Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impaired ability to grow colonies of endothelial stem cells could be the mechanism explaining the high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality of patients with depression.

Background Subjects with depression are more prone to develop cardiovascular complications. Severity of depression is associated with higher rates of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Several mechanisms were suggested including accelerated atherosclerosis, alteration of the cardiac autonomic response with a decrease in heart rate variability. There is evidence that circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are decreased in patients with major depression. Our hypothesis was that patients with depression would have an impaired ability to build colonies of EPCs. Methods A prospective study enrolled twenty women with a diagnosis of major. All were not treated before for depression. Thirteen healthy age-matched women served as controls. All signed a consent form before recruitment to the study. Peripheral blood was drawn to build colonies of EPCs within 5 days. ELISA methods were used to measure levels of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Results Twenty female patients with depression were recruited. The mean age was 43 ± 14 years (vs. controls 41 ± 11 years, P = 0.682), patients' average CFU-EPCs was 7 ± 8 colonies per well (controls 31 ± 11, P = 0.0001), VCAM-1 level was 121.7 ± 3.0 ng/ml (controls 119.3 ± 3.1 pg/ml, P = 0.037), VEGF level was 6.4 ± 0.2 pg/ml (controls 5.2 ± 0.5 pg/ml, P = 0.0001). An inverse correlation was found between VEGF level and EPCs' colonies (r = -0.547, P < 0.001) and between age and CFU-EPCs (r = -0.576, P = 0.008). Conclusions We found that patients with major depression had high levels of VCAM-1 and VEGF. They also had a significant inhibition of EPCs' colonies. An inverse correlation was found between levels of VEGF and the ability to grow colonies of EPCs in culture.
Alcohol Makes You Macho and Helps You Make Friends: The Role of Masculine Norms and Peer Pressure in Adolescent Boys’ and Girls’ Alcohol Use

Peer pressure and general conformity to adult norms have been found to be strongly associated with alcohol use among adolescents; however there is limited knowledge about the sociocultural factors that might influence this relationship. Theory and research suggest that masculine norms might directly and indirectly contribute to alcohol use through peer pressure and general conformity to adult norms. Whereas being male is typically identified as a risk factor for alcohol use, masculine norms provide greater specificity than sex alone in explaining why some boys drink more than others. There is growing evidence that girls who endorse masculine norms may be at heightened risk of engaging in risky behaviors including alcohol use. Data were provided by adolescents living in a rural area in the Northeastern United States and were collected in 2006. This study demonstrated that masculine norms were associated with peer pressure and general conformity and alcohol use for both adolescent girls (n = 124) and boys (n = 138), though the relationship between masculine norms and alcohol use was stronger for boys. The study's limitations are noted and theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Analysis of Z-source based DC/DC converter in CCM, DCM and BCM operations

Design of dc/dc converters depends on its analysis in different operating modes. By changing the values of elements and existing conditions, the type of operating modes is changed and may the expected results cannot achieve. Therefore, the operating mode of converter should be determined. In this paper, the comprehensive analysis of Z-source based dc/dc converter in continuous conduction mode (CCM), discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) and boundary conduction mode (BCM) are presented. The voltage and current waveforms of the converter elements are shown in DCM and the minimum value of the inductance for BCM is calculated. The maximum current and voltage stresses on power switch and also the capacitor voltage ripple are calculated. Moreover, designing of the elements is done to determine of optimal operation in CCM. Finally, the simulation results by using PSCAD/EMTDC software are presented to prove the validity of the theoretical subjects.
Isolation of Equine Herpesvirus–2 from the Lung of an Aborted Fetus

