Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Children's School Readiness: The Experiences of African Refugee Women in a Supported Playgroup

AN EMERGING PRESSURE FOR refugee parents in Australia relates to children's ‘school readiness'. Existing research on mainstream, ethnic and migrant parents has highlighted that preparing children for school can be stressful; however, current literature has not considered this phenomenon for refugees in Australia. Social support is important for parents as they navigate school-related problems, and supported playgroups can potentially play an important role here for refugees. However, existing research has not yet examined the ways such programs can support these individuals in dealing with school readiness issues. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the experiences of African refugee mothers in relation to their children's school readiness and transitions to school, and the ways one supported playgroup assisted them in this context. A focus group and interviews were conducted with a sample of 11 women. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach, four main themes were identified: preparing for school; mothers' experiences of children's transitions to school; perceived supports; and playgroup support. It was found that women's experiences were fraught with underlying tensions and conflicts influenced by social and cultural factors, and assistance provided through the supported playgroup was highly important to the women in this context.
Polymorphisms of the Homologous Recombination Gene RAD51 in Keratoconus and Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy

Purpose. We investigated the association between genotypes and haplotypes of the c. -61G>T (rs 1801320) and c. -98G>C (rs 1801321) polymorphisms of the RAD51 gene and the occurrence of keratoconus (KC) and Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) in dependence on some environmental factors. Methods. The polymorphisms were genotyped in peripheral blood lymphocytes of 100 KC and 100 FECD patients as well as 150 controls with PCR-RFLP. Results. The G/T genotype of the c. -61G>T polymorphism was associated with significantly increased frequency occurrence of KC (crude OR 2.99, 95% CI 1.75–5.13). On the other hand, the G/G genotype of this polymorphism was positively correlated with a decreased occurrence of this disease (crude OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.31–0.88). We did not find any correlation between genotypes/alleles of the c. -98G>C polymorphism and the occurrence of KC. We also found that the G/G genotype and G allele of the c. -98G>C polymorphism had a protective effect against FECD (crude OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.28–0.92; crude OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.30–0.92, resp.), while the G/C genotype and the C allele increased FECD occurrence (crude OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.01–3.36; crude OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.09–3.29, resp.). Conclusions. The c. -61T/T and c. -98G>C polymorphisms of the RAD51 gene may have a role in the KC and FECD pathogenesis and can be considered as markers in these diseases.
Pharmacological dissection of multiple types of Ca2+ channel currents in rat cerebellar granule neurons

The diversity of Ca2+ channel types in rat cerebellar granule neurons was investigated with whole-cell recordings (5 mM external Ba2+). Contributions of five different high-voltage-activated Ca2+ channel current components were distinguished pharmacologically. Nimodipine- sensitive L-type current and omega-CTx-GVIA-sensitive N-type current contributed 15 and 20% of the total current, respectively. The bulk of the remaining current (46%) was inhibited by omega-Aga-IVA. The current blocked by this toxin was further subdivided into two components, P- type and Q-type, on the basis of differences in their inactivation kinetics and sensitivity to omega-Aga-IVA. P-Type current was noninactivating during 0.1 sec depolarizations, half-blocked at about 1- 3 nM omega-Aga-IVA, and contributed approximately 11% of the total current; Q-type current was prominently inactivating, half-blocked at approximately 90 nM omega-Aga-IVA, and comprised 35% of the total current. Both P- and Q-type currents were potently inhibited by the Conus magus toxin omega-CTx-MVIIC. A current component resistant to all of the aforementioned blockers (R-type) displayed more rapid inactivation than the other components and constituted 19% of the total current. The Q-type current, the largest of the current components in the granule neurons, resembles currents that can be generated in Xenopus oocytes by expression of cloned alpha 1A subunits.
Long‐term follow‐up of relapsed childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Summary. We have reviewed the outcome after relapse in a cohort of 505 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) seen at a single institution. The majority of relapses (74%) occurred within 3 years from diagnosis, and most involved the bone marrow alone or with overt extramedullary relapse. Early relapse was more common in children with T‐ALL and those with unfavourable cytogenetics. Factors influencing second remission included length of first remission and type of relapse. Children who had not received previous cranial irradiation had a superior survival. The German relapse score involving length of first remission, site of relapse and immunophenotype was highly predictive of outcome: event‐free survival with 95% confidence intervals at 6 years for patients who received modern treatment [intensive chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation (BMT)] was 78% (51–92%) for standard risk, 41% (33–49%) for intermediate risk and 19% (10–31%) for highest risk. Retrospective comparison of BMT with chemotherapy showed no difference in the intermediate‐risk group but a possible advantage in the highest risk group. Follow‐up of 235 patients who relapsed after chemotherapy and received a third course of treatment showed an extremely high early attrition rate, but a small number of patients survived in third remission. We conclude that new approaches are needed to individualize therapy in intermediate‐risk patients and to improve the outcome for those in the highest risk group. Only a small number of children can be treated effectively in third remission.
Surviving Survivor: A Content Analysis of Antisocial Behavior and Its Context in a Popular Reality Television Show

The scope and nature of reality television has changed since researchers last conducted a content analysis of the antisocial behavior for this type of programming. This study examines the content of seven seasons of Survivor, one of America's longest running reality television programs, to determine the types, frequency, and context of antisocial behavior presented in the series as well as the possible effects of the program on longtime viewers using social learning and cultivation theories. In the 76.4 hours of programming analyzed for this study, 4,207 antisocial acts were documented in the coding database. Indirect aggression and verbal aggression were found to be the most frequently occurring types of antisocial behavior. The number (4,207) and the rate (45.7 acts per hour) of antisocial acts in the seven seasons of Survivor analyzed in this study is higher than the findings of a previous study of antisocial behavior in reality-based television conducted in 1997. This study clearly demonstrates that longtime viewers of Survivor get a higher dose of antisocial behavior than did regular viewers of news programming and other reality-based programs that aired slightly more than 10 years ago.
Cochlear Implantation Outcomes in Patients With Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Inner Ear Disease

Objective: To compare hearing outcomes in patients with autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED) undergoing cochlear implantation to a group of controls, postlingually deafened by non-immune-mediated causes. Hypothesis: Hearing performance in AIED patients who receive unilateral or bilateral cochlear implants is comparable to similarly treated postlingually deafened adults without AIED. Study Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Academic neurotologic tertiary referral center. Patients: Ten patients with AIED with 12 implanted ears who met the audiological criteria for cochlear implantation were compared with 12 randomly selected controls, postlingually deafened by non-immune-mediated causes. Intervention: Cochlear implantation using commercially available devices. Main Outcome Measures: Preoperative and postoperative hearing thresholds, words, and sentence scores. A note was made regarding the presence or absence of ossification or fibrosis noted within the scala tympani at the time of implant. Results: The mean age was 49.6 ± 14 years in the AIED group and 56.8 ± 17 years in the control group (p = 0.31). The mean duration of deafness was 14 ± 26 months in the AIED group and 6.5 ± 4 months in the control group (p = 0.34). In the AIED group, 42% were men and 58% were women. In the control group, 33% were men and 67% women. Five patients in the AIED group (6 implanted ears) were found to have cochlear fibrosis and variable degrees of ossification. Two patients in that group required drill-out procedures. All patients had full insertion. The mean preoperative pure-tone averages in the AIED and control groups were 102 ± 18 and 90 ± 13 dB, respectively (p = 0.13). In the AIED, the mean short-term (≤12 mo of follow-up) postoperative word and sentence scores were 74.8% ± 15% and 94% ± 6%, respectively. In the control group, the mean short-term postoperative words and sentence scores were 72% ± 12% and 96% ± 4%, respectively. No statistical difference was present in the short-term postimplantation words (p = 0.7) and sentence scores (p = 0.49) between both groups. The mean long-term (after 12 mo of follow-up) postoperative word and sentence scores in the AIED group were 87.2% ± 11% and 96.8% ± 4%, respectively. In the control group, the long-term words and sentence scores were 77.2% ± 14% and 77.2% ± 7%, respectively. No statistical significance was found in the long-term postimplantation words (p = 0.17) and sentence scores (p = 0.7) between both groups. Conclusion: Cochlear implantation is a safe and viable option for hearing rehabilitation in patients deafened by progressive AIED. Hearing outcomes in AIED patients are excellent and support transition to implantation when hearing is lost or long-term steroid therapy becomes undesirable. Cochlear fibrosis or ossification seems to affect nearly 50% of implanted ears (41.6% of patients) in this study and implies that the cochlea is at risk for ossification changes long term. In appropriate candidates, earlier implantation may be indicated before postinflammatory obliterative changes in the cochlea.
An improved greedy construction of minimum connected dominating sets in wireless networks

A minimum connected dominating set (MCDS) offers an optimized way of sending messages in wireless networks. However, constructing a MCDS is a NP-complete problem. Many heuristics based approximation algorithms for MCDS problems have been previously reported. In this paper, we propose a new degree-based multiple leaders initiated greedy approximation algorithm (PSCASTS) based on the selection of a pseudo-dominating set and an improved Steiner tree construction. We also show that our PSCASTS outperforms existing CDS construction algorithms in terms of CDS size and construction costs. The simulation results show that PSCASTS constructs better non-trivial CDSs for networks with uniform, nearly-uniform and random distribution of sensor nodes. While PSCASTS retains the current best performance ratio of (4.8+ln5)|opt|+1.2, |opt| being the size of an optimal CDS of the network, it has the best time complexity of O(D), where D is the network diameter.
Carotid Artery Stenosis as a Cause of Stroke

