Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Replicated Evidence of Absence of Association between Serum S100B and (Risk of) Psychotic Disorder

Background S100B is a potential marker of neurological and psychiatric illness. In schizophrenia, increased S100B levels, as well as associations with acute positive and persisting negative symptoms, have been reported. It remains unclear whether S100B elevation, which possibly reflects glial dysfunction, is the consequence of disease or compensatory processes, or whether it is an indicator of familial risk. Methods Serum samples were acquired from two large independent family samples (n = 348 and n = 254) in the Netherlands comprising patients with psychotic disorder (n = 140 and n = 82), non-psychotic siblings of patients with psychotic disorder (n = 125 and n = 94) and controls (n = 83 and n = 78). S100B was analyzed with a Liaison automated chemiluminescence system. Associations between familial risk of psychotic disorder and S100B were examined. Results Results showed that S100B levels in patients (P) and siblings (S) were not significantly different from controls (C) (dataset 1: P vs. C: B = 0.004, 95% CI −0.005 to 0.013, p = 0.351; S vs. C: B = 0.000, 95% CI −0.009 to 0.008, p = 0.926; and dataset 2: P vs. C: B = 0.008, 95% CI −0.011 to 0.028, p = 0.410; S vs. C: B = 0.002, 95% CI −0.016 to 0.021, p = 0.797). In patients, negative symptoms were positively associated with S100B (B = 0.001, 95% CI 0.000 to 0.002, p = 0.005) in one of the datasets, however with failure of replication in the other. There was no significant association between S100B and positive symptoms or present use or type of antipsychotic medication. Conclusions S100B is neither an intermediate phenotype, nor a trait marker for psychotic illness.
Public attitudes and knowledge about social workers in Israel

Summary This article presents the results of a survey on public attitudes and knowledge about social workers in Israel. Data were collected by means of structured questionnaires from a convenience sample of 1,417 participants aged 21 and older not treated by social services. Findings The findings indicate that side by side with fairly high recognition of general areas related to the social work profession, there was a certain lack of comprehension in regard to the roles performed by social workers. Attitudes toward social workers were ambivalent. Although on most parameters examined they received the lowest rankings of all professional fields with which they were compared, a fairly high percentage of respondents rejected critical and biased statements about social workers and defined them as people whose work is based on values, social ideology, and professional ethics, and also believed that it is necessary to increase the number of social workers in Israel and to improve their employment terms and conditions. Applications Understanding public attitudes and knowledge about social workers is important in terms of the public’s trust in them and the prediction of whether they will be approached for advice, treatment, or help when necessary. Furthermore, social workers’ ability to defend their interests and promote social policies requires wide public support, without which they will find it hard to attain sufficient social and political power and influence.
Ciliary neurotrophic factor recruitment of glucagon‐like peptide‐1 mediates neurogenesis, allowing immortalization of adult murine hypothalamic neurons

The distinct lack of cell lines derived from the adult brain is evident. Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) triggers neurogenesis in primary culture from adult mouse hypothalamus, as detected by bromodeoxyuridine and Ki67 immunostaining. Using SV‐40 T‐antigen, we immortalized dividing neurons and generated clonal cell lines expressing neuropeptides and receptors involved in neuroendocrine function. We hypothesized that proglucagon‐derived peptides may be the mechanistic downstream effectors of CNTF due to documented neuroprotective and proliferative effects. Indeed, proglucagon gene expression was induced by CNTF, and exposure of primary cells to glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor (GLP‐1) agonist, exendin‐4, induced cell proliferation. Intracere‐ broventricular injection of CNTF into adult mice caused increased expression of proglucagon peptide in the hypothalamus. Using a specific GLP‐1‐receptor antagonist, we found that neurogenesis was significantly attenuated and primary culture from GLP‐1‐receptor‐knockout mice lacked CNTF‐mediated neuronal proliferation, thus linking the induction of neurogenesis in the hypothalamus to GLP‐1‐receptor signaling. —Belsham, D. D. , Fick, L. J., Dalvi, P. S. , Centeno, M. ‐L. , Chalmers, J. A. , Lee, P. K. P., Wang, Y. , Drucker, D. J., Koletar, M. M. Ciliary neurotro‐ phic factor recruitment of glucagon‐like peptide‐1 mediates neurogenesis allowing immortalization of adult murine hypothalamic neurons. FASEB J. 23, 4256–4265 (2009). www.fasebj. org
The Insidious Nature of ‘Hard‐Core’ Alternative Conceptions: Implications for the constructivist research programme of patterns in high school students’ and pre‐service teachers’ thinking about ionisation energy

