Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Developmental Origins of Insulin Resistance

Until recently, the principal causes of degenerative disease were thought to act in adult life and to accelerate destructive processes, such as the formation of atheroma and rise in blood pressure. Recent observations that people who develop coronary heart disease grow differently to other people during fetal life and childhood have, however, led to a new ‘developmental’ model for the disease. Low birthweight has been shown to be associated with increased rates of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and altered glucose tolerance. These associations with low birthweight extend across the normal range of birthweight and reflect slow fetal growth rather than premature birth. The associations are thought to be consequences of developmental plasticity, the phenomenon by which one genotype can give rise to a range of different physiological or morphological states in response to different environmental conditions during development. Recent observations suggest that low birthweight, thinness at 2 years of age and an increase in body mass index (BMI) after the age of 2 years are each associated with the development of insulin resistance in later life. The prevention of a substantial proportion of type 2 diabetes and other disorders linked to insulin resistance may, therefore, depend on interventions during development. These include protecting the growth of babies during the first 2 years after birth by good infant feeding practices and preventing a rapid increase in BMI after the age of 2 years. Improving fetal nutrition remains an important long-term goal.
TWEAK Induces Apoptosis through a Death-signaling Complex Comprising Receptor-interacting Protein 1 (RIP1), Fas-associated Death Domain (FADD), and Caspase-8

The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily member TNF-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TNFSF12, CD255) (TWEAK) can stimulate apoptosis in certain cancer cells. Previous studies suggest that TWEAK activates cell death indirectly, by inducing TNFα-mediated autocrine signals. However, the underlying death-signaling mechanism has not been directly defined. Consistent with earlier work, TWEAK assembled a proximal signaling complex containing its cognate receptor FN14, the adaptor TRAF2, and cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 (cIAP1). Neither the death domain adaptor Fas-associated death domain nor the apoptosis-initiating protease caspase-8 associated with this primary complex. Rather, TWEAK induced TNFα secretion and TNF receptor 1-dependent assembly of a death-signaling complex containing receptor-interacting protein 1 (RIP1), FADD, and caspase-8. Knockdown of RIP1 by siRNA prevented TWEAK-induced association of FADD with caspase-8 but not formation of the FN14-TRAF2-cIAP1 complex and inhibited apoptosis activation. Depletion of the RIP1 E3 ubiquitin ligase cIAP1 enhanced assembly of the RIP1-FADD-caspase-8 complex and augmented cell death. Conversely, knockdown of the RIP1 deubiquitinase CYLD inhibited these functions. Depletion of FADD, caspase-8, BID, or BAX and BAK but not RIP3 attenuated TWEAK-induced cell death. Pharmacologic inhibition of the NF-κB pathway or siRNA knockdown of RelA attenuated TWEAK induction of TNFα and association of RIP1 with FADD and caspase-8. These results suggest that TWEAK triggers apoptosis by promoting assembly of a RIP1-FADD-caspse-8 complex via autocrine TNFα-TNFR1 signaling. The proapoptotic activity of TWEAK is modulated by cIAP1 and CYLD and engages both the extrinsic and intrinsic signaling pathways.
Effects of Emotional Discrimination Tasks on Cerebral Blood Flow: Regional Activation and Its Relation to Performance

Facial discrimination tasks were applied as activation probes during physiologic neuroimaging ("neurobehavioral probes"). The stimuli pictured professional actors and actresses, posing degrees of happy and sad emotion. Cortical cerebral blood flow (CBF) was determined using the 133Xenon inhalation method during resting baseline, two emotional (happy from neutral and sad from neutral faces) and one nonemotional discrimination task (age). The three tasks produced CBF increase over baseline, which was greater in the right hemisphere (Task x Hemisphere interaction, p = .0001). There were regionally specific effects (Task x Region x Hemisphere interaction, p = .022). Relative to the age discrimination task, both emotion discrimination tasks were associated with greater right parietal activation. In addition, the happy discrimination task induced greater left frontal activation relative to the sad discrimination task. While overall magnitude of CBF increase did not show regionally specific correlations with performance, laterality did show such specificity. Sad discrimination performance correlated with greater right parietal activation, while performance on the happy discrimination task correlated with left frontal activation. Age discrimination performance correlated with higher activated right temporal CBF. These results support the hypothesis of right hemispheric involvement in facial processing and further suggest regionally specific hemispheric participation in happy and sad emotional discrimination. The study underscores the utility of performance measures for understanding the behavioral significance of activation effects in physiologic neuroimaging studies.
Output Voltage Control of A Four-Leg Inverter Based Three-Phase UPS by Means of Stationary Frame Resonant Filter Banks

A method for high performance output voltage control of a four-leg inverter (FLI) based three-phase UPS is proposed. Stationary frame resonant filter bank based output voltage control loop, which is complemented by capacitor current feedback based active damping loop, is employed. Utilizing the zero-state partitioning variable, a generalized form of scalar PWM for the FLI is developed and the minimum loss discontinuous PWM method is derived. The controller and modulator design and implementation details for the FLI-UPS are given. Linear and nonlinear loads for balanced and unbalanced load operating conditions are considered. The scalar control and PWM methods are proven by means of theory, simulations, and experiments.
Self-mutilation and suicidal behaviour in Sami and Norwegian adolescents: prevalence and correlates

Abstract Objectives. To study the prevalence and psychosocial and ethnocultural correlates of selfmutilation and/or suicidal behaviour in Indigenous Sami and majority Norwegian adolescents in north Norway. Study design. A cross-sectional questionnaire study. Methods. A total of 487 students, aged 13–16 years in 21 junior high schools and 247 parents participated in this school based questionnaire study conducted in 1990 in Finnmark, the county in Norway with the highest suicide rates. Sociodemographics, substance use, thriving at school, ethnocultural factors such as ethnic context, ethnic identity, ethnic language competence and ethnic parentage, self-reported as well as parent-reported behavioural/emotional problems were assessed. Results. Self-mutilation and/or suicidal attempts within the last 6 months were reported by 12.5% of the adolescents and 14.8% reported having suicidal thoughts. In univariate analyses, significant gender differences occurred for both ethnic groups, with more girls reporting selfmutilation and suicidal behaviour. However, in logistic regression analyses adjusting for all other significant variables, the gender difference disappeared. No significant ethnic differences occurred in prevalence. Although factors associated with self-mutilation and suicidal behaviour varied between Sami and Norwegian adolescents, self-reported anxiety/depression was a strong and significant correlate to both self-mutilation/suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts in both ethnic groups. Parents reported less emotional/behavioural problems associated with self-mutilation and/or suicidal behaviour than the adolescents did. Ethnic identification in Sami and ethnic context in Norwegian adolescents occurred in independent analyses as significantly related to self-mutilation and/or suicidal behaviour, but turned insignificant when adjusting for all other significant variables. Conclusions. In contrast to several other Indigenous groups the prevalence of self-mutilation and/or suicidal behaviour did not differ between Sami and Norwegian adolescents. In both ethnic groups, the effect of ethnocultural factors disappeared when controlled for other variables such as anxiety/depression. Across both ethnic groups, anxiety and depression problems occurred as a common and significant correlate for self-mutilation and suicidal behaviour.
Managing diabetes during pregnancy. Guide for family physicians.

OBJECTIVE To provide a guide family physicians can use to interpret current evidence on treating women with pregestational and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and to develop a model for managing these patients. QUALITY OF EVIDENCE A MEDLINE search from January 1980 to December 2002 found randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and descriptive studies that had conflicting results regarding screening recommendations. Studies of intensive insulin therapy were predominantly large RCTs (level I evidence). Glycemic targets and guidelines for monitoring pregnant women are based primarily on consensus statements from large national societies. MAIN MESSAGE Most pregnant women should be screened for GDM. Good glycemic control during pregnancy reduces congenital anomalies and stillbirths. Women failing to meet glycemic targets should be referred to multidisciplinary teams and considered for insulin therapy. Intensive insulin therapy reduces the risk of macrosomia and might reduce cesarean section rates and other serious outcomes. CONCLUSION Despite controversy, family physicians can follow a plan for managing diabetic patients during pregnancy that is supported by the best available evidence.
Exchange Rate Movements and Fundamentals: Impact of Oil Prices and China's Growth

This paper identifies five factors that can capture 95% of the variance across 39 US dollar exchange rates based on the principal component method. A time-varying parameter factor-augmented vector autoregressive (TVP-FAVAR) model is used to analyze the determinants of movements in these exchange rates, revealing that impact of global oil prices and Chinai¯s growth has increased significantly since 2008. In particular, shocks to these two fundamentals drive the movements of both commodity and non-commodity currencies recently. The impact of monetary policy shocks on the currency pairs is comparatively small.
Characteristics of pica practice during pregnancy in a sample of Argentine women

The purpose of this study was to describe the practice of pica during pregnancy in Argentine women. Maternal and fetal characteristics as well as the practice of pica were evaluated during the puerperium in a sample of 1,014 women from five different geographical areas. Pica prevalence for the total sample was 23.2% (95% CI 20.6–25.8). Pagophagia (ice consumption) was the main type of pica practice, followed by geophagia (earth intake) and the ingestion of soap, toothpaste and chalk. The onset of the practice was mainly in the first months of pregnancy. A total of 49.8% of women revealed a family history of pica; 30.6% had pica in childhood and 13.2% suffered from polypica. Women with pica during pregnancy had similar age, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), parity, neonatal birth weight and gestational age compared with non-pica mothers, although maternal haemoglobin concentration was lower in women with pica than in non-pica mothers (p = 0.0001).
Frequency, Proliferation, and Activation of Human Memory T Cells Induced by a Nonhuman Adenovirus

ABSTRACT Multiple human adenovirus (HAd) infections during childhood generate a memory T-cell (TM) response, which is the primary defense against HAd-induced morbidity. This cellular memory creates a conundrum for the potential clinical use of HAd-derived vectors: vector-mediated gene transfer is efficient in immunologically naïve mammals but will be compromised by memory immunity when using vectors derived from ubiquitous human pathogens. The potential lack of cellular and humoral memory is one reason we developed vectors from canine adenovirus serotype 2 (CAV-2). Here, we assayed human peripheral blood mononuclear cells for a TM response that could be stimulated by CAV-2 virion and individual capsid proteins. We found that less than half of the donors harbored a proliferating TM response directed against the CAV-2 virion (versus >85% against HAd5) in spite of a conserved antigenic Adenoviridae epitope in the CAV-2 hexon. When CAV-2 induced proliferation, it was 2.3- to >10-fold lower than HAd5 depending on the assay. The primary proliferating cells appeared to be memory (CD45RO+) CD4+ lymphocytes, differentiated into Th1 gamma interferon-producing cells, with a frequency that was up to 66-fold lower than that obtained for HAd5. We also compared CAV-2 to prototype HAd from five of the six human species and found that CAV-2-induced cellular proliferation was similar to that found with rare HAd serotypes. Individual CAV-2 capsid proteins also induced less proliferation than their HAd5 homologues. Our data suggest that CAV-2 vectors may be safer (i.e., less immunogenic) for gene transfer but are not without a theoretical risk in a subset of potential patients.
LM cointegration tests allowing for an unknown number of breaks: implications for the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis

ABSTRACT This article extends the Lagrange multiplier (LM) cointegration test proposed by Westerlund and Edgerton (WE 2007) by allowing for an unknown number of breaks. Monte Carlo simulations provide two main results. First, a loss of power in the LM cointegration tests is detected when potential multiple breaks are ignored. Second, the modified testing procedures do not affect the asymptotic distribution and major properties of the tests of WE under the null, but noticeably increase their testing power in presence of multiple breaks. We also provide empirical applications of the proposed tests for the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis (FRUH). The results reveal that the FRUH does hold when the effects of the multiple structural breaks are taken into account.
Estimates of the magnitudes of major marine mass extinctions in earth history

Significance This paper shows that background extinction definitely preceded mass extinctions; introduces a mathematical method for estimating the amount of this background extinction and, by subtracting it from total extinction, correcting estimates of losses in mass extinctions; presents a method for estimating the amount of erroneous backward smearing of extinctions from mass extinction intervals; and introduces a method for calculating species losses in a mass extinction that takes into account clustering of losses. It concludes that the great terminal Permian crisis eliminated only about 81% of marine species, not the frequently quoted 90–96%. Life did not almost disappear at the end of the Permian, as has often been asserted. Procedures introduced here make it possible, first, to show that background (piecemeal) extinction is recorded throughout geologic stages and substages (not all extinction has occurred suddenly at the ends of such intervals); second, to separate out background extinction from mass extinction for a major crisis in earth history; and third, to correct for clustering of extinctions when using the rarefaction method to estimate the percentage of species lost in a mass extinction. Also presented here is a method for estimating the magnitude of the Signor–Lipps effect, which is the incorrect assignment of extinctions that occurred during a crisis to an interval preceding the crisis because of the incompleteness of the fossil record. Estimates for the magnitudes of mass extinctions presented here are in most cases lower than those previously published. They indicate that only ∼81% of marine species died out in the great terminal Permian crisis, whereas levels of 90–96% have frequently been quoted in the literature. Calculations of the latter numbers were incorrectly based on combined data for the Middle and Late Permian mass extinctions. About 90 orders and more than 220 families of marine animals survived the terminal Permian crisis, and they embodied an enormous amount of morphological, physiological, and ecological diversity. Life did not nearly disappear at the end of the Permian, as has often been claimed.
Multiple myeloma related cells in patients undergoing autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

A high incidence of oligoclonal serum M‐components is observed in multiple myeloma (MM) patients treated with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). To determine whether these M‐components are produced by myeloma clonally related cells or caused by an aberrant B‐cell regeneration we analysed by semi‐nested ASO‐RT‐PCR and DNA sequencing the immunoglobulin (Ig) variable genes (VH) obtained from bone marrow samples obtained before and after transplantation and peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) samples from seven patients.
Effects of Green HRM Practices on Employee Workplace Green Behavior: The Role of Psychological Green Climate and Employee Green Values

As an emerging concept, green human resource management (green HRM) has been conceptualized to influence employee workplace green behavior. This research empirically tested this link. We first developed measures for green HRM, and then drew on the behavioral HRM and psychological climate literature along with the supplies-values fit theory, to test a conceptual model integrating the effects of psychological green climate and individual green values. Results revealed that green HRM both directly and indirectly influenced in-role green behavior, but only indirectly influenced extra-role green behavior, through the mediation of psychological green climate. Individual green values moderated the effect of psychological green climate on extra-role green behavior, but it did not moderate the effect of either green HRM or psychological green climate on in-role green behavior. These findings indicate that green HRM affects both employee in-role and extra-role workplace green behavior; however, this occurs through different social and psychological processes. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Contraceptive security in Paraguay: assessing strengths and weaknesses March 8-19 2004.

The results of the contraceptive security (CS) assessment conducted in Paraguay in March 2004 show that although there are still many challenges to be faced the Paraguayan government is well-positioned to achieve contraceptive security. One of the key challenges has been the changing political climate for family planning (FP) since the public health system started providing FP services in the 1970s. Fortunately today the political environment and commitment to family planning are strong among national leaders and Paraguay has completed many “firsts” on the path to contraceptive security. In 2003 President Nicanor Duarte Frutos took office and under his administration political support for family planning has continued. The new Minister of Health approved the National Plan for Sexual and Reproductive Health for 2003–2008 which clearly identifies family planning as a priority. (excerpt)
The Social Status-Enhancing Power of Social Ties

This paper shows that social variables capturing individuals’ sociability as well as strength of their social ties play an important role in affecting where individuals locate themselves in the social ladder, also when their objective location within society is taken into account. Using data from the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) covering the period 2006-2012, we assess individuals’ social ties and sociability through the number and quality of their friendships as well as a set of variables capturing their attitude towards others (loneliness, cynical hostility, social cohesion, discrimination and reciprocity). We find subjective social status to correlate positively with reciprocity and negatively with discrimination. Next, individuals that are more satisfied with their life seem disconnected from objective elements when subjectively evaluating their social status.
Development and Validation of the Satisfaction with Pharmacist Scale

To assess patients' satisfaction with pharmacists, seven questions were developed with semistructured input from 5 pharmacy practice faculty members and 11 patients with cancer. The study identified 1617 English‐ and Spanish‐speaking patients with cancer or human immunodeficiency virus infection or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome who participated in a multisite validation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale. Of these, 1124 had seen a pharmacist in the past 7 days and therefore were eligible; 608 spoke English and 516 Spanish. The seven items on the Satisfaction with Pharmacist (SWiP) scale were rated on a five‐point Likert scale (0 = not at all to 4 = very much). The reliability of the English and Spanish versions was evaluated by Cronbach's α coefficients. The unidimensionality and construct validity were analyzed with the Rasch rating scale model. The α coefficients for the English and Spanish versions were 0.90 and 0.92, respectively. Rasch analyses of item responses showed that none of the items in either language was a misfit, which supported their ability to measure a unidimensional construct. Item difficulty plots revealed that no item exhibited differential functioning, indicating that the items performed the same in both languages. The SWiP scale has reliable and valid psychometric properties in English and Spanish and can be used to document the value of the pharmacist‐patient relationship. It is easy to administer and is ready for further use and evaluation to determine and document outcomes of pharmaceutical care.
Human Capital Spillovers, Productivity and Regional Convergence in Spain

This paper analyses the differential impact of human capital, in terms of different levels of schooling, on regional productivity and convergence. The potential existence of geographical spillovers of human capital is also considered by applying spatial panel data techniques. The empirical analysis of Spanish provinces between 1980 and 2007 confirms the positive impact of human capital on regional productivity and convergence, but reveals no evidence of any positive geographical spillovers of human capital. In fact, in some specifications the spatial lag presented by tertiary studies has a negative effect on the variables under consideration.