Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activation of nuclear factor kappa B and cytokine imbalance in experimental alcoholic liver disease in the rat

Inflammatory stimuli and lipid peroxidation activate nuclear factor kappa B (NF‐κB) and upregulate proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. The present study evaluated the relationship between pathological liver injury, endotoxemia, lipid peroxidation, and NF‐κB activation and imbalance between pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokines. Rats (5 per group) were fed ethanol and a diet containing saturated fat, palm oil, corn oil, or fish oil by intragastric infusion. Dextrose isocalorically replaced ethanol in control rats. Pathological analysis was performed and measurements of endotoxin were taken, lipid peroxidation, NF‐κB, and messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of proinflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor‐α [TNFα], interleukin‐1 β [IL‐1β], interferon‐γ, [IFN‐γ], and IL‐12), C‐C chemokines (regulated upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted [RANTES], monocyte chemotactic protein [MCP]‐1, macrophage inflammatory protein [MIP]‐1α), C‐X‐C chemokines (cytokine induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC), MIP‐2, IP‐10, and epithelial neutrophil activating protein [ENA]‐78), and anti‐inflammatory cytokines (IL‐10, IL‐4, and IL‐13). Activation of NF‐κB and increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines C‐C and C‐X‐C chemokines was seen in the rats exhibiting necroinflammatory injury (fish oil–ethanol [FE] and corn oil–ethanol[CE]). These groups also had the highest levels of endotoxin and lipid peroxidation. Levels of IL‐10 and IL‐4 mRNA were lower in the group exhibiting inflammatory liver injury. Thus, activation of NF‐κB occurs in the presence of proinflammatory stimuli and results in increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. The Kupffer cell is probably the major cell type showing activation of NF‐κB although the contribution of endothelial cells and hepatocytes cannot be excluded. Downregulation of anti‐inflammatory cytokines may additionally exacerbate liver injury.
Homicide-Suicide Cases in Switzerland and Their Impact on the Swiss Weapon Law

Homicide followed by the suicide of the offender is a well-known phenomenon. In most cases, it takes place in the context of the so-called "family tragedies. " A recent series of such family tragedies in Switzerland prompted an intensive debate in the media and the Swiss government concerning the Swiss Weapon Law, in particular the requirement to keep personal army weapons at home. The present study of Homicide-Suicide cases in Switzerland, thus focuses on the role played by guns, especially military weapons, in such crimes. We investigated retrospectively 75 cases of Homicide-Suicide, comprising 172 individuals and spanning a period of 23 years in western and central Switzerland. Our results show that if guns were used in 76% of the cases, army weapons were the cause of death in 25% of the total. In 28% of the deaths caused by a gunshot, the exact type of the gun and its origin could not be determined. Thus, the majority of Homicide-Suicide cases in Switzerland involve the use of guns. The exact percentage of cases were military weapons were involved could not be defined. In our opinion, a stricter weapons law, restricting access to firearms, would be a factor of prevention of Homicide- Suicide cases in Switzerland.
Suicides in Turkey Between 1996 and 2005: General Perspective

Suicide is a significant problem in the world. Sharing the information about the national suicide rates in the international scientific area is an important issue for not only the solution of the problem, but also improving the efforts for decreasing the suicidal deaths. We aimed to add the statistical information about the rates, the risk factors, and the methods of suicides in Turkey to the literature. The suicide rates in Turkey increased in the period between 1996 and 2005 years; it was 3.8 per 100,000 populations in 2005. The average ratio of male to female was 1.58/1 between 1996 and 2005 years. The suicidal deaths increased above the age of 75, especially in male population. In females, the most dangerous period was 15 to 24 age group. The major risk factor for suicides was found to be illness (29.6%) for both genders and especially for above middle ages. Hanging was the most preferred method for both genders and for most of the age groups in Turkey. Suicides increased in the spring and summer.
Contribution of reduced insulin sensitivity and secretion to the pathogenesis of hepatogenous diabetes: Effect of liver transplantation