The present study contributes to the constructivist research programme (RP) into learning science by comparing patterns in responses from two groups of learners—senior high school students and pre‐service teachers—in the same educational context (Singapore), to a diagnostic instrument relating to the topic of ionisation energies. This topic is currently included in the curriculum for 16‐ to 19‐year‐old students studying chemistry in Singapore (and elsewhere). The comparison shows that: (1) although graduate pre‐service teachers offered some types of incorrect responses less frequently than high school students; (2) they retained high levels of alternative conceptions commonly found among high school students; and (3) of particular note, certain alternative conceptions were found to be more common among the graduates. This suggests the intuitive appeal of certain alternative conceptions is such that they can readily be reproduced down ‘generations’ of learners. The findings are explored in terms of a range of conceptual resources that have been developed within the constructivist RP. The analysis suggests that the curriculum sets out inappropriate target knowledge for senior high school students, given the nature of the subject matter and the prior learning of the students. It is also suggested that it may be fruitful to consider conceptual learning in terms analogous to the RP found in science, and that from this perspective certain insidious alternative conceptions can be understood as derived from commitments that are taken for granted and protected from explicit challenge by a protective belt of refutable auxiliary conceptions.
Forming Relationships and the Matching Hypothesis

Couples' similarity in physical attractiveness was hypothesized to be related to the formation of dating relationships. Subjects were 67 couples who were members of a dating service. Behavioral steps the couples had taken to form dating relationships were determined. These behaviors ranged from refusing to reveal one's surname and telephone number to the other, to going out on a second date. Taking these steps was correlated with couples' similarity in physical attractiveness despite factors thought to attenuate the effect of appearance on dating: an older subject population, and the availability of information about a potential partner's age, occupational status, personality, and interests.
Experimental evaluation of cross-talk cancellation regarding loudspeakers' angle of listening

The reproduction of three-dimensional (3-D) sound (either from binaural recordings or virtual source synthesis) through loudspeakers, also known as transauralization, adds difficulties to the traditional method using headphones: the cross-talk effect between speakers and the listener's ears must be taken into account. The common way of removing this distortion consists of placing a filter bank before reproduction through the loudspeakers, but these crosstalk cancellers are notoriously nonrobust to slight movements of the head. Recent theoretical works studied the influence of loudspeaker positions relating to robustness of the system. This paper presents a series of experiments that validate the theory and add new ideas for the design of crosstalk cancellers.
Boards of Directors: A Review and Research Agenda

Boards of directors have been the subject of extensive conceptualization and empirical research. We review literature addressing boards of directors from the perspective of the control, service, and resource dependence roles that directors are hypothesized to fulfill, with particular focus on that research reported after the Zahra and Pearce (1989) compendium. We also discuss a number of methodological and conceptual elements which complicate the aggregation of research in this area of inquiry.
Medical Students' Involvement in Outpatient Clinical Encounters: A Survey of Patients and Their Obstetricians–Gynecologists

Purpose To study women's prior exposure to medical students during office visits, and the association between this and other factors in the likelihood of patients consenting to medical students' involvement in obstetrical–gynecological (ob–gyn) care. Physicians also were surveyed regarding their perceptions of patients' preferences. Method In 1999–2000, an anonymous questionnaire was distributed for one week to all women scheduled for an ob–gyn visit and to their providers at six community campuses of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. The questionnaire asked for patients' demographic information and prior experience with medical students, factors important when deciding to allow medical students to participate in their care, and how knowledge of medical students' involvement influences patients' choice of an ob–gyn. Results Seventy-two physicians and 1,059 patients returned the questionnaire. Four hundred eighty-eight (49%) patients reported prior experience with medical students. Patients and physicians rated interpersonal skills as most important when deciding about medical students' participation. Forty-three (63%) physicians thought students should participate in the history and physical examination compared to 299 (31%) patients. Prior experience with medical students was a major facilitating factor for medical students' involvement while patients' needs were a limiting factor. Patients' age and medical students' gender also predicted patients' attitudes. Conclusions Most women would allow medical students to participate in their care, a finding moderated by a number of factors. A small proportion of women were biased against participation of male medical students. Physicians overestimated patients' ratings and might themselves be a source of bias regarding medical students' involvement.
Association of Serum Irisin with Metabolic Syndrome in Obese Chinese Adults

Irisin, a recently identified novel myokine, drives brown-fat-like conversion of white adipose tissues and has been proposed to mediate beneficial effects of exercise on metabolism. Circulating irisin was significantly reduced in type 2 diabetes patients; however, no evidence is available about its association with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and effects of adiposity and muscle mass on circulating irisin have been controversial. Cross-sectional data on socio-demographic, lifestyle, clinical characteristics and serum irisin were collected for 1,115 community-living Chinese adults with central obesity. Associations of serum irisin with MetS (central obesity plus any two of the following four factors (raised blood pressure (BP), raised fasting plasma glucose (FPG), raised triglyceride (TG), and reduced HDL cholesterol) and each component of MetS were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression. Among the 1,115 obese Chinese adults with a mean age of 53.2(±7.2) years, serum irisin levels (log-transformed) were significantly reduced in subjects with MetS and raised FPG than their control groups (p = 0.034 and 0.041, respectively). After adjustment for potential confounders, serum irisin was significantly associated with reduced risks of MetS and raised FPG, with odds ratios (ORs) (95% CI) per standard deviation of log-transformed irisin of 0.796 (0.505–0.959, p = 0.027) and 0.873 (0.764–0.998, p = 0.046), respectively. Associations of irisin with raised BP, raised TG and reduced HDL were not statistically significant ((ORs) (95% CI): 0.733(0.454–1.182, p = 0.202), 0.954(0.838–1.086, p = 0.478) and 1.130(0.980–1.302, p = 0.092), respectively). Stepwise multivariable linear regression analysis showed that fasting insulin, HbA1c and albumin/globulin ratio were negatively associated with serum irisin level with statistical significance (all p-values <0.05) and waist circumference was negatively associated with serum risin with marginally statistical significance (p = 0.055). These results imply that irisin may play an important role in insulin resistance and MetS and should be confirmed in future prospective studies.
Effect of polymerized human placenta hemoglobin on hemodynamic parameter and cardiac function in a rat hemorrhagic shock model

Abstract To investigate whether polymerized human placenta hemoglobin (PolyPHb) improved hemodynamic parameter recovery and cardiac function after hemorrhagic shock, a mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 30 mmHg was maintained for 60min. Then, all the rats were randomly resuscitated with hetastarch (HES), shed blood (Whole Blood), or PolyPHb (PolyPHb). The MAP was greatly improved by PolyPHb, but it was still lower than that of the Whole Blood group. Meanwhile, the cardiac function and enzyme releases in the PolyPHb group were similar to the HES group. Therefore, our findings suggest that PolyPHb moderately improved hemodynamic recovery and provided little cardioprotective effect in hemorrhagic shock.
Subcanopy genetics – the relationship between canopy tree size and genetic variation of the savanna species Pollichia campestris Aiton (Illecebraceae)

In savanna vegetation, trees and their canopies provide an important, but scattered habitat. Seeds of plants growing under these nurse trees often are dispersed by animals, especially birds. In the present study, we investigated the influence of tree size and frugivore dispersal on the genetic variation of the subcanopy species Pollichia campestris, using amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP). Considering the individuals under each nurse tree as subpopulations, we found the genetic variation within subpopulations to be positively correlated with the size of the respective canopy tree. Genetic variation was very low among, but high within subpopulations (ΦPT = 0.026, P = 0.18). We conclude that the low genetic variation among subpopulations is due to effective and directed dispersal (dispersal from one canopy to another) by legitimate and frugivorous dispersal agents.
In which language do/should multilinguals think?

Abstract Methods of foreign language teaching and learning are often predicated on the principle that learners need to think as much as possible in a language that they wish to learn. This paper first explores what it means to think in a target language. Next, those factors which determine both unplanned and planned use of more than one language for thinking are discussed, and empirical data from a mini‐survey are presented. Thirdly, the paper considers the role of target‐language thinking in improving language ability, again drawing on empirical data from the survey. Finally, we will look at mental translation in the reading of intermediate college French, the language of thought in an elementary school Spanish immersion programme, and thought patterns in the production of speech acts by college EFL students. The conclusion reached after reviewing the responses from the mini‐survey and the other empirical studies is that there are definite benefits from making an effort to think through the target langua.
Risk factors for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis.

BACKGROUND/AIM Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis is relatively frequent condition, and may have serious health consequences, like chronic vulvovaginal pain syndrome. The aim of our study was to determine possible risk factors for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis in non-pregnant females within the reproductive age. METHODS The design of our study was of a case-control type. Case and control patients were selected from the gynecological patients at six primary care facilities in Serbia and in Montenegro. The data on the patients' health condition, concomitant therapy and diseases were taken from their records, and the data on habits were obtained by unstructured interview. For potential risk factors crude odds ratios were calculated, and then adjusted by logistic regression. RESULTS A total of fifty-one patients had four or more episodes of vulvovaginal candidiasis during the last year (cases), and 132 patients with one to three episodes of vulvovaginal candidiasis were sampled as controls, matched by age. The only two significant associations were found between recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis and continual wearing of panty liners during the last year (Odds ratio - OR adjusted: 3.97; confidence interval--CI: 1.57-10.02;p = 0.004), and between recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis and predominant use of vaginal tampons during menstruation in the last year (OR adjusted: 4.25; CI: 1.11-16.27;p = 0.035). The synergistic effect was observed for the concurrent continual wearing of panty liners during the last year and self-medication with antimycotics. CONCLUSIONS Local factors, like wearing of panty liners or use of tampons during menstruation, may promote recurrence of vulvovaginal candidiasis, especially in patients who practice self-medication with antimycotics.
Central Control of Fluid and Electrolyte Homeostasis Brain somatostatin receptor 2 mediates the dipsogenic effect of central somatostatin and cortistatin in rats: role in drinking behavior

Brain somatostatin receptor 2 mediates the dipsogenic effect of central somatostatin and cortistatin in rats: role in drinking behavior. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 307: R793–R801, 2014. 2014; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00248. 2014. —Intrace-rebroventricular injection of stable somatostatin (SST) agonists stimulates food and water intake in rats. We investigated the receptor subtype(s) involved in the dipsogenic effect of intracerebroventricular injection of SST agonists, mechanisms of action, and role. In nonfasted and non-water-deprived male rats with chronic intracerebroventricular cannula, intake of water without food or food without water was monitored separately to avoid any interactions compared with intracerebroventricular vehicle. SST-14 and cortistatin (CST-14) (1 (cid:2) g/rat icv) increased water intake by 3.1- and 2.7-fold, respec-tively, while both peptides did not alter food intake at 1 h postinjection in the light phase. By contrast, the stable pan-somatostatin agonist ODT8-SST (1 (cid:2) g/rat icv) increased both water and food intake by 4.9-and 3.7-fold, respectively. S-346-011, a selective receptor 2 (sst 2 ) agonist (1 (cid:2) g/rat icv) induced water ingestion, while sst 1 or sst 4 agonist, injected under the same conditions, did not. The sst 2 antagonist S-406-028 (1 (cid:2) g/rat icv) prevented the 1-h water intake induced by intracerebroventricular ODT8-SST and CST-14. Losartan (100 (cid:2) g/rat icv), an angiotensin receptor 1 (AT 1 ) antagonist, completely blocked the water consumption induced by intracerebroventricular ODT8-SST, whereas intracerebroventricular injection of S-406-028 did not modify the intracerebroventricular ANG II-induced dipsogenic response. The sst 2 antagonist reduced by 40% the increase of the 3-h water intake in the early dark phase. These data indicate that SST-14 and CST-14 interact with sst 2 to exert a potent dipsogenic effect, which is mediated downstream by angiotensin-AT 1 signaling. These data also indicate that sst 2 activation by brain SST-14 and/or CST-14 may play an important role in the regulation of drinking behavior.
Determination of the exact copy numbers of particular mRNAs in a single cell by quantitative real-time RT-PCR

SUMMARY Gene expression is differently regulated in every cell even though the cells are included in the same tissue. For this reason, we need to measure the amount of mRNAs in a single cell to understand transcription mechanism better. However, there are no accurate, rapid and appropriate methods to determine the exact copy numbers of particular mRNAs in a single cell. We therefore developed a procedure for isolating a single, identifiable cell and determining the exact copy numbers of mRNAs within it. We first isolated the cerebral giant cell of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis as this neuron plays a key role in the process of memory consolidation of a learned behavior brought about by associative learning of feeding behavior. We then determined the copy numbers of mRNAs for the cyclic AMP-responsive element binding proteins (CREBs). These transcription factors play an important role in memory formation across animal species. The protocol uses two techniques in concert with each other: a technique for isolating a single neuron with newly developed micromanipulators coupled to an assay of mRNAs by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The molecular assay determined the mRNA copy numbers, each of which was compared with a standard curve prepared from cDNA solutions corresponding to the serially diluted solutions of Lymnaea CREB mRNA. The standard curves were linear within a range of 10 to 105 copies, and the intra-assay variation was within 15%. Each neuron removed from the ganglia was punctured to extract the total RNA directly and was used for the assay without further purification. Using this two-step procedure, we found that the mRNA copy number of CREB repressor (CREB2) was 30–240 in a single cerebral giant cell, whereas that of CREB activator (CREB1) was below the detection limits of the assay (<25). These results suggest that the CREB cascade is regulated by an excess amount of CREB2 in the cerebral giant cells. Our procedure is the only quantitative analysis for elucidation of the dynamics of gene transcription in a single cell.
Autonomous vision-based exploration and mapping using hybrid maps and Rao-Blackwellised particle filters

This paper addresses the problem of exploring and mapping an unknown environment using a robot equipped with a stereo vision sensor. The main contribution of our work is a fully automatic mapping system that operates without the use of active ranger sensors (such as laser or sonic transducers), can operate in real-time and can consistently produce accurate maps of large-scale environments. Our approach implements a Rao-Blackwellised particle filter (RBPF) to solve the simultaneous localization and mapping problem and uses efficient data structures for real-time data association, mapping, and spatial reasoning. We employ a hybrid map representation that infers 3D point landmarks from image features to achieve precise localization, coupled with occupancy grids for safe navigation. This paper describes our framework and implementation, and presents our exploration method, and experimental results illustrating the functionality of the system
Home Health and Skilled Nursing Facility Use: 1982-90

In this article, analyses are made of home health and skilled nursing facility (SNF) use for the period 1982-90 using Medicare records linked to data on community and institutional residents from the National Long-Term Care Surveys (NLTCSs) of 1982, 1984, and 1989. The combined survey and administrative data analyses are performed to ascertain how the chronic health and functional characteristics of community and institutional residents using Medicare-reimbursed services changed during the period. During this period, changes had been made in the Medicare system that affected the use of services for persons with specific health and functional problems.