Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Religious Views on Suicide Among the Baganda, Uganda: A Qualitative Study

Relatively little research has been conducted on religion and suicide in Africa, yet religion has a lot of influence on people's way of life in Africa. To study religious views on suicide among the Baganda, Uganda, we used grounded theory and discourse analysis on a total of 28 focus groups and 30 key informant interviews. Suicide is largely seen as a breach of God's doctrine life is sacred, God's commandment thou shall not kill, and God's rule of agape. The study also focuses on the consequences of breaching God's divine providence: punishment from God and the Church. Religion still has a lot of influence on people's views on suicide in Uganda despite the challenges highlighted in the study. A recommendation from these results is that suicide prevention should cater to divergent views on religion and suicide. More qualitative research should be conducted in this area to facilitate theoretical comparison with this study.
Semi-supervised condensed nearest neighbor for part-of-speech tagging

This paper introduces a new training set condensation technique designed for mixtures of labeled and unlabeled data. It finds a condensed set of labeled and unlabeled data points, typically smaller than what is obtained using condensed nearest neighbor on the labeled data only, and improves classification accuracy. We evaluate the algorithm on semi-supervised part-of-speech tagging and present the best published result on the Wall Street Journal data set.
The effects of breads containing similar amounts of phytate but different amounts of wheat bran on calcium, zinc and iron balance in man

1. The capacity of wheat bran to impair mineral absorption independent of its phytate content was studied by metabolic balance studies in man. 2. Three breads were prepared, equivalent to white, brown and wholemeal, by adding bran in different quantities to white flour. Calcium, iron, zinc and sodium phytate were added to the loaves to make the amounts equal in all breads. 3. Six healthy volunteers were studied for three consecutive 24-d-periods during which they ate a controlled diet, typical of that normally consumed in the UK but with 200 g bread/d. Only the type of bread changed between each dietary period. 4. The phytate contents (mmol) of 200 g of each of the breads after baking were: white 2·3, brown 2·1 and wholemeal 2·2; non-starch polysaccharide contents (9) were: white 3·3, brown 10·9 and wholemeal 18·7 5 . The increased amount of bran in the breads increased stool output in the expected way but no change was seen in Ca, Zn and Fe balance. Blood levels of these minerals remained unchanged. 6. It is concluded that wheat bran and, in particular, the cell-wall polysaccharides of bran, are unlikely to exert a significant effect on mineral absorption in man, in amounts customarily eaten, independently of the effect of phytate present in the bran.
A Role for Perforin in Downregulating T-Cell Responses during Chronic Viral Infection

ABSTRACT Cytotoxic T cells secrete perforin to kill virus-infected cells. In this study we show that perforin also plays a role in immune regulation. Perforin-deficient (perf −/−) mice chronically infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) contained greater numbers of antiviral T cells compared to persistently infected +/+ mice. The enhanced expansion was seen in both CD4 and CD8 T cells, but the most striking difference was in the numbers of LCMV-specific CD8 T cells present in infected perf −/− mice. Persistent LCMV infection of +/+ mice results in both deletion and anergy of antigen-specific CD8 T cells, and our results show that this peripheral “exhaustion” of activated CD8 T cells occurred less efficiently in perf −/− mice. This excessive accumulation of activated CD8 T cells resulted in immune-mediated damage in persistently infected perf −/− mice; ∼50% of these mice died within 2 to 4 weeks, and mortality was fully reversed by in vivo depletion of CD8 T cells. This finding highlights an interesting dichotomy between the role of perforin in viral clearance and immunopathology; perforin-deficient CD8 T cells were unable to clear the LCMV infection but were capable of causing immune-mediated damage. Finally, this study shows that perforin also plays a role in regulating T-cell-mediated autoimmunity. Mice that were deficient in both perforin and Fas exhibited a striking acceleration of the spontaneous lymphoproliferative disease seen in Fas-deficient (lpr) mice. Taken together, these results show that the perforin-mediated pathway is involved in downregulating T-cell responses during chronic viral infection and autoimmunity and that perforin and Fas act independently as negative regulators of activated T cells.
A novel role for placental leucine aminopeptidase (P‐LAP) as a determinant of chemoresistance in endometrial carcinoma cells