Diabetes mellitus frequently complicates cirrhosis but the pathogenic mechanisms are unknown. To assess the contribution of reduced insulin action and secretion, 24 cirrhotic‐diabetic patients waiting for liver transplant because of an unresectable hepatocarcinoma underwent an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to assess the β‐cell function and an insulin clamp combined with [3‐3H]glucose infusion to measure whole body glucose metabolism before and 2 years after the transplant. Seven cirrhotic nondiabetic patients, 11 patients with chronic uveitis on similar immunosuppressive therapy, and 7 healthy subjects served as control groups. Cirrhotic patients showed a profound insulin resistance, and diabetics in addition also showed increased endogenous glucose production (P < .05) and insulin deficiency during the OGTT (P < .05). Liver transplantation normalized endogenous glucose production and insulin sensitivity but failed to cure diabetes in 8 of the 24 patients because a markedly low insulin response during the OGTT. Age, body mass index, family history of diabetes, immunosuppressive drugs, and pathogenesis of cirrhosis did not predict in whom liver transplant was going to cure diabetes. On the contrary, a reduced secretory response characterized the patients in whom the transplant would not be curative. In summary, insulin resistance was a primary event complicating cirrhosis but additional β‐cell secretory defects were crucial for development of diabetes. Liver transplantation, lessening insulin resistance, cured hepatogenous diabetes in 67% of cirrhotic‐diabetic patients; nevertheless 33% were still diabetics because the persistence of a reduced β‐cell function, which makes these patients eventually eligible for combined islet transplantation.
Concordance and discordance of couples living in a rural Pakistani village: Perspectives on contraception and abortion – a qualitative study

In Pakistan, fertility rates and intended family size have fallen, but contraceptive use remains low. This has led to a high prevalence of unintended pregnancies, a large proportion of which result from disagreement between spouses about how to confront them. This study aims to understand how Pakistani couples view family planning, and how they communicate and make decisions surrounding fertility regulation. In-depth interviews were conducted with five couples and an additional five women and two men. Two focus groups – one for males and one for females – were also conducted. Family planning methods were more favoured by women than their husbands. Women reported the largest barrier to contraceptive use to be men's opposition to family planning or reproductive choices more generally, as well as fear of side effects of contraception. Abortion was viewed unfavourably except in situations of economic difficulty, having several young children or women's health problems. Couples reported rarely communicating about fertility intentions until later in childbearing after an unintended pregnancy. Discussions about family planning were largely initiated by women, although some felt unable to approach their husbands regarding this topic. Concordant intentions and communication between spouses led to desired pregnancy outcomes. In cases of discordance, women's intentions tended to determine actions and outcomes. Spousal communication, or the lack thereof, is an obstacle to effective contraceptive use, and strategies to improve couples’ communication would undoubtedly enable them to achieve their reproductive intentions.
A review of the impacts of tobacco industry privatisation: Implications for policy

State-owned tobacco companies, which still account for 40% of global cigarette production, face continued pressure from, among others, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to be privatised. This review of available literature on tobacco industry privatisation suggests that any economic benefits of privatisation may be lower than supposed, because private owners avoid competitive tenders (thus underpaying for assets), negotiate lengthy tax holidays and are complicit in the smuggling of cigarettes to avoid import and excise duties. It outlines how privatisation leads to increased marketing, more effective distribution and lower prices, creating additional demand for cigarettes among new and existing smokers, leading to increased cigarette consumption, higher smoking prevalence and lower age of smoking initiation. Privatisation also weakens tobacco control because private owners, in their drive for profits, lobby aggressively against effective policies and ignore or overturn existing policies. This evidence suggests that further tobacco industry privatisation is likely to increase smoking and that instead of transferring assets from state to private ownership, alternative models of supply should be explored.
Dead Bodies Found in Wells

Corpses found in wells or lime pits must be identified and the cause and manner of death must be determined. There are several circumstances that may lead to the presence of corpses in wells. In this study, 3940 death examinations and autopsies, performed at the Konya Branch of Forensic Medicine Council (Turkey) between 2000 and 2007, were retrospectively investigated, and it was found that 18 (0.46%) of the bodies had been recovered from wells. The cases were evaluated in terms of their demographic features, manner of death (accidental, suicidal, or homicidal), autopsy findings, cause of death, and the characteristics of the wells in which they were found. The ages of the victims ranged from 4 to 74 years, and the average age was 40. 4 ± 20.6 years. Of total, 16 cases were males and 2 were females. The manner of death was determined to be accidental in 10 of the cases, suicide in 6 of the cases, and homicide in the remaining 2 cases. In 7 of the cases, death had occurred as a result of drowning in water. A comprehensive scene investigation and autopsy must be performed for corpses recovered from wells and pits for both identification and determination of the cause and manner of death. Wells should be covered and kept closed at all times to reduce the number of accidental deaths resulting from falls into wells.
Demographic characteristics, migration traumatic events and psychological distress among Sri Lankan Tamil refugees: a preliminary analysis

