Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2012 Youth and skills : Putting education to work General versus vocational education : Some new evidence from PISA 2009

Our study aims at comparing the intake of general education and vocational education. The international achievement test PISA 2009 makes possible to directly compare pupils in the two main types of education system (vocational versus general). We try to understand the main differences between the two streams by testing for effects of several factors (socio-economic status, parents’ education, pupils’ motivation, etc.). Moreover, our study proposes to compare the overall performance in mathematics, science and reading between pupils in different education systems. We show that pupils in vocational schools have significantly lower performance than pupils in general education schools in most countries. Moreover, it appears that comparing characteristics of pupils between the two streams shows significant differences. Indeed, while pupils with high socio-economic status tend to be significantly more enrolled in general education, we find that the standard characteristics of pupils, such as gender, family education, a proxy of motivation, explain about one-third of pupils’ achievement differences between the two streams.
Treatment of chronically injured spinal cord with neurotrophic factors stimulates βII‐tubulin and GAP‐43 expression in rubrospinal tract neurons

Exogenous neurotrophic factors provided at a spinal cord injury site promote regeneration of chronically injured rubrospinal tract (RST) neurons into a peripheral nerve graft. The present study tested whether the response to neurotrophins is associated with changes in the expression of two regeneration‐associated genes, βII‐tubulin and growth‐associated protein (GAP)‐43. Adult female rats were subjected to a right full hemisection lesion via aspiration of the C3 spinal cord. A second aspiration lesion was made 4 weeks later and gel foam saturated in brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial cell‐line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), or phosphate‐buffered saline (PBS) was applied to the lesion site for 60 min. Using in situ hybridization, RST neurons were examined for changes in mRNA levels of βII‐tubulin and GAP‐43 at 1, 3, and 7 days after treatment. Based on analysis of gene expression in single cells, there was no effect of BDNF treatment on either βII‐tubulin or GAP‐43 mRNA expression at any time point. βII‐Tubulin mRNA levels were enhanced significantly at 1 and 3 days in animals treated with GDNF relative to levels in animals treated with PBS. Treatment with GDNF did not affect GAP‐43 mRNA levels at 1 and 3 days, but at 7 days there was a significant increase in mRNA expression. Interestingly, 7 days after GDNF treatment, the mean cell size of chronically injured RST neurons was increased significantly. Although GDNF and BDNF both promote axonal regeneration by chronically injured neurons, only GDNF treatment is associated with upregulation of βII‐tubulin or GAP‐43 mRNA. It is not clear from the present study how exogenous BDNF stimulates regrowth of injured axons. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Adrenergic regulation of clock gene expression in mouse liver

A main oscillator in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) conveys circadian information to the peripheral clock systems for the regulation of fundamental physiological functions. Although polysynaptic autonomic neural pathways between the SCN and the liver were observed in rats, whether activation of the sympathetic nervous system entrains clock gene expression in the liver has yet to be understood. To assess sympathetic innervation from the SCN to liver tissue, we investigated whether injection of adrenaline/noradrenaline (epinephrine/norepinephrine) or sympathetic nerve stimulation could induce mPer gene expression in mouse liver. Acute administration of adrenaline or noradrenaline increased mPer1 but not mPer2 expression in the liver of mice in vivo and in hepatic slices in vitro. Electrical stimulation of the sympathetic nerves or adrenaline injection caused an elevation of bioluminescence in the liver area of transgenic mice carrying mPer1 promoter-luciferase. Under a light–dark cycle, destruction of the SCN flattened the daily rhythms of not only mPer1, mPer2, and mBmal1 genes but also noradrenaline content in the liver. Daily injection of adrenaline, administered at a fixed time for 6 days, recovered oscillations of mPer2 and mBmal1 gene expression in the liver of mice with SCN lesion on day 7. Sympathetic nerve denervation by 6-hydroxydopamine flattened the daily rhythm of mPer1 and mPer2 gene expression. Thus, on the basis of the present results, activation of the sympathetic nerves through noradrenaline and/or adrenaline release was a factor controlling the peripheral clock.
Cold air inhalation does not affect the severity of EIB after exercise or eucapnic voluntary hyperventilation.