In several recent studies, we have shown that P‐LAP can be a poor prognostic factor and a factor of chemoresistance in endometrial carcinoma, especially in the advanced patients. In our study, we investigated whether P‐LAP alters the expression of apoptosis regulatory proteins as a mechanism of drug resistance. We transfected P‐LAP cDNA into A‐MEC cells (endometrial adenocarcinoma cell line), and A‐MEC‐LAP cells displayed a 1.8‐fold, 2.0‐fold and 1.7‐fold increase in IC50 against paclitaxel, carboplatin and cisplatin respectively. Translational downregulation by siRNA2 to P‐LAP on A‐MEC‐LAP cells demonstrated 60%, 51% and 58% decrease in IC50. To investigate the mechanism of P‐LAP‐induced chemoresistance, we also assessed whether P‐LAP transfection had an effect on carboplatin‐induced apoptotic death of A‐MEC cells. A‐MEC and A‐MEC‐pc (transfected with vector alone) cells exhibited a strong apoptotic response to carboplatin, while A‐MEC‐LAP cells exhibited a weak apoptotic response. In an attempt to identify the mechanism of the inhibitory effect on apoptotic response to carboplatin, we next assessed the expression of cleaved caspases and PARP cleavage. While treatment of A‐MEC‐pc cells with carboplatin exhibited increased levels of cleaved caspase 3, caspase 7 and caspase 9 compared to that after no treatment, A‐MEC‐LAP cells did not show any expression of these caspases. These results suggest that P‐LAP reduces sensitivity to anticancer drugs via inhibition of mitochondria‐mediated apoptosis, and may be a molecular target for conquering anticancer drug resistance. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The numeric indexing for music data

The management of large collections of music data in a multimedia database has received much attention in the past few years. In most current work, researchers extract features from the music data and develop indices that will help to retrieve the relevant music quickly. Several reports have pointed out that these features of music can be transformed and represented in the form of music feature strings. However, these approaches lack scalability upon increasing music data. In this paper we propose an approach to transform music data into numeric forms and develop an index structure base on the R-tree for effective retrieval. The experimental results show that our approach outperforms existing string index approaches.
Population structure of an endangered species living in contrasted habitats: Parnassia palustris (Saxifragaceae)

In endangered species, it is critical to analyse the level at which populations interact (i.e. dispersal) as well as the levels of inbreeding and local adaptation to set up conservation policies. These parameters were investigated in the endangered species Parnassia palustris living in contrasted habitats. We analysed population structure in 14 populations of northern France for isozymes, cpDNA markers and phenotypic traits related to fitness. Within population genetic diversity and inbreeding coefficients were not correlated to population size. Populations seem not to have undergone severe recent bottleneck. Conversely to pollen migration, seed migration seems limited at a regional scale, which could prevent colonization of new sites even if suitable habitats appear. Finally, the habitat type affects neither within‐population genetic diversity nor genetic and phenotypic differentiation among populations. Thus, even if unnoticed local adaptation to habitats exists, it does not influence gene flow between populations.
Outcomes of Revision Perineoplasty for Persistent Postpartum Dyspareunia

Objective: To determine outcomes of revision perineoplasty for women with persistent pain and anatomic distortion of the perineum following obstetric perineal laceration repair. Methods: A prospective cohort study of 9 women who underwent revision perineoplasty for persistent dyspareunia and perineal scarring was performed. Symptoms of perineal pain, coital activity, dyspareunia, impact on self-esteem, and vaginal scarring were compared. Statistical analysis was performed using paired t-tests. Results: All women had anatomic distortion of the perineum prior to surgical revision. Postoperatively, no woman had persistent scarring or granulation tissue. There was a significant decline in perineal pain from 6.1 ± 2.89 to 0.5 ± 1.13 (P = 0.02) and 89% of subjects reported an increase in coital frequency and satisfaction (P = 0.0002). An improvement in self-esteem and lifestyle were reported by 77% and 89%, respectively. Conclusion: In women with dyspareunia and perineal defects following perineal laceration repair, early consideration should be made for revision perineoplasty as a significant impact is noted on sexual function and quality of life.
Caspase-8 Activation and Bid Cleavage Contribute to MCF7 Cellular Execution in a Caspase-3-dependent Manner during Staurosporine-mediated Apoptosis*

There are at least two distinct classes of caspases, initiators (e.g. caspases-8, -9, and -10) and effectors (e.g. caspase-3). Furthermore, it is believed that there are two distinct primary apoptotic signaling pathways, one of which is mediated by death receptors controlled by caspases-8/10, and the other by the release of cytochrome c and activation of a caspase-9/Apaf1/cytochrome c apoptosome. However, several recent reports have demonstrated that caspase-8, and its substrate Bid, are frequently activated in response to certain apoptotic stimuli in a death receptor-independent manner. These results suggest that significant cross-talk may exist between these two distinct signaling arms, allowing each to take advantage of elements unique to the other. Here we provide evidence that activation of caspase-8, and subsequent Bid cleavage, does indeed participate in cytochrome c-mediated apoptosis, at least in certain circumstances and cell types. Furthermore, the participation of activated caspase-3 is essential for activation of caspase-8 and Bid processing to occur. Although caspase-8 activation is not required for the execution of a cytochrome c-mediated death signal, we found that it greatly shortens the execution time. Thus, caspase-8 involvement in cytochrome c-mediated cell death may help to amplify weaker death signals and ensure that apoptosis occurs within a certain time frame.
Superimposed lateralized exanthem of childhood: report of a case related to adenovirus infection

A 6‐year‐old boy developed a unilateral itchy rash, which was followed by a less severe bilateral involvement. The lesions resolved spontaneously within 4 weeks. Apparently, the rash was triggered by an adenovirus infection of the respiratory tract. Terms used currently for this disorder include ‘unilateral laterothoracic exanthem’ or ‘asymmetrical periflexural exanthem of childhood’. The recently proposed term ‘superimposed lateralized exanthem of childhood’ implies the new concept that an early postzygotic mutation has rendered the skin on one side of the body more reactive to infective agents. The subsequent bilateral involvement would reflect a less severe reactivity of the contralateral keratinocytes.
Prevalence, characteristics, and associated health and health care of family homelessness among fifth-grade students.

OBJECTIVES We describe the lifetime prevalence and associated health-related concerns of family homelessness among fifth-grade students. METHODS We used a population-based, cross-sectional survey of 5147 fifth-grade students in 3 US cities to analyze parent-reported measures of family homelessness, child health status, health care access and use, and emotional, developmental, and behavioral health and child-reported measures of health-related quality of life and exposure to violence. RESULTS Seven percent of parents reported that they and their child had experienced homelessness (i.e., staying in shelters, cars, or on the street). Black children and children in the poorest families had the highest prevalence of homelessness (11%). In adjusted analyses, most general health measures were similar for children who had and had not been homeless. Children who had ever experienced homelessness were more likely to have an emotional, behavioral, or developmental problem (odds ratio [OR] = 1.7; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1, 2.6; P = .01), to have received mental health care (OR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.6, 3.2; P < .001), and to have witnessed serious violence with a knife (OR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.1, 2.3; P = .007) than were children who were never homeless. CONCLUSIONS Family homelessness affects a substantial minority of fifth-grade children and may have an impact on their emotional, developmental, and behavioral health.
An attempt to acquire traffic density by using road traffic sound

This paper proposed a method for automatically estimating traffic density by using sounds of moving vehicles. The approach is based on the idea of recognition of the temporal variations that appear inn the power signals when vehicles pass through an observation point. The local temporal variations in small periods of time are extracted by wavelet transformation and are used as an observation sequence for a hidden Markov model, which models the global temporal variations of the power signal The passages of vehicles are detected based on the state transitions of the HMM. The occlusion problem due to the overlapping of the sounds of moving vehicles are dealt with by corresponding two set of information from a stereo microphone. Experimental results show that with some restrictions, the passages of vehicles able to be detected from road traffic sounds in good accuracy.
Assembly and Cell Surface Expression of Heteromeric and Homomeric -Aminobutyric Acid Type A Receptors (*)

The ability of differing subunit combinations of -aminobutyric acid type A (GABA) receptors produced from murine α1, β2, and 2L subunits to form functional cell surface receptors was analyzed in both A293 cells and Xenopus oocytes using a combination of molecular, electrophysiological, biochemical, and morphological approaches. The results revealed that GABA receptor assembly occurred within the endoplasmic reticulum and involved the interaction with the chaperone molecules immunoglobulin heavy chain binding protein and calnexin. Despite all three subunits possessing the ability to oligomerize with each other, only α1β2 and α1β22L subunit combinations could produce functional surface expression in a process that was not dependent on N-linked glycosylation. Single subunits and the α12L and β22L combinations were retained within the endoplasmic reticulum. These results suggest that receptor assembly occurs by defined pathways, which may serve to limit the diversity of GABA receptors that exist on the surface of neurons.
Reducing the run-time complexity of multiobjective EAs: The NSGA-II and other algorithms

The last decade has seen a surge of research activity on multiobjective optimization using evolutionary computation and a number of well performing algorithms have been published. The majority of these algorithms use fitness assignment based on Pareto-domination: Nondominated sorting, dominance counting, or identification of the nondominated solutions. The success of these algorithms indicates that this type of fitness is suitable for multiobjective problems, but so far the use of Pareto-based fitness has lead to program run times in O(GMN/sup 2/), where G is the number of generations, M is the number of objectives, and N is the population size. The N/sup 2/ factor should be reduced if possible, since it leads to long processing times for large population sizes. This paper presents a new and efficient algorithm for nondominated sorting, which can speed up the processing time of some multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) substantially. The new algorithm is incorporated into the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) and reduces the overall run-time complexity of this algorithm to O(GN log/sup M-1/N), much faster than the O(GMN/sup 2/) complexity published by Deb et al. (2002). Experiments demonstrate that the improved version of the algorithm is indeed much faster than the previous one. The paper also points out that multiobjective EAs using fitness based on dominance counting and identification of nondominated solutions can be improved significantly in terms of running time by using efficient algorithms known from computer science instead of inefficient O(MN/sup 2/) algorithms.
Extracellular ATP induces retinal photoreceptor apoptosis through activation of purinoceptors in rodents

We have previously demonstrated that photoreceptors express P2X7 purinoceptors. These excitatory receptors are activated by extracellular adenosine 5′‐triphosphate (ATP) and have been implicated in neurodegeneration in other parts of the central nervous system (CNS). In this study we examined whether extracellular ATP could contribute to photoreceptor degeneration in rodents through excessive activation of P2 purinoceptors. Intravitreal injection of high concentrations of extracellular ATP into normal rat eyes induced extensive and selective apoptosis of photoreceptors within 18 hours of injection. Five days after injection the outer nuclear layer was severely degenerated and electroretinographic responses were impaired. Preinjection of the purinergic antagonist pyridoxal‐phosphate‐6‐azophenyl‐2′,4′‐disulfonic acid (PPADS) protected against ATP‐mediated apoptosis. The initial phase of ATP‐induced photoreceptor death did not temporally coincide with retinal pigment epithelium degeneration or microglial activation, suggesting that cell death was due to direct activation of purinergic receptors on photoreceptors. Finally, we demonstrate that intravitreal injection of PPADS results in a 30% increase in photoreceptor survival in the rd1 mouse, a model of human recessive retinitis pigmentosa (RP). These findings highlight the importance of extracellular ATP in retinal neurodegeneration and provide a potential new avenue for therapeutic intervention in RP. J. Comp. Neurol. 513:430–440, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Obstetrical trauma to the genital tract following vaginal delivery.

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency, types and complications of genital tract trauma during child birth. STUDY DESIGN Case series. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Unit I, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, from June 2006 to May 2010. METHODOLOGY All women who sustained genital tract trauma during delivery at the study centre and those referred from periphery with the same condition within 40 days of delivery were enrolled in the study. Exclusion criteria were women who sustained genital tract injury with caesarean section and genital tract trauma due to accident. Studied variables included age of women, parity, place of labour, type of trauma received and its immediate complications. The data was expressed in terms of descriptive statistics. RESULTS Out of a total 9216 cases admitted in maternity ward during the study period, 467 cases (5.06%) had sustained genital tract trauma. The most frequent obstetrical trauma seen in primiparous referral cases were vaginal tears in 16 cases (25.39%) and perineal tears in 12 cases (19.04%). Multiparous women were 196 (41.97%) and cervical tears were the most frequent obstetrical trauma in them (n=52, 26.53%). Grand multiparous women were 208 having cervical tears (44.4%) and uterine rupture in 77 cases (37.01%) each. Most frequent early morbidities were postpartum haemorrhage (n= 352, 75.37%), hypovolemic shock (n= 220, 47.10%) and infection (n=158, 33.83%). The mortality rate was 16.05%. CONCLUSION Genital tract trauma is a common complication of vaginal birth mostly seen in grand multipara, leading to haemorrhage, shock and infection.
Estrategias de establecimiento, crecimiento y tolerancia a la sombra en un bosque caducifolio maduro de la Cornisa Cantábrica

La coexistencia de especies de arboles en un bosque maduro esta influida por la diferenciacion en el nicho de regeneracion y de la respuesta diferencial de los juveniles al gradiente de luminosidad del sotobosque. Las diferencias expresadas durante el estado adulto pueden tambien contribuir a la persistencia de especies. Se estudio el establecimiento, crecimiento y tolerancia a la sombra en un bosque maduro de la Cornisa Cantabrica. Se midieron todos los arboles existentes en cuatro parcelas que totalizaron un area de 1,35 ha. Tras un periodo de 5 anos fueron nuevamente medidos para estimar sus tasas de crecimiento. Se calculo un indice de cierre del dosel sobre todos los arboles vivos. Fagus sylvatica se establecio en todos los ambientes del bosque, mientras que Ilex aquifolium se establecio bajo los Quercus robur maduros. Quercus y el resto de especies se establecieron principalmente en espacios abiertos. Fagus invirtio recursos para el crecimiento en altura, mientras que Quercus invirtio mas en el diametro del tronco como estrategia de persistencia en el estado maduro. Existe un gradiente en la tolerancia a la sombra entre las diferentes especies, el cual determino la respuesta diferencial a la heterogeneidad del dosel. Se discute la importancia de estos factores sobre la coexistencia de especies en el bosque estudiado.
Sympathetic activation in dogs with congestive heart failure caused by chronic mitral valve disease and dilated cardiomyopathy.

Baseline plasma norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (EPI) concentrations were measured in dogs with naturally acquired heart failure (HF) caused by either degenerative mitral valve disease and mitral regurgitation (MR) or idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Compared with controls (clinically normal), dogs with HF had increased plasma NE concentration, which was correlated positively with clinical severity of HF. Dogs with the most severe degree of HF (New York Heart Association functional class IV) had mean NE concentration significantly (P less than 0.05) greater than that of dogs with all other functional classes of HF. Overall, mean NE concentration in dogs with DCM was greater than that in dogs with MR. Plasma EPI concentration was not different between control dogs and dogs with HF or between dogs with DCM or MR. Correlations were not found between the echocardiographically derived end systolic volume index (used as an estimate of myocardial function) and plasma NE and EPI concentrations or serum sodium or potassium concentration. Dogs with DCM, as a group, had a small but significant (P less than 0.05) decrease in serum sodium concentration, compared with dogs with MR. This difference was maintained only for class-IV HF when dogs were separated according to functional HF class. In dogs with DCM, significant inverse correlation was found between plasma NE and serum sodium concentrations. When grouped together, all dogs with HF maintained this relationship; however, dogs with MR did not have correlation between plasma NE and serum sodium concentrations. Plasma EPI and serum sodium concentrations were not correlated for any group. It was concluded that in dogs, plasma NE, but not EPI, concentration is high in relation to the clinical severity of naturally acquired HF. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)