The objective of this preliminary analysis is to examine the differences in risk factors by host country in addition to overall risk factors based on demographic features of Sri Lankan Tamil refugee participants. This original research used a two -group comparison, cross-sectional design to conduct a pilot study among Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Canada and India. Statistical analyses that compared the mean number of pre-migration trauma events for those in Canada (M = 10.98, SD = 4.77) to those in India (M = 6.63, SD = 4.65) was found to be statistically significant at an alpha level of 0.05, t(81) = −4.20, p < 0.001, indicating that those living in Canada had experienced more pre-migration traumatic events. Research results also indicate that post-migration traumatic events for those in Canada were statistically significant (M = 5.12, SD = 1.23) at an alpha level of 0.05, t(69.26) = −2.66, p = 0.010, indicating that those living in Canada had experienced more post-migration traumatic events. A deeper analysis will bring the applicability of refugee theory in refugee services.
Recollection and familiarity in hippocampal amnesia

Currently, there is a general agreement that two distinct cognitive operations, recollection and familiarity, contribute to performance on recognition memory tests. However, there is a controversy about whether recollection and familiarity reflect different memory processes, mediated by distinct neural substrates (dual‐process models), or whether they are the expression of memory traces of different strength in the context of a unitary declarative memory system (unitary‐strength models). Critical in this debate is the status of recognition memory in hippocampal amnesia and, in particular, whether the various structures in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) contribute differentially to the recollection and familiarity components of recognition. The present study aimed to explore the relative contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition of words that had been previously read or that had been previously generated in a group of severely amnesic patients with cerebral damage restricted to the hippocampus. A convergent pattern of results emerged when we used a subjective‐based (remember/know; R/K) and an objective‐based (process dissociation procedure; PDP) methods to estimate the contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition performance. In both PDP and R/K procedures, healthy controls disclosed significantly higher recollection estimates for words that had been anagrammed than for words that had been read. Amnesic patients' recollection scores were not different for words that had been generated or that had been read, and the recollection estimate for words that had been generated was significantly reduced as compared to the group of healthy controls. For familiarity, both healthy controls and amnesic patients recognized as familiar more words that had been generated than words that had been read, and there was no difference between the two groups. These data support the hypothesis of a specific role of the hippocampus in recollection processes and suggest that other components of the MTL (e.g., perirhinal cortex) may be more involved in the process of familiarity. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Multiple repetitions reveal functionally and anatomically distinct patterns of hippocampal activity during continuous recognition memory

We used a continuous recognition procedure that included multiple presentations of test items, along with high‐resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to investigate the relationship between item novelty and recognition‐related activity in the medial temporal lobe (MTL). In several regions of hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex, activity elicited by new items exceeded that for old items, whereas no MTL regions exhibited greater activity for old items. Critically, anatomically distinct regions of MTL were engaged by item novelty in two different ways, as evidenced by statistically dissociable profiles of activity. In bilateral medial hippocampus and left posterior parahippocampal cortex, activity followed a categorical profile in which it was greater for new than old items but did not differ further with additional presentations of old items. By contrast, effects in adjacent regions of right lateral hippocampus and left parahippocampal cortex were graded, whereby activity declined linearly with respect to each successive item presentation. These findings suggest that the relationship between hippocampal (and parahippocampal) activity and continuous psychological dimensions, such as item novelty, cannot be captured by a unitary function. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Antepartum Fetal Death in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital: Aetiology and Risk Factors

Context: Antepartum fetal death is a significant contributor to perinatal mortality and challenges the adequacy of antenatal surveillance. Identifying the causes and risk factors for death may aid its prevention. Aim: To determine the causes of antepartum fetal death and identify associated risk factors. Subjects and Methods: All antepartum fetal deaths, with fetuses weighing 1 kg or more, delivered at Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa between January 1996 and December 2000 were the subjects. The controls were all live births delivered immediately before and after every index fetal death. Information on maternal demographic details, past obstetric history and antenatal complications were retrieved from the case notes of both the subjects and the controls for analysis. Results: The total number of births during the study period was 5,050 with 266 stillbirths. Of the stillbirths, 111 (41.7%) were antepartum out of which 70 (63.1%) weighed 1 kg and above. The main causes of death were antepartum haemorrhage (20%), maternal disease (14.3%) and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (11.4%). The cause of death was unknown in 38.8% of cases. The main risk factors identified for antepartum death were lack of antenatal care and low birthweight. Maternal age and parity did not seem to be risk factors for antepartum fetal loss. Conclusion: Maternal disease is still a major cause of antepartum deaths in our society. Improved antenatal care and better surveillance of fetal growth may reduce the current high stillbirth rate in our society. Key Words: Perinatal Mortality, Stillbirth, Intrauterine Death [Trop J Obstet Gynaecol, 2003, 20: 134-136]
Contributions of the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex to energy and body weight regulation

