse TBI in the rat. Intranasal administration early post-injury of a promising neuroprotective substance offers a novel treatment approach for TBI.
A tutorial on program development and optimization using the Ciao preprocessor

We present in a tutorial fashion CiaoPP, the preprocessor of the Ciao multi-paradigm programming system, which implements a novel program development framework which uses abstract interpretation as a fundamental tool. The framework uses modular, incremental abstract interpretation to obtain information about the program. This information is used to validate programs, to detect bugs with respect to partial specifications written using assertions (in the program itself and/or in system libraries), to generate and simplify run-time tests, and to perform high-level program transformations such as multiple abstract specialization, parallelization, and resource usage control, all in a provably correct way. In the case of validation and debugging, the assertions can refer to a variety of program points such as procedure entry, procedure exit, points within procedures, or global computations. The system can reason with much richer information than, for example, traditional types. This includes data structure shape (including pointer sharing), bounds on data structure sizes, and other operational variable instantiation properties, as well as procedure-level properties such as determinacy, termination, non-failure, and bounds on resource consumption (time or space cost).
Child sexual abuse myth acceptance among aspirant, trainee, and registered psychologists in Durban, South Africa

This study examined the effect of gender and professional training on child sexual abuse myth acceptance among aspirant, trainee, and registered psychologists in Durban, South Africa. Using a 2 (gender: male, female) x 3 (training: aspirant psychologists, psychologists in training, practicing psychologists) design, 90 participants completed the 15-item Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Myth Scale. A MANOVA revealed a significant main effect for gender, with males scoring significantly higher than females did on all three subscales of the CSA Myth Scale. Myth acceptance scores were, however, unrelated to the extent of professional training, with the notable exception of scores on the Denial of Abusiveness subscale, where aspirant psychologists scored significantly higher than psychologists in training. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for practice and for social policy.
Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions about Assessment and Its Implementation

Examining how preservice teachers (PTs) perceive and implement assessment may provide clues as to how we can refocus the way future teachers use assessment. A conceptual framework addressing PT beliefs and how they change was applied in this study to examine PTs� (N = 17) beliefs and understanding of the role of assessment and evaluation on student learning and instruction while implementing a high school physical education program. PTs experienced and discussed the role of needs assessment, assessment-focused instruction, and authentic and alternative assessments in relation to student learning and instruction using a teaching for understanding framework (Wiggins, 1998). Data gathered included surveys and interviews documenting PTs� previously held beliefs and conceptions; current perceptions of the assessment concepts used during the course and in their units; analysis of assessments used in unit plans; and PTs� perceptions of assessment and student learning during and after the unit taught. PTs planned and implemented alternative/authentic as well as traditional assessments in three out of four units. PTs� beliefs about student learning and assessment were varied. Despite ultimate lack of teacher authority, PTs felt that doing these assessments affected their beliefs about assessment. Some PTs accommodated new information about authentic assessment and expanded their understanding, whereas other PTs either resisted or assimilated this new knowledge into existing belief structures. The results indicate that shaping critical and authentic assessment experiences in teacher preparation deserves increased attention and deliberate planning throughout PETE programs if shifts in beliefs are to be made.
Age Recognition in Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: a Literature Review and an Exploratory Study

The ability of children to classify accurately their own ages and the ages of others has been the subject of very limited research. However, the literature is largely in agreement on there being progressive increases in skill with chronological age, although there is disagreement on the age at which this ability becomes well developed. The processes look similar in the field of intellectual disabilities, although this area is extremely under-researched. Key factors may include age, the amount of time spent in institutions (e.g. long-term hospitals for people with intellectual disabilities), developmental level and IQ. The present paper provides a review of the relevant literature and an exploratory study investigating the age recognition of self and colleagues in a group of 20 adults with intellectual disability, some from within what has been a major hospital for people with intellectual disabilities and some from the wider community. Measures of age recognition using photographs, as well as standardized measures of intellectual ability and social adaptive behaviour, were administered, and correlations were found between the ability to recognize age in others and developmental age, and also IQ. Success on the task of age discrimination appears to be more likely if the IQ of the individual is around 60–65 or above, and if the person shows social adaptive behaviour equivalent to 8 or 9 years of age and over. Also included in the study was a task in which only the discrimination of whether the photographs were of adults or children was required, and this proved to be a simpler process for the participants. The present study also demonstrates some of the discriminative stimuli used by adults with intellectual disabilities to ascertain the approximate age of a person.
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring for cardiovascular medicine

Discusses evaluating blood pressure (BP) behavior outside of the clinical setting and during daily activities to identify high-risk subjects. It is concluded that various valuable information on the cardiovascular system can be obtained using multifunctional ambulatory BP monitors. Wearable monitoring of BP and other cardiovascular variables would be useful for chronobiological strategy for risk stratification and more effective individualized prevention and treatment of cardiovascular events.
Folate synthesis in higher-plant mitochondria: coupling between the dihydropterin pyrophosphokinase and the dihydropteroate synthase activities.