INTRODUCTION Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is thought to result from osmotic and thermal events of air conditioning during exercise at high ventilation rates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate lung function after exercise and eucapnic voluntary hyperventilation (EVH) while breathing both room-temperature and cold-temperature dry bottled air. METHODS Twenty-two subjects were identified as EIB probable by a fall of >or=7% in forced expiratory volume in the first second of exhalation (FEV1) using a 6-min room-temperature EVH challenge (RTEVH; 22.0 degrees C). Subjects then randomly performed three 6-min challenges: cold-temperature EVH (CTEVH; -1 degrees C), room-temperature exercise (RTEX; 22.0 degrees C), and cold-temperature exercise (CTEX; -1 degrees C), with a period of at least 48 h observed between challenges. Spirometry was performed at baseline and at 5, 10, 15, and 20 min postchallenge. RESULTS Reasonable agreement was found between challenge modes and room-temperature and cold-temperature challenges. Postchallenge percent falls in FEV1 were -15.21, -13.80, -13.12, and -10.69 for RTEVH, CTEVH, RTEX, and CTEX, respectively. RTEVH resulted in a significantly greater percent fall in FEV1 than CTEX (P=0.048); no other differences in FEV1 were observed. CONCLUSION Similar postchallenge percent falls in FEV1 for room- and cold-temperature EVH and exercise suggest that dryness is essential to test conditions, as cold temperature did not have an additive effect to the EIB response.
The HPC-Device: A Method to Quantify the Heel Pad Shock Absorbency

Previous studies have indicated that the shock absorbency of the heel pad is significant in the pathophysiology of pain conditions connected with heel strike. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple clinically usable method for quantification of the heel pad shock absorbency. The results of our efforts was the HPC-device which consists of a fixing device and a transducer. The HPC-device was found suitable in the evaluation of the heel pad force/deformation characteristics. The reproducibility of heel pad deformation was 0.96. Tests of six cadaver heel pads revealed a high correlation between the HPC result and the shock absorbency found by drop tests. In a normal material (200 heel pads), it was found that the shock absorption decreased with age and that men had significantly higher shock absorbency than women. Men also had significantly thicker heel pads than women. However, there was no linear correlation between the thickness of the heel pad and the shock absorbency, although the thinnest heel pads had the lowest shock absorbency. The HPC-device was found clinically usable and will be used in further testing of the significance of heel pad shock absorption for the development of heel strike dependent over-use injuries.
Contact Lens Dry Eye Questionnaire-8 (CLDEQ-8) and Opinion of Contact Lens Performance

Purpose. To report on the development and validation of a short form of the Contact Lens Dry Eye Questionnaire (the CLDEQ-8) to enable it to reflect status of and change in overall opinion (“opinion”) of soft contact lenses (SCLs). Methods. Item reduction for the CLDEQ was achieved by correlation with overall opinion of SCLs at follow-up visits in a sample of 38 SCL wearers at one academic clinical site. The CLDEQ-8 score (frequency plus late day intensity of dryness, discomfort, and “blurry vision”; frequency of “closing eyes to rest them” and “removing CLs to relieve discomfort”) was then tested in 379 SCL wearers in a multicenter study with analysis stratified by opinion ratings at baseline and 2 weeks postrandomization to new silicone hydrogel SCLs. The sum of CLDEQ-8 scores (maximum 37) was correlated with opinion by Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and analyzed for change in opinion by analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results. The CLDEQ-8 scores in the validation sample were highly correlated with habitual baseline opinion (−0.44, p < 0.0001) and responsive to change in opinion postrandomization (−0.58, p < 0.0001). Baseline CLDEQ-8 scores by opinion status were as follows: Fair: 17.4 ± 8.7, Good 13.7 ± 6.4, Very Good 9.1 ± 4.7, and Excellent 6.4 ± 3.7 (ANOVA, F = 291.1, p < 0.0001). After 2 weeks, change in CLDEQ-8 scores by improvement status was as follows: Much Improved: −16.7 ± 10.0, Unchanged: −2.3 ± 5.0, to Much Worse +8.5 ± 5.8 (ANOVA, F = 16.5, p < 0.001). Conclusions. The CLDEQ-8 score significantly reflected baseline status and change in overall opinion after refitting with two types of silicone hydrogels. The CLDEQ-8 score is a valid outcome measure in SCL clinical trials to reflect opinion of SCLs.
The Effects of Lung Recruitment on the Phase III Slope of Volumetric Capnography in Morbidly Obese Patients

BACKGROUND: In this study, we analyzed the effect of the alveolar recruitment strategy (ARS) and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) titration on Phase III slope (SIII) of volumetric capnography (VC) in morbidly obese patients. METHODS: Eleven anesthetized morbidly obese patients were studied. Lungs were ventilated with tidal volumes of 10 mL · kg−1, respiratory rates of 12–14 bpm, inspiration:expiration ratio of 1:2, and Fio2 of 0.4. ARS was performed by increasing PEEP in steps of five from 0 end-expiratory pressure to 15 cm H2O. During lung recruitment, plateau pressure was limited to 50 cm H2O, whereas tidal volume was increased to the ventilator’s maximum value of 1400 mL, and PEEP was increased to 20 cm H2O for 2 min. Thereafter, PEEP was reduced in steps of 5 cm H2O, from 15 to 0. VC, arterial blood gases, and lung mechanics data were determined for each PEEP step. RESULTS: SIII decreased from 0.014 ± 0.006 to 0.005 ± 0.005 mm Hg/mL when 0 end-expiratory pressure was compared against 15 cm H2O of PEEP after ARS (15ARS, P < 0.05). This decrement in SIII was accompanied by increases in Pao2 (27%, P < 0.002) and compliance (32%, P < 0.001), whereas Paco2 decreased by 8% (P < 0.038) when comparing values before and after ARS. A good prediction of the lung recruitment effect by SIII was derived from the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis (area under the curve of 0.81, sensitivity of 0.75, and specificity of 0.74; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The SIII in VC was useful to detect the optimal level of PEEP after lung recruitment in anesthetized morbidly obese patients.
Congenital arhinia

This girl was born at term weighing 2.9 kg and was noted postnatally to have facial features in keeping with congenital arhinia. There had been antenatal concern regarding a flat facial profile on anomaly scanning, but subsequent fetal medicine scanning was reassuring. Amniocentesis and postnatal chromosome testing confirmed a normal female karyotype. At birth, she had arhinia, hypertelorism, epicanthic folds and a deficient cupid’s bow, but there was no midline cleft. Ophthalmological investigation revealed a unilateral coloboma of iris, lens, optic disc and retina and a cataract. The contralateral fundus was normal but she required daily medical pupillary dilatation to achieve a clear visual axis. Echocardiogram revealed a small apical ventricular septal defect. Abdominal and cranial ultrasound scans were normal as was MRI of her brain. Airway management involved elective intubation shortly after birth and subsequent tracheostomy insertion (figure 1). Congenital arhinia is the absence of external nose, nasal cavities and olfactory apparatus, and is extremely rare. It is associated with hypertelorism, microphthalmia, other facial clefts and midline defects. The early management challenges are airway obstruction and the need for tube feeding. Later, psychosocial difficulties must be balanced with the optimal timing of the potentially challenging reconstructive surgery. We are aware of two further cases currently under genetic investigation.
Efficacy and safety of radiofrequency ablation for perivascular hepatocellular carcinoma without hepatic inflow occlusion

The role of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for perivascular (up to 5 mm from the major intrahepatic portal vein or hepatic vein branches) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear because of possible incomplete tumour ablation and potential vascular damage. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of RFA for perivascular HCC without hepatic inflow occlusion.
Coastal Urbanization Impacts on Biodiversity the Case of Marinas in Singapore

Most of Singapore’s coastline has been modified by coastal development with variable influences on marine biodiversity. Marinas are typically designed as a semienclosed environment with a complex mix of structures that provide ecological niches throughout the water body. Water flow is inevitably reduced with a possible decline of water quality. This investigation was conducted to determine how marinas affect marine biodiversity. The three marinas studied Marina at Keppel Bay (MKB), One Degree 15 Marina (ODF), Raffles Marina (RM) all supported rich biodiversity. The combined 71 faunal taxa (two Classes, 10 Orders and 59 Families) from the soft bottom of all three marinas surveyed using the Ekman grab, were dominated by polychaetes (71.4%) and arthropods (16.7%; mainly crustaceans). The total fish species surveyed using customised traps was 49 from 31 Families, ranging from the very common and abundant fan-bellied filefish (Monacanthus chinensis) and eeltail catfish (Plotosus spp.), to the less commonly seen fishes such as the starry triggerfish (Abalistes stellatus) and estuarine stonefish (Synanceja horrida). Reef-associated fish species were more abundant at MKB and ODF, while estuarine species dominated at RM. Epibiotic diversity was evident on the artificial structures in all marinas. The submerged sides of berthing pontoons supported up to 107 taxa, dominated by ascidians, macroalgae and sponges. Corals also recruited naturally with 10 and 22 scleractinian genera established on pontoons at MKB and on seawalls at ODF, respectively. In general, fish and soft bottom macrobenthic abundance and diversity were comparable or higher within the marina compared to the adjacent open water. The findings indicate that modified coastal environments such as marinas can support diverse biological communities.
Statistical issues in interpreting clinical trials

Randomized clinical trial is an important research tool in evaluating new therapeutic agents, devices and procedures. In order to obtain reliable and unbiased results, careful consideration must be given in the design and conduct of the trial. However, bias can be introduced in the analysis of the final data if certain principles are not followed. Several issues are described that make interpretation of analyses challenging. These include the intent‐to‐treat principle, the use of surrogate outcome measures, subgroup analyses, missing data and noninferiority trials.
Metaphtonymy : The interaction of metaphor and metonymy in figurative expressions for linguistic action

L'A. explore la zone transitionnelle entre la metonymie et la metaphore dans le langage figuratif en anglais, dont le domaine cible est l'activite langagiere. En se basant sur des donnees issues de 3 domaines source (les actions violentes, les sons, les parties du corps), il montre que deux types d'interaction entre metonymie et metaphore (ou metaphtonymie) predominent : la metaphore a partir de la metonymie et la metonymie dans la metaphore. La metonymie a partir de la metaphore et la metaphore dans la metonymie sont, pour leur part, extremement rares. L'A. propose ensuite un certain nombre de suggestions pour expliquer cette asymetrie
Effect of Supportive Intravenous Hyperalimentation on the Nutritional Status of Cancer Patients

The effect of intravenous hyperalimentation on the nutritional status of 84 cancer patients treated at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, has been evaluated. The body weight increased in 78 % of patients, mid upper arm circumference in 93 %, triceps skinfold in 73 %, mid upper arm-muscle circumference in 73 %, creatinine/height index in 30 %, serum albumin in 32 %, transferrin in 35 %, total peripheral lymphocytes in 38 %. Lymphocyte blastogenesis increased in 74 % of the patients examined and skin tests were converted from negative to positive in about 20 % of patients. In addition 8 out of 18 patients responsive to IVH benefited from chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy indicating that the nutritional repletion of the host did not significantly affect the growth of the tumor. These findings support the opinion that neoplastic cachexia may depend partially on malnutrition and can be often reversed by IVH. Moreover, IVH might have an adjunctive role as potentiator of chemotherapy which however must be confirmed by clinical trials.
Reconsidering Violence in Simple Human Societies: Homicide among the Gebusi of New Guinea [and Comments and Reply]

Homicide rates among the Gebusi of lowland New Guinea are among the highest yet reported. This paper characterizes and empirically tests Gebusi homicide data against the predictions of three theories commonly used to explain aspects of human violence: sociobiological theory, fraternal interest-group theory, and learning/socialization theory. The data strongly contravene the predictions of each of these theories. The seemingly exceptional nature of Gebusi homicide is in certain respects urprisingly similar to the dynamics of violence in highly decentralized and egalitarian societies such as the ! Kung, the Central Eskimo, the Hadza, the Semai, and the Waorani. On the basis of a review of the evidence from these societies, violence in highly egalitarian human groups is characterized and a set of linked hypotheses forwarded to explain it.
GATA2 regulates differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells

The bone marrow microenvironment comprises multiple cell niches derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. However, the molecular mechanism of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell differentiation is poorly understood. The transcription factor GATA2 is indispensable for hematopoietic stem cell function as well as other hematopoietic lineages, suggesting that it may maintain bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in an immature state and also contribute to their differentiation. To explore this possibility, we established bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells from GATA2 conditional knockout mice. Differentiation of GATA2-deficient bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into adipocytes induced accelerated oil-drop formation. Further, GATA2 loss- and gain-of-function analyses based on human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells confirmed that decreased and increased GATA2 expression accelerated and suppressed bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell differentiation to adipocytes, respectively. Microarray analysis of GATA2 knockdowned human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells revealed that 90 and 189 genes were upregulated or downregulated by a factor of 2, respectively. Moreover, gene ontology analysis revealed significant enrichment of genes involved in cell cycle regulation, and the number of G1/G0 cells increased after GATA2 knockdown. Concomitantly, cell proliferation was decreased by GATA2 knockdown. When GATA2 knockdowned bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells as well as adipocytes were cocultured with CD34-positive cells, hematopoietic stem cell frequency and colony formation decreased. We confirmed the existence of pathological signals that decrease and increase hematopoietic cell and adipocyte numbers, respectively, characteristic of aplastic anemia, and that suppress GATA2 expression in hematopoietic stem cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.
Physical activity and cancer prevention--data from epidemiologic studies.

PURPOSE The aim of this paper is to examine whether physical activity plays any role in the prevention of cancer. METHODS To accomplish this, data from published epidemiologic studies on the relation between physical activity and the risk of developing cancer were reviewed. RESULTS The data are clear in showing that physically active men and women have about a 30-40% reduction in the risk of developing colon cancer, compared with inactive persons. Although the data are sparse, it appears that 30-60 min.d(-1) of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity is needed to decrease risk. There is a dose-response relation, with risk declining further at higher levels of physical activity. It is also clear that physical activity is not associated with the risk of developing rectal cancer. With regard to breast cancer, there is reasonably clear evidence that physically active women have about a 20-30% reduction in risk, compared with inactive women. It also appears that 30-60 min.d(-1) of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity is needed to decrease the risk of breast cancer, and that there is likely a dose-response relation. For prostate cancer, the data are inconsistent regarding whether physical activity plays any role in the prevention of this cancer. There are relatively few studies on physical activity and lung cancer prevention. The available data suggest that physically active individuals have a lower risk of lung cancer; however, it is difficult to completely account for cigarette smoking. There is little information on the role of physical activity in preventing other cancers. CONCLUSION Physical activity is associated with lower risk of developing certain site-specific cancers, in particular colon and breast cancers.
Cloud Task Scheduling for Load Balancing based on Intelligent Strategy

Cloud computing is a type of parallel and distributed system consisting of a collection of interconnected and virtual computers. With the increasing demand and benefits of cloud computing infrastructure, different computing can be performed on cloud environment. One of the fundamental issues in this environment is related to task scheduling. Cloud task scheduling is an NP-hard optimization problem, and many meta-heuristic algorithms have been proposed to solve it. A good task scheduler should adapt its scheduling strategy to the changing environment and the types of tasks. In this paper a cloud task scheduling policy based on ant colony optimization algorithm for load balancing compared with different scheduling algorithms has been proposed. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is random optimization search approach that will be used for allocating the incoming jobs to the virtual machines. The main contribution of our work is to balance the system load while trying to minimizing the make span of a given tasks set. The load balancing factor, related to the job finishing rate, is proposed to make the job finishing rate at different resource being similar and the ability of the load balancing will be improved. The proposed scheduling strategy was simulated using Cloudsim toolkit package. Experimental results showed that, the proposed algorithm outperformed scheduling algorithms that are based on the basic ACO or Modified Ant Colony Optimization (MACO).