The effects of selective ibotenate lesions of the complete hippocampus (CHip), the hippocampal ventral pole (VP), or the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in male rats were assessed on several measures related to energy regulation (i.e., body weight gain, food intake, body adiposity, metabolic activity, general behavioral activity, conditioned appetitive responding). The testing conditions were designed to minimize the nonspecific debilitating effects of these surgeries on intake and body weight. Rats with CHip and VP lesions exhibited significantly greater weight gain and food intake compared with controls. Furthermore, CHip‐lesioned rats, but not rats with VP lesions, showed elevated metabolic activity, general activity in the dark phase of the light‐dark cycle, and greater conditioned appetitive behavior, compared with control rats without these brain lesions. In contrast, rats with mPFC lesions were not different from controls on any of these measures. These results indicate that hippocampal damage interferes with energy and body weight regulation, perhaps by disrupting higher‐order learning and memory processes that contribute to the control of appetitive and consummatory behavior. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Large-scale road safety programmes in low- and middle-income countries: An opportunity to generate evidence

The growing burden of road traffic injuries, which kill over 1.2 million people yearly, falls mostly on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite this, evidence generation on the effectiveness of road safety interventions in LMIC settings remains scarce. This paper explores a scientific approach for evaluating road safety programmes in LMICs and introduces such a road safety multi-country initiative, the Road Safety in 10 Countries Project (RS-10). By building on existing evaluation frameworks, we develop a scientific approach for evaluating large-scale road safety programmes in LMIC settings. This also draws on ‘13 lessons’ of large-scale programme evaluation: defining the evaluation scope; selecting study sites; maintaining objectivity; developing an impact model; utilising multiple data sources; using multiple analytic techniques; maximising external validity; ensuring an appropriate time frame; the importance of flexibility and a stepwise approach; continuous monitoring; providing feedback to implementers, policy-makers; promoting the uptake of evaluation results; and understanding evaluation costs. The use of relatively new approaches for evaluation of real-world programmes allows for the production of relevant knowledge. The RS-10 project affords an important opportunity to scientifically test these approaches for a real-world, large-scale road safety evaluation and generate new knowledge for the field of road safety.
Internet addiction and psychiatric symptoms among Korean adolescents.

BACKGROUND The aims of this study were to identify the independent factors associated with intermittent addiction and addiction to the Internet and to examine the psychiatric symptoms in Korean adolescents when the demographic and Internet-related factors were controlled. METHODS Male and female students (N = 912) in the 7th-12th grades were recruited from 2 junior high schools and 2 academic senior high schools located in Seoul, South Korea. Data were collected from November to December 2004 using the Internet-Related Addiction Scale and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revision. A total of 851 subjects were analyzed after excluding the subjects who provided incomplete data. RESULTS Approximately 30% (n = 258) and 4.3% (n = 37) of subjects showed intermittent Internet addiction and Internet addiction, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that junior high school students and students having a longer period of Internet use were significantly associated with intermittent addiction. In addition, male gender, chatting, and longer Internet use per day were significantly associated with Internet addiction. When the demographic and Internet-related factors were controlled, obsessive-compulsive and depressive symptoms were found to be independently associated factors for intermittent addiction and addiction to the Internet, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Staff working in junior or senior high schools should pay closer attention to those students who have the risk factors for intermittent addiction and addiction to the Internet. Early preventive intervention programs are needed that consider the individual severity level of Internet addiction.
The changing cultural and economic dynamics of polygyny and concurrent sexual partnerships in Iringa, Tanzania

Polygyny has been identified both as a ‘benign’ form of concurrency and as the cultural basis of concurrent partnerships that are considered important drivers of the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper investigates the changing cultural and economic dynamics of polygyny in concurrency in Iringa, Tanzania, a region with traditions of polygyny and high prevalence of HIV. Our analysis of focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and key informant interviews indicate that contemporary concurrent partnerships differ from regional traditions of polygyny. Whereas in the past, polygyny reflected men's and their kin group's wealth and garnered additional prestige, polygyny today is increasingly seen as a threat to health, