Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reducing negative thinking and depressive symptoms in college women.

PURPOSE Although cognitive-behavioral interventions have been successful in treating depression, no studies were found that focused solely on reducing negative thinking via group intervention as a means of preventing depression in at-risk groups. The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to test the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral group intervention in reducing depressive symptoms, decreasing negative thinking, and enhancing self-esteem in young women at risk for depression. DESIGN A randomized controlled trial with 92 college women ages 18 to 24 who were at risk for depression was conducted. METHOD Participants were randomly assigned to either the control or experimental group. The experimental group participated in a 6-week cognitive-behavioral group intervention. Data on self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and negative thinking were collected via self-report questionnaires from control and experimental groups at baseline, 1 month after the intervention, and at 6-month follow-up. Data were analyzed using mixed-model methodology and the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel chi-square test. FINDINGS Compared to those in the control group, women who received the intervention had a greater decrease in depressive symptoms and negative thinking and a greater increase in self-esteem, and these beneficial effects were maintained over 6-months. CONCLUSIONS The findings document the effectiveness of this cognitive-behavioral group intervention and indicate empirical support for the beneficial effects of reducing negative thinking by the use of affirmations and thought-stopping techniques on women's mental health.
Natural Basis Functions and Topographic Memory for Face Recognition

Recent work regarding the statistics of natural images has revealed that the dominant eigenvectors of arbitrary natural images closely approximate various oriented derivative-of-Gaussian functions; these functions have also been shown to provide the best fit to the receptive field profiles of cells in the primate striate cortex. We propose a scheme for expression-invariant face recognition that employs a fixed set of these "natural" basis functions to generate multiscale iconic representations of human faces. Using a fixed set of basis functions obviates the need for recomputing eigenvectors (a step that was necessary in some previous approaches employing principal component analysis (PCA) for recognition) while at the same time retaining the redundancy-reducing properties of PCA. A face is represented by a set of iconic representations automatically extracted from an input image. The description thus obtained is stored in a topographically-organized sparse distributed memory that is based on a model of human long-term memory first proposed by Kanerva. We describe experimental results for an implementation of the method on a pipeline image processor that is capable of achieving near real-time recognition by exploiting the processor's frame-rate convolution capability for indexing purposes. 1 Introduction The problem of object recognition has been a central subject in the field of computer vision. An especially interesting albeit difficult subproblem is that of recognizing human faces. In addition to the difficulties posed by changing viewing conditions, computational methods for face recognition have had to confront the fact that faces are complex non-rigid stimuli that defy easy geometric characterizations and form a dense cluster in the multidimensional space of input images. One of the most important issues in face recognition has therefore been the representation of faces. Early schemes for face recognition utilized geometrical representations; prominent features such as eyes, nose, mouth, and chin were detected and geometrical models of faces given by feature vectors whose dimensions, for instance, denoted the relative positions of the facial features were used for the purposes of recognition [Bledsoe, 1966; Kanade, 1973]. Recently, researchers have reported successful results using photometric representations i.e. representations that are computed directly from the intensity values of the input image. Some prominent examples include face representations based on biologically-motivated Gabor filter "jets" [Buhmann et al., 1990], randomly placed zeroth-order Gaussian kernels [Edelman et a/. This paper explores the use of an iconic representation of human faces that exploits the dimensionality-reducing properties of PCA. However, unlike previous approaches employing …
Using Clinical Simulation to Teach Patient Safety in an Acute/Critical Care Nursing Course

High-fidelity simulation using lifelike mannequins has been used to teach medical and aviation students, but little is known about using this method to educate nurses. The process and methods authors used to develop, implement, and evaluate high-fidelity simulation experiences in an acute/critical care elective for senior nursing students are described. Authors share their insight, experiences, and lessons learned, along with practical information and a framework, in developing simulations and debriefing.
Hypoxia Promotes Progesterone Synthesis During Luteinization in Bovine Granulosa Cells