This study describes the isolation of equine herpesvirus–2 (EHV-2) from the lung of an aborted equine fetus in Argentina. The isolated virus was confirmed as EHV-2 by indirect immunofluorescence using a rabbit anti–EHV-2 polyclonal antiserum and by virus-neutralization test using an equine polyclonal antibody against EHV-2. Restriction endonuclease DNA fingerprinting with BamHI also confirmed the identity of the virus as EHV-2. Furthermore, viral nucleic acid was detected by polymerase chain reaction from the original lung sample and from the DNA obtained from cells infected with the virus isolate. This work constitutes the first reported isolation of EHV-2 from an aborted equine fetus. The presence of EHV-2 in the lung of the aborted fetus would indicate that this virus is capable of crossing the placental barrier. However, no cause–effect relationship was established between the EHV-2 isolate and the abortion.
Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinase-2, -9, and -14, Tissue Inhibitors of Metalloproteinase-1, and Matrix Proteins in Human Placenta During the First Trimester1

Abstract Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are implicated in the degradation of extracellular matrix; they play important roles in the invasion of the trophoblast cell into the maternal endometrium during placentation. Previous studies have concentrated on comparison of MMP expression in trophoblast cells between the first and third trimester. But the dynamic expression of MMPs during the first trimester has not been reported. In the present study, the expression of MMP-2, -9, and -14 (membrane-type MMP-1) and the production of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP-1 and TIMP-2) by cultured human cytotrophoblast cells from 6 to 11 wk of gestation were investigated. The cells were cultured under serum-free conditions. There was no MMP-9 secretion by the cells at Week 6, but from Week 7 to 11 the MMP-9 secretion increased gradually. Week 11 cells secreted more than 10-fold as much MMP-9 (167.7 ± 18.8 ng/ml) as Week 7 (14.7 ± 3.9 ng/ml) cultures. However, MMP-2 production declined from Week 6 to Week 11, and the production at Week 11 (32.3 ± 8.1 ng/ml) was about one sixth that at Week 6 (205.7 ± 27.2 ng/ml). The expression of mRNA transcripts for MMP-2 and MMP-9 correlated with enzyme secretion; we did not detect any MMP-9 mRNA signal in 20 μg total RNA extracted from cultured cells at Weeks 6, 7, and 8 of pregnancy, but a signal was apparent in Weeks 9 and 11. MMP-2 mRNA was expressed throughout the 6- to 11-wk period and exhibited a remarkable decline during this period. MMP-14 mRNA transcripts remained relatively stable from 6 to 11 wk. Significantly more TIMP-1 (P < 0.01) was detected in Week 9 (87.5 ± 15.0 ng/ml) and Week 11 (169.1 ± 30.2 ng/ml) media compared to Week 6 media (23.5 ± 4.8 ng/ml), but we did not detect any TIMP-2 in the media of the tested cells. This study demonstrated that first-trimester human cytotrophoblast cells were able to produce abundant laminin, fibronectin, and vitronectin. However, we did not observe detectable secretion of collagen I and collagen IV. These data indicated that human trophoblast-derived MMPs and their inhibitors are intrinsically and developmentally regulated. The same cytotrophoblast cells that produced MMPs could also secrete various substrates for these enzymes.
Droplet activation properties of organic aerosols observed at an urban site during CalNex‐LA

Size‐resolved cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) spectra and aerosol chemical composition were characterized at an urban supersite in Pasadena, California, from 15 May to 4 June 2010, during the CalNex campaign. The derived hygroscopicity (κCCN) of CCN‐active particles with diameter between 97 and 165 nm ranged from 0.05 to 0.4. Diurnal variation showed a slight decrease of κCCN from 8:00 to 16:00 (from 0.24 to 0.20), which is attributed to increasing organics volume fraction resulted from secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. The derived hygroscopicity distribution and maximum activated fraction of the size selected particles were examined as functions of photochemical age. The result indicates that condensation of secondary species (e.g., SOA and sulfate) quickly converted hydrophobic particles to hydrophilic ones, and during daytime, nearly every particle became a CCN at ~0.4% in just a few hours. Based on κCCN and aerosol chemical composition, the organic hygroscopicity (κorg) was derived, and ranged from 0.05 to 0.23 with an average value of 0.13, consistent with the results from earlier studies. The derived κorg generally increased with the organic oxidation level, and most of the variation in κorg could be explained by the variation of the organic O : C atomic ratio alone. The least squares fit of the data yielded κorg = (0.83 ± 0.06) × (O:C) + (−0.19 ± 0.02). Compared to previous results based on CCN measurements of laboratory generated aerosols, κorg derived from measurements during the CalNex campaign exhibited stronger increase with O : C atomic ratio and therefore substantially higher values for organics with average O : C greater than 0.5.
Marketing Education and Marketing Success: Are they Related?

This article reports the results of a study which investigated the relationship between long-term career success in marketing and possession of a marketing and/or MBA education. Data gathered from a sample of over 1,000 marketing practitioners led the authors to conclude that for the long-run career success of marketing students, the performance of marketing educators may be highly suspect.
The Hearsay Rule and Delayed Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse: The Law and the Evidence

This article discusses the implications of two recent High Court cases on the admissibility of hearsay evidence of a child's delayed disclosure of child sexual abuse. It compares and contrasts the traditional legal significance of delayed disclosure (as being evidence of fabrication) with prevalence studies from the psychological literature which show that a majority of children delay disclosure and that, rather than being an aberrant feature of child sexual abuse, delay is a typical response of sexually abused children as a result of confusion, denial, self-blame and overt and covert threats by offenders. In addition, several self-report studies of offenders confirm that grooming processes create a relationship of power between the child and offender such that delayed disclosure appears to reflect the position of powerlessness of the sexually abused child within that relationship. In light of what the psychological literature tells us, this article challenges the narrow legal approach to the admissibility of hearsay evidence of delayed disclosure and suggests that a special exception should be made for hearsay statements of a child's delayed disclosure in child sexual assault trials.
Unemployment in multiple sclerosis: the contribution of personality and disease

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the leading cause of neurological disability among young and middle-aged adults. One of the most devastating consequences of MS in this relatively young population group is unemployment. Although certain demographic and disease factors have been associated with employment, few studies have examined the contribution of person-specific factors, such as personality. Objective: The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which personality, demographics, and clinical measures contribute to unemployment in MS. Method: A total of 101 individuals with MS who were enrolled in a clinical trial on cognition underwent a brief neuropsychological battery and completed questionnaires related to vocation, mood, fatigue, and personality. Neurological impairment was measured with the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Results: Employment status was related with disease duration, MS subtype, level of neurological impairment, fatigue, performance on measures assessing information processing speed (Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT)), learning and memory (Selective Reminding Test), and the personality characteristic of persistence. Based on a forward logistic regression analysis, EDSS, SDMT, and persistence were the strongest predictors of employment status. Conclusions: These findings underscore the importance of personality on outcomes in MS and point to the need for more clinical attention and research in this area.
Immediate perinatal outcomes of postterm deliveries

Abstract Objective To investigate whether postterm pregnancy (≥42 0/7 weeks’ gestation) increases the risk for adverse perinatal outcome. Study design In this population based cohort study, all singleton deliveries occurring between 1991 and 2014 in a tertiary medical center were included. Pregnancy and perinatal outcomes were compared between postterm and term deliveries (37 0/7 to 41 6/7 weeks’ gestation). Preterm deliveries, unknown gestational age, congenital malformations, and multiple gestations, were excluded. The association between postterm and adverse perinatal outcomes was evaluated using a general estimation equation (GEE) multivariable analyses. Results During the study period, 226,918 deliveries were included in the analysis. Of them, 95.9% (n = 217,544) were term and 4.1% (n = 9374) were postterm. Post-term pregnancies were more likely to be complicated with oligohydramnios, macrosomia, meconium stained amniotic fluid, shoulder dystocia, low Apgar scores, and hysterectomy (p < .05 in all). Perinatal mortality rates were significantly higher at postterm as well. Using the GEE model, the association between postterm and total perinatal mortality persisted (OR = 1.73, 95%CI 1.2–2.4), as well as specifically intrauterine fetal death (OR = 1.76, 95%CI 1.1–2.7) and intrapartum death (OR = 3.71, 95%CI 1.3–10.4). Conclusions Post-term delivery involves higher rates of adverse perinatal outcomes and is independently associated with significant perinatal mortality.
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1125 Affibody Molecules for PET Imaging

Strand, J. 2015. Affibody Molecules for PET Imaging. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1125. 70 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9299-1. Optimization of Affibody molecules would allow for high contrast imaging of cancer associated surface receptors using molecular imaging. The primary aim of the thesis was to develop Affibody-based PET imaging agents to provide the highest possible sensitivity of RTK detection in vivo. The thesis evaluates the effect of radiolabelling chemistry on biodistribution and targeting properties of Affibody molecules directed against HER2 and PDGFRβ. The thesis is based on five published papers (I-V). Paper I. The targeting properties of maleimido derivatives of DOTA and NODAGA for sitespecific labelling of a recombinant HER2-binding Affibody molecule radiolabelled with Ga were compared in vivo. Favourable in vivo properties were seen for the Affibody molecule with the combination of Ga with NODAGA. Paper II. The aim was to compare the biodistribution of Gaand In-labelled HER2targeting Affibody molecules containing DOTA, NOTA and NODAGA at the N-terminus. This paper also demonstrated favourable in vivo properties for Affibody molecules in combination with Ga and NODAGA placed on the N-terminus. Paper III. The influence of chelator positioning on the synthetic anti-HER2 affibody molecule labelled with Ga was investigated. The chelator DOTA was conjugated either at the N-terminus, the middle of helix-3 or at the C-terminus of the Affibody molecules. The Nterminus placement provided the highest tumour uptake and tumour-to-organ ratios. Paper IV. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the Ga labelled PDGFRβ-targeting Affibody would provide an imaging agent suitable for PDGFRβ visualization using PET. The Ga labelled conjugate provided high-contrast imaging of PDGFRβ-expressing tumours in vivo using microPET as early as 2h after injection. Paper V. This paper investigated if the replacement of IHPEM with IPEM as a linker molecule for radioiodination of Affibody molecules would reduce renal retention of radioactivity. Results showed that the use of the more lipophilic linker IPEM reduced the renal radioactivity retention for radioiodinated Affibody molecules. In conclusion, this thesis clearly demonstrates that the labelling strategy is of great importance with a substantial influence on the targeting properties of Affibody molecules and should be taken under serious considerations when developing new imaging agents.
Clinical predictions of dangerousness: two-year follow-up of 408 pre-trial forensic cases.

The past decade has witnessed a number of serious attempts at empirically investigating the ability of mental health professionals, especially of psych iatrists, to discriminate between those individuals who will not act dangerously and those individuals who eventually will act dangerously . 1-:1 These investigations have concentrated on the assessment of patients in hospitals for the criminally insane since it is in this context mental health professionals are called on routinely to offer their opinion regarding future post-release dangerousness. Based on data arising from these studies, less-thanfavorable conclusions have been drawn regarding the accuracy of dangerousness assessments and the associated clinical skills of the predicting psychiatrists. The problem of "over-prediction" has been widely documented in the literature so that, to use Monahan's recent summary of the findings, "psychiatrists and psychologists are accurate in no more than one out of three predictions of violent behavior over a several-year period among institutionalized populations that had both committed violence in the past (and thus had high base rates for it) and who were diagnosed as mentally ill. "4 With the publication of these results has come. needless to say. a surge of criticism regarding the role of psychiatry in the courtroom, nowhere more thoroughly and persuasively argued than in the work of Ennis and Litwack. :; As convincing an argument, however, has been leveled at the interpretation of these results and the manner in which they are purported to apply to the task of clinically predicting dangerousness. Shah and, more recently, Monahan7 are very clear in their conceptions of the issue. Each maintains that the conclusions of investigations in this area that seek to discredit the clinical ability of the mental health professional to predict future dangerousness in individuals may not be altogether justified given (a) the' 'yes" versus "no" requirement of the prediction task imposed on the clinician to date in the area of dangerousness represents a far more stringent demand than does
The effect of emergency department expansion on emergency department overcrowding.

OBJECTIVES To examine the effects of emergency department (ED) expansion on ambulance diversion at an urban, academic Level 1 trauma center. METHODS This was a pre-post study performed using administrative data from the ED and hospital electronic information systems. On April 19, 2005, the adult ED expanded from 28 to 53 licensed beds. Data from a five-month pre-expansion period (November 1, 2004, to March 1, 2005) and a five-month postexpansion period (June 1, 2005, to October 31, 2005) were included for this analysis. ED and waiting room statistics as well as diversion status were obtained. Total ED length of stay (LOS) was defined as the time from patient registration to the time leaving the ED. Admission hold LOS was defined as the time from the inpatient bed request to the time leaving the ED for admitted patients. Mean differences (95% confidence interval [CI]) in total time spent on ambulance diversion per month, diversion episodes per month, and duration per diversion episode were calculated. An accelerated failure time model was performed to test if ED expansion was associated with a reduction in ambulance diversion while adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS From pre-expansion to postexpansion, daily patient volume increased but ED occupancy decreased. There was no significant change in the time spent on ambulance diversion per month (mean difference, 10.9 hours; 95% CI = -74.0 to 95.8), ambulance diversion episodes per month (two episodes per month; 95% CI = -4.2 to 8.2), and duration of ambulance diversion per episode (0.3 hours; 95% CI = -4.0 to 3.5). Mean (+/-SD) total LOS increased from 4.6 (+/-1.9) to 5.6(+/-2.3) hours, and mean (+/-SD) admission hold LOS also increased from 3.0 (+/-0.2) to 4.1 (+/-0.2) hours. The proportion of patients who left without being seen was 3.5% and 2.7% (p = 0.06) in the pre-expansion and postexpansion periods, respectively. In the accelerated failure time model, ED expansion did not affect the time to the next ambulance diversion episode. CONCLUSIONS An increase in ED bed capacity did not affect ambulance diversion. Instead, total and admission hold LOS increased. As a result, ED expansion appears to be an insufficient solution to improve diversion without addressing other bottlenecks in the hospital.
Vagal tone and the physiological regulation of emotion.

On the basis of current knowledge of neuroanatomy and our previous research with cardiac vagal tone, we have proposed the vagal circuit of emotion regulation. The vagal circuit of emotion regulation incorporates lateral brain function with the regulation of the peripheral autonomic nervous system in the expression of emotion. The vagus and the vagal circuit do not function independently of other neurophysiological and neuroendocrine systems. Research on brain activity (see Dawson, in this volume; Fox, in this volume) and research on adrenocortical activity (see Stansbury & Gunnar, in this volume) demonstrate that EEG and cortisol are related to emotion states and to individual differences similar to those that we have investigated. The vagal circuit emphasizes not only the vagus but also the lateralization of specific brain structures in emotion regulation. The emphasis of the vagal circuit on right-brain-stem structures stimulates several testable hypotheses regarding the function of specific structures in the right brain in emotion regulation. These speculations are consistent with other reports (see Dawson, in this volume; Fox, in this volume) describing asymmetrical EEG activity during expressed emotions. Moreover, the vagal circuit does not exist independently of the brain structures and peptide systems regulating cortisol (see Stansbury & Gunnar, in this volume). Areas in the brain stem regulating vagal activity are also sensitive to the peptides that regulate cortisol (e.g., vasopressin and corticotropin-releasing hormone). In this essay, we have provided information regarding the relation between vagal tone and emotion regulation. A review of research indicates that baseline levels of cardiac vagal tone and vagal tone reactivity abilities are associated with behavioral measures of reactivity, the expression of emotion, and self-regulation skills. Thus, we propose that cardiac vagal tone can serve as an index of emotion regulation. Historically, the vagus and other components of the parasympathetic nervous system have not been incorporated in theories of emotion. Recent developments in methodology have enabled us to define and accurately quantify cardiac vagal tone. Theories relating the parasympathetic nervous system to the expression and regulation of emotion are now being tested in several laboratories.