Background: Population-based studies have estimated that about 15% of ischemic strokes are caused by large-vessel cerebrovascular disease. We determined the types of large-vessel atherosclerosis responsible for ischemic strokes in a population-based stroke study. Methods: Patients with first-ever or recurrent ischemic stroke in the Greater Cincinnati area were identified during 2005 at all local hospitals. Study physicians assigned ischemic stroke subtypes. Overall event rates and incidence rates for first-ever events were calculated, and age-, race- and sex-adjusted to the 2000 US population. Results: There were 2,204 ischemic strokes, including 365 strokes of large-vessel subtype (16.6% of all ischemic strokes). Extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis was associated with 8.0% of all ischemic strokes, while extracranial ICA occlusion and intracranial atherosclerosis were each associated with 3.5% of strokes. The annual rate of first-ever and recurrent stroke attributed to extracranial ICA was 13.4 (11.4–15.4) per 100,000 persons. We conservatively estimate that about 41,000 strokes may be attributed to extracranial ICA stenosis annually in the United States. Conclusions: Large-vessel atherosclerosis is an important cause of stroke, with extracranial ICA stenosis being significantly more common than extracranial ICA occlusion or intracranial atherosclerotic disease.
Time-domain identification of rational spectra with missing data

In this paper, we study modelling of rational spectra from time-domain measurements when the measurement information is not complete. We propose a three-stage estimation scheme. In the first-stage, rational spectra are identified by a modified covariance-based subspace identification algorithm in the innovation form. Accuracy of this stage is further enhanced by integrating a regularized nuclear norm optimization step with the subspace algorithm, which makes the model order selection easier. When the covariance estimates are not reliable, a modification of the optimization criterion is suggested. The second-stage of the scheme extracts a spectral factor via the recently introduced the regularized and re-weighted nuclear norm heuristic. In the third-stage, the missing values are recovered by one-step/multi-step prediction filters or fixed-interval smoothing filters. The predictors or the smoothers are built on the second-stage models in the innovation form.
A preliminary evaluation of the reliability and validity of a self‐reported communicative functioning item pool

Background: Item banking, an approach to test development based in item response theory (IRT), is beginning to be applied to the measurement of communicative functioning in aphasia. This approach involves calibrating a set of test items responding to a particular latent trait to a common measurement scale. One method for validating such scales is to examine the degree to which obtained item calibration estimates agree with a priori item rankings based on theory or expert opinion. Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of magnitude estimation (ME) procedures for validating item banks containing self‐reported functional performance items, and to make a preliminary analysis of the validity of a proposed item pool for measuring self‐reported communicative functioning in aphasia. Methods & Procedures: A total of 14 raters made ME ratings of physical and communicative functioning items. These ratings were evaluated for their intra and inter‐observer reliability and, for subsets of the items, their correspondence with previously published IRT calibration estimates was also evaluated. Outcomes & Results: Intra‐rater reliability was moderate to high, and inter‐rater reliability was high. Correspondence with IRT calibrations was high for physical items, and moderate for communication items. The distribution of ME ratings for the communication items was negatively skewed. Conclusions: ME procedures have utility for investigating the validity of functional performance items. The results suggest that communicative functioning may have a more complex latent structure than physical functioning, and that the proposed item pool might benefit from the inclusion of additional items at the lower end of the scale.
Remarkable Reproducibility of Enzyme Activity Profiles in Tomato Fruits Grown under Contrasting Environments Provides a Roadmap for Studies of Fruit Metabolism1[W][OPEN]

Enzyme activities in central metabolism of tomato fruits are strongly influenced by developmental stage but only weakly by environment. To assess the influence of the environment on fruit metabolism, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Moneymaker’) plants were grown under contrasting conditions (optimal for commercial, water limited, or shaded production) and locations. Samples were harvested at nine stages of development, and 36 enzyme activities of central metabolism were measured as well as protein, starch, and major metabolites, such as hexoses, sucrose, organic acids, and amino acids. The most remarkable result was the high reproducibility of enzyme activities throughout development, irrespective of conditions or location. Hierarchical clustering of enzyme activities also revealed tight relationships between metabolic pathways and phases of development. Thus, cell division was characterized by high activities of fructokinase, glucokinase, pyruvate kinase, and tricarboxylic acid cycle enzymes, indicating ATP production as a priority, whereas cell expansion was characterized by enzymes involved in the lower part of glycolysis, suggesting a metabolic reprogramming to anaplerosis. As expected, enzymes involved in the accumulation of sugars, citrate, and glutamate were strongly increased during ripening. However, a group of enzymes involved in ATP production, which is probably fueled by starch degradation, was also increased. Metabolites levels seemed more sensitive than enzymes to the environment, although such differences tended to decrease at ripening. The integration of enzyme and metabolite data obtained under contrasting growth conditions using principal component analysis suggests that, with the exceptions of alanine amino transferase and glutamate and malate dehydrogenase and malate, there are no links between single enzyme activities and metabolite time courses or levels.
Expression of GITR ligand abrogates immunosuppressive function of ocular tissue and differentially modulates inflammatory cytokines and chemokines