To determine whether hypoxia has an effect on luteinization, we examined the influence of hypoxia on a model of bovine luteinizing and non-luteinizing granulosa cell culture. The granulosa cells were obtained from small antral follicles (≤ 6 mm in diameter). To induce luteinization, the cells were treated for 24 h with insulin (2 µg/ml), forskolin (10 µM) or insulin in combination with forskolin at 20% O2. After 24 h, progesterone (P4) production was higher in the treated cells, which we defined as luteinizing granulosa cells, than in non-treated cells, which we defined as non-luteinizing granulosa cells. P4 production by non-luteinizing granulosa cells was not affected by hypoxia (24 h at 10% and 5% O2), while P4 production by granulosa cells treated with insulin in combination with forskolin was significantly increased under hypoxia (24 h at 10% and 5% O2). Because hypoxia affected P4 production by the luteinizing granulosa cells but not by the non-luteinizing granulosa cells, hypoxia seems to promote P4 production during, rather than before, luteinization. In the cells treated with insulin in combination with forskolin, mRNA and protein expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and protein expression of 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD) increased under 10% O2, while mRNA and protein expressions of key protein and enzymes in P4 biosynthesis did not increase under 5% O2. The overall results suggest that hypoxia plays a role in progressing and completing the luteinization by enhancing P4 production through StAR as well as 3β-HSD expressions in the early time of establishing the corpus luteum.
Circulating Biomarkers of Immune Activation Distinguish Viral Suppression from Nonsuppression in HAART-Treated Patients with Advanced HIV-1 Subtype C Infection

Few studies have examined immune activation profiles in patients with advanced HIV-1 subtype C infection or assessed their potential to predict responsiveness to HAART. BioPlex, ELISA, and nephelometric procedures were used to measure plasma levels of inflammatory biomarkers in HIV-1 subtype C-infected patients sampled before and after 6 months of successful HAART (n = 20); in patients failing HAART (n = 30); and in uninfected controls (n = 8). Prior to HAART, CXCL9, CXCL10, β2M, sTNF-R1, TGF-β1, IFN-γ, IL-6, TNF, and sCD14 were significantly elevated in HIV-1-infected patients compared to controls (P < 0.01). All of these markers, with the exception of sTNF-R1, were also elevated in patients failing HAART (P < 0.05). The persistently elevated levels of CXCL9, CXCL10, and β2M in patients failing therapy in the setting of a marked reduction in these markers in patients on successful HAART suggest that they may be useful not only to monitor immune activation during HAART, but also to distinguish between good and poor responders. In the case of sCD14 and TGF-β1, the levels of these biomarkers remained persistently elevated despite HAART-induced virological suppression, a finding that is consistent with ongoing monocyte-macrophage activation, underscoring a potential role for adjuvant anti-inflammatory therapy.
Food intolerance: a community survey

1. A questionnaire inquiring about food intolerance was sent to a random sample of the electorate in a small South Wales town. Replies were received from 170 men and 305 women, the response rates being 87 and 93% respectively. 2. Adverse effects of some food were reported by 19% of men and 26% of women, or 14 and 18% respectively if minor digestive symptoms are excluded. Certain foods were thought to cause non-abdominal symptoms by 4% of men and 10% of women, and vomiting, diarrhoea or abdominal pain by 11% of men and 10% of women. 3. Plasma IgE was measured in a random subset of ninety-nine women and found to be significantly lower in those with major symptoms than in the rest. This suggests that allergy is probably not a common cause of food intolerance.
Cholesterol facilitates the native mechanism of Ca2+-triggered membrane fusion

The process of regulated exocytosis is defined by the Ca2+-triggered fusion of two apposed membranes, enabling the release of vesicular contents. This fusion step involves a number of energetically complex steps and requires both protein and lipid membrane components. The role of cholesterol has been investigated using isolated release-ready native cortical secretory vesicles to analyze the Ca2+-triggered fusion step of exocytosis. Cholesterol is a major component of vesicle membranes and we show here that selective removal from membranes, selective sequestering within membranes, or enzymatic modification causes a significant inhibition of the extent, Ca2+ sensitivity and kinetics of fusion. Depending upon the amount incorporated, addition of exogenous cholesterol to cholesterol-depleted membranes consistently recovers the extent, but not the Ca2+ sensitivity or kinetics of fusion. Membrane components of comparable negative curvature selectively recover the ability to fuse, but are unable to recover the kinetics and Ca2+ sensitivity of vesicle fusion. This indicates at least two specific positive roles for cholesterol in the process of membrane fusion: as a local membrane organizer contributing to the efficiency of fusion, and, by virtue of its intrinsic negative curvature, as a specific molecule working in concert with protein factors to facilitate the minimal molecular machinery for fast Ca2+-triggered fusion.
Bioactivities of Compounds from Elephantopus scaber, an Ethnomedicinal Plant from Southwest China

Elephantopus scaber is an ethnomedicinal plant used by the Zhuang people in Southwest China to treat headaches, colds, diarrhea, hepatitis, and bronchitis. A new δ-truxinate derivative, ethyl, methyl 3,4,3′,4′-tetrahydroxy-δ-truxinate (1), was isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the entire plant, along with 4 known compounds. The antioxidant activity of these 5 compounds was determined by ABTS radical scavenging assay. Compound 1 was also tested for its cytotoxicity effect against HepG2 by MTT assay (IC50 = 60 μM), and its potential anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, and antitumor bioactivities were predicted using target fishing method software.
Adverse effects of BCG vaccine 1173 P2 in Iran: A meta-analysis

Although in the last two decades the World Health Organization (WHO) has introduced tuberculosis as “a threat to global”, the vaccination with the Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is the only way for the prevention of this fatal infectious disease. Despite of the efficacy of BCG vaccine especially against infants' meningitis, it has still some limitations due to a variety of adverse effects. Many studies have evaluated the side effects of different strains of BCG vaccines in different countries. In Iran, some studies have been done so far to evaluate the adverse effects of 1173 P2 strain which is used for BCG vaccination. Each of these studies have used different standardization and sampling methods. This review will survey all studies that have been published about adverse effects of 1173 P2 strain of BCG vaccine in Iran using data mining methods.
Identification of candidate substrates for ectodomain shedding by the metalloprotease-disintegrin ADAM8

Abstract ADAM proteases are type I transmembrane proteins with extracellular metalloprotease domains. As for most ADAM family members, ADAM8 (CD156a, MS2) is involved in ectodomain shedding of membrane proteins and is linked to inflammation and neurodegeneration. To identify potential substrates released under these pathologic conditions, we screened 10-mer peptides representing amino acid sequences from extracellular domains of various membrane proteins using the ProteaseSpot™ system. A soluble ADAM8 protease containing a pro- and metalloprotease domain was expressed in E. coli and purified as active protease owing to autocatalytic prodomain removal. From 34 peptides tested in the peptide cleavage assay, significant cleavage by soluble ADAM8 was observed for 14 peptides representing membrane proteins with functions in inflammation and neurodegeneration, among them the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP). The in vivo relevance of the ProteaseSpot™ method was confirmed by cleavage of full-length APP with ADAM8 in human embryonic kidney 293 cells expressing tagged APP. ADAM8 cleaved APP with similar efficiency as ADAM10, whereas the inactive ADAM8 mutant did not. Exchanging amino acids at defined positions in the cleavage sequence of myelin basic protein (MBP) revealed sequence criteria for ADAM8 cleavage. Taken together, the results allowed us to identify novel candidate substrates that could be cleaved by ADAM8 in vivo under pathologic conditions.
Conditional Probability Tree Estimation Analysis and Algorithms

We consider the problem of estimating the conditional probability of a label in time O(log n), where n is the number of possible labels. We analyze a natural reduction of this problem to a set of binary regression problems organized in a tree structure, proving a regret bound that scales with the depth of the tree. Motivated by this analysis, we propose the first online algorithm which provably constructs a logarithmic depth tree on the set of labels to solve this problem. We test the algorithm empirically, showing that it works succesfully on a dataset with roughly 106 labels.
Peroxisomal Enzymes and 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanosine in Rat Liver Treated with Perfluorooctanoic Acid

Although peroxisome proliferators are considered non-genotoxic agents, most of them, nevertheless, were found to promote and/or induce, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in rodents. The aim of the present study is, first, to investigate whether the peroxisome proliferator perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) possesses inherent liver cancer promoting activity, and second, to study the possible mechanisms involved. To acheive these aims two protocols have been applied, a biphasic protocol (initiation by diethyl-nitrozamine (DEN) 200 mg/kg i.p. followed by treatment with 0.005% or 0.02% perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA) for 14 and 25 weeks) and a triphasic initiation, selection-promotion (IS) protocol (initiation by giving 200 mg/kg DEN i.p. followed by a selection procedure for 2 weeks consisting of giving 0.03% 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) in diet). In the middle of this treatment a single oral dose of carbon tetrachloride (2.0 ml/kg) was given, followed by giving diet containg 0.015% of PFOA for 25 weeks. After applying both protocols, our results showed slight increase in the catalase activity while acyl CoA oxidase activity was markedly increased. Both experiments indicated that PFOA has a liver cancer promoting activity. Other groups of rats were given either basal diet or diet containing 0.02% PFOA. Five or nine weeks later they were sacrificed and the levels of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine in the isolated DNA were estimated. The data showed a slight nonetheless insignificant increase in 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine. From the present data, it is concluded that PFOA is a true liver cancer promoter that may not require extensive initial DNA damage for its promoting activity.
The Market for Surprises: Selling Substitute Goods Through Lotteries

In this paper, we solve the revenue maximization problem of a multi-product monopolist when the products are substitutes. We consider a Hotelling model with two horizontally differentiated goods located at the endpoints of the segment. Consumers are located uniformly on the segment; their valuations for each good are equal to the base consumption value minus distance costs. When the base consumption value is high, the seller maximizes her expected profit by offering a menu of base and opaque goods. In particular, a single half-half lottery over base goods is optimal under concave and linear costs. When base consumption value is low, only base goods are sold. Finally, when base consumption value is intermediate, the optimal mechanism may entail the offering of lotteries with the positive probability of no delivery. Our findings can explain the emergence of opaque goods sales (e.g., hotel bookings without a complete description of the hotel through hotwire.com or priceline.com) as the outcome of the industry’s search for the optimal selling scheme.
Dysregulation of PTEN and protein kinase B is associated with glioma histology and patient survival.

PURPOSE This study assessed whether putative effectors of phosphatidylinositol3-kinase, including PTEN, protein kinase B (PKB), and p27(kip1), correlate with each other, with glioma histology, and with patient outcome. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Components of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signaling cascade were characterized in 25 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) tumors, 8 grade II oligoastrocytomas, and 13 normal human brain specimens. The protein levels of PTEN and p27(kip1) were assessed by immunoblot analyses. PKB kinase activity was evaluated through the expression level of the phosphorylated (activated) PKB protein and the ability of PKB to phosphorylate a specific peptide substrate in vitro. Cox regression analyses between expression/activity variables and survival were performed across and within histology types. Actual value for expression/activity was used as a continuous variable. Survival time was displayed by Kaplan Meier. RESULTS A strong inverse correlation was evident between PTEN levels and both phosphorylated PKB expression (P < 0.01) and PKB activity (P = 0.01). p27(kip1) levels did not correlate with PTEN expression or PKB activity. A significant association was evident between PTEN expression level and histology (P < 0.01). PTEN levels were highest in normal brain, lowest in GBM tumors, and intermediate in grade II oligoastrocytomas. PKB activity and phosphorylated PKB levels differed significantly among histologies, whereas p27(kip1) levels exhibited no association with histology. PTEN expression correlated significantly with survival time within the entire cohort (P < 0.01) and was associated with survival within the subgroup of GBM tumors (P = 0.11). CONCLUSIONS Reduced PTEN expression is ubiquitous among GBM tumors and may play a role in the development of low-grade gliomas. PTEN inactivation in gliomas portends a particularly aggressive clinical behavior.
Temperature-Induced Increase in Methane Release from Peat Bogs: A Mesocosm Experiment

Peat bogs are primarily situated at mid to high latitudes and future climatic change projections indicate that these areas may become increasingly wetter and warmer. Methane emissions from peat bogs are reduced by symbiotic methane oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs). Higher temperatures and increasing water levels will enhance methane production, but also methane oxidation. To unravel the temperature effect on methane and carbon cycling, a set of mesocosm experiments were executed, where intact peat cores containing actively growing Sphagnum were incubated at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25°C. After two months of incubation, methane flux measurements indicated that, at increasing temperatures, methanotrophs are not able to fully compensate for the increasing methane production by methanogens. Net methane fluxes showed a strong temperature-dependence, with higher methane fluxes at higher temperatures. After removal of Sphagnum, methane fluxes were higher, increasing with increasing temperature. This indicates that the methanotrophs associated with Sphagnum plants play an important role in limiting the net methane flux from peat. Methanotrophs appear to consume almost all methane transported through diffusion between 5 and 15°C. Still, even though methane consumption increased with increasing temperature, the higher fluxes from the methane producing microbes could not be balanced by methanotrophic activity. The efficiency of the Sphagnum-methanotroph consortium as a filter for methane escape thus decreases with increasing temperature. Whereas 98% of the produced methane is retained at 5°C, this drops to approximately 50% at 25°C. This implies that warming at the mid to high latitudes may be enhanced through increased methane release from peat bogs.
Novel Glioblastoma Markers with Diagnostic and Prognostic Value Identified through Transcriptome Analysis

Purpose: Current methods of classification of astrocytoma based on histopathologic methods are often subjective and less accurate. Although patients with glioblastoma have grave prognosis, significant variability in patient outcome is observed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify glioblastoma diagnostic and prognostic markers through microarray analysis. Experimental Design: We carried out transcriptome analysis of 25 diffusely infiltrating astrocytoma samples [WHO grade II—diffuse astrocytoma, grade III—anaplastic astrocytoma, and grade IV—glioblastoma (GBM)] using cDNA microarrays containing 18,981 genes. Several of the markers identified were also validated by real-time reverse transcription quantitative PCR and immunohistochemical analysis on an independent set of tumor samples (n = 100). Survival analysis was carried out for two markers on another independent set of retrospective cases (n = 51). Results: We identified several differentially regulated grade-specific genes. Independent validation by real-time reverse transcription quantitative PCR analysis found growth arrest and DNA-damage–inducible α (GADD45α) and follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) to be up-regulated in most GBMs (both primary and secondary), whereas superoxide dismutase 2 and adipocyte enhancer binding protein 1 were up-regulated in the majority of primary GBM. Further, identification of the grade-specific expression of GADD45α and FSTL1 by immunohistochemical staining reinforced our findings. Analysis of retrospective GBM cases with known survival data revealed that cytoplasmic overexpression of GADD45α conferred better survival while the coexpression of FSTL1 with p53 was associated with poor survival. Conclusions: Our study reveals that GADD45α and FSTLI are GBM-specific whereas superoxide dismutase 2 and adipocyte enhancer binding protein 1 are primary GBM-specific diagnostic markers. Whereas GADD45α overexpression confers a favorable prognosis, FSTL1 overexpression is a hallmark of poor prognosis in GBM patients.