The plant enzyme 6-hydroxymethyl-7,8-dihydropterin pyrophosphokinase/7,8-dihydropteroate synthase (HPPK/DHPS) is a mitochondrial bifunctional protein involved in tetrahydrofolate synthesis. The first domain (HPPK) catalyses the pyrophosphorylation of 6-hydroxymethyl-7,8-dihydropterin (dihydropterin) by ATP, leading to 6-hydroxymethyl-7,8-dihydropterin pyrophosphate (dihydropterinPP(i)) and AMP. The second domain (DHPS) catalyses the next step, i.e. the condensation of p-aminobenzoic acid (p-ABA) with dihydropterinPP(i) to give 7,8-dihydropteroate (dihydropteroate) and PP(i). In the present article we studied the coupling between these two reactions. Kinetic data obtained for the HPPK domain are consistent with an ordered Bi Bi mechanism where ATP binds first and dihydropterinPP(i) is released last, as proposed previously for the monofunctional Escherichia coli enzyme. In the absence of p-ABA, AMP and dihydropterinPP(i) accumulate and negatively regulate the reaction. In the presence of p-ABA, the rates of AMP and dihydropteroate synthesis are similar, indicating a good coupling between the two reactions. DihydropterinPP(i), an intermediate of the two reactions, never accumulates in this situation. The high specific activity of DHPS relative to HPPK, rather than a preferential channelling of dihydropterinPP(i) between the two catalytic sites, could explain these kinetic data. The maximal velocity of the DHPS domain is limited by the availability of dihydropterinPP(i). It is strongly feedback-inhibited by dihydropteroate and also dihydrofolate and tetrahydrofolate monoglutamate, two intermediates synthesized downstream in the folate biosynthetic pathway. Thus the HPPK domain of this bifunctional protein is the limiting factor of the overall reaction, but the DHPS domain is a potential key regulatory point of the whole folate biosynthetic pathway.
On the relative effectiveness of affect regulation strategies: A meta-analysis

To examine the effectiveness of various affect regulation strategies and categories of affect regulation strategies, a meta-analysis was conducted. Results generally indicate that reappraisal (d=0.65) and distraction (d=0.46 for all studies; d=0.95 for studies with a negative or no affect induction) are the most effective regulation/repair strategies, producing the largest hedonic shift in affect. The effectiveness of different categories of regulation/repair strategies depended on the valence of the preceding affect induction. Results also indicate that stronger affect inductions and the use of bivariate affect measures will provide a richer understanding of affect regulation. Additionally, not all specific strategies or categories of strategies have been researched and the impact of individual differences on affect regulation has received relatively little attention. Finally, results indicate that control conditions in affect regulation research may not provide a valid point for comparison, as they facilitate effective affect repair.
Advanced Glycation End Products Acutely Impair Ca2+ Signaling in Bovine Aortic Endothelial Cells

Post-translational modification of proteins in diabetes, including formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are believed to contribute to vascular dysfunction and disease. Impaired function of the endothelium is an early indicator of vascular dysfunction in diabetes and as many endothelial cell processes are dependent upon intracellular [Ca2+] and Ca2+ signaling, the aim of this study was to examine the acute effects of AGEs on Ca2+ signaling in bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC). Ca2+ signaling was studied using the fluorescent indicator dye Fura-2-AM. AGEs were generated by incubating bovine serum albumin with 0–250 mM glucose or glucose-6-phosphate for 0–120 days at 37°C. Under all conditions, the main AGE species generated was carboxymethyl lysine (CML) as assayed using both gas-liquid chromatograph-mass spectroscopy and high-performance liquid chromatography. In Ca2+-replete solution, exposure of BAEC to AGEs for 5 min caused an elevation in basal [Ca2+] and attenuated the increase in intracellular [Ca2+] caused by ATP (100 μM). In the absence of extracellular Ca2+, exposure of BAEC to AGEs for 5 min caused an elevation in basal [Ca2+] and attenuated subsequent intracellular Ca2+ release caused by ATP, thapsigargin (0.1 μM), and ionomycin (3 μM), but AGEs did not affect extracellular Ca2+ entry induced by the re-addition of Ca2+ to the bathing solution in the presence of any of these agents. The anti-oxidant α-lipoic acid (2 μM) and NAD(P)H oxidase inhibitors apocynin (500 μM) and diphenyleneiodonium (1 μM) abolished these effects of AGEs on BAECs, as did the IP3 receptor antagonist xestospongin C (1 μM). In summary, AGEs caused an acute depletion of Ca2+ from the intracellular store in BAECs, such that the Ca2+ signal stimulated by the subsequent application other agents acting upon this store is reduced. The mechanism may involve generation of reactive oxygen species from NAD(P)H oxidase and possible activation of the IP3 receptor.