The glucocorticoid‐induced TNF‐related receptor ligand (GITRL) was previously shown to be constitutively expressed at low levels in human eye, including retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. By expressing enhanced yellow fluorescent protein‐tagged human GITRL in human RPE cells, we investigated the significance of expression of GITRL on human ocular tissue. Confocal immunofluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry confirmed the surface expression of GITRL on RPE cells. However, a soluble form of GITRL was also detected. Remarkably, expression of GITRL on the RPE cells abrogated RPE‐mediated immunosuppression of CD3+ T cells, implicated as a possible mechanism for ocular immune privilege. This abrogation of immunosuppression by GITRL‐RPE was dependent on GITR‐GITRL interaction and could not be mimicked by anti‐CD28 antibody. Analysis of cytokine profiles revealed high level of TGF‐beta during the immunosuppression by RPE cells while expression of GITRL abrogated the RPE cell‐induced TGF‐beta secretion. Expression of GITRL also stimulates secretion of an array of proinflammatory cytokines/chemokines from T cells. GITR‐GITRL interaction provides a unique proinflammatory costimulation that may signal through a different pathway than that of CD28‐B7 costimulation. This study implicated that GITRL could be a potential candidate for regulation of the ocular immune privilege and the balance between immune privilege and inflammation.
Career success and satisfaction: a comparative study in nine countries

Purpose – This project aims to examine levels of career and life satisfaction among successful women in nine countries in the Americas.Design/methodology/approach – A structured survey and in‐depth interviews were used, and a variety of occupations, demographics, and personality characteristics assessed – 1,146 successful women from nine countries in the USA responded the survey: 105 from Argentina, 210 from Brazil, 199 from Canada, 84 from Chile, 232 from Mexico, 126 from the USA, and 190 from three countries in the West Indies (Barbados, Jamaica, SVG). Findings – Results show no differences in satisfaction based on occupation or country and most demographic variables investigated did not have a significant relationship with satisfaction. Age had a small, significant, relationship, with satisfaction increasing with age; married women were significantly more satisfied than single women. Higher scores on self efficacy and need for achievement, and a greater internal locus of control were all related to high.
Analysis of oxygen transport in a diffusion‐limited model of engineered heart tissue

Cardiac tissue engineering has made notable progress in recent years with the advent of an experimental model based on neonatal cardiomyocytes entrapped in collage gels and purified basement membrane extract, known as “engineered heart tissues” (EHTs). EHTs are a formidable display of tissue‐level contractile function and cellular‐level differentiation, although they suffer greatly from mass transport limitations due to the high density of metabolically active cells and the diffusion‐limited nature of the hydrogel. In this report, a mathematical model was developed to predict oxygen levels inside a one‐dimensional, diffusion‐limited model of EHT. These predictions were then compared to values measured in corresponding experiments with a hypoxia‐sensitive stain (pimonidazole). EHTs were cast between two plastic discs, which allowed for mass transfer with the culture medium to occur in only the radial direction. EHTs were cultured for up to 36 h in the presence of pimonidazole, after which time they were snap‐frozen, histologically sectioned, and stained for bound pimonidazole. Quantitative image analysis was performed to measure the distance from the culture medium at which hypoxia first occurs under various conditions. As tested by variation of simple design parameters, the trends in oxygen profiles predicted by the model are in reasonable agreement with those obtained experimentally, although a number of ambiguities related to the specific model parameters led to a general overprediction of oxygen concentrations. Based on the sensitivity analysis in the present study, it is concluded that diffusion‐reaction models may offer relatively precise predictions of oxygen concentrations in diffusion‐limited tissue constructs. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;97: 962–975. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Psychoanalysis and El Sistema: Human Development through Music

Impoverished communities have traditionally not been the site of either psychoanalysis or classical music. As psychoanalysts look increasingly beyond the consulting room for ways to have an impact on the individual or on society at large, they might profitably engage with and help conceptualize programs like Austin Soundwaves, a United States offshoot of the Venezuelan program, El Sistema. El Sistema promotes human opportunity and development through free classical music education, serving 400,000 children and youth from the barrios of Venezuela. Freud on social justice and Bion on work groups can contribute to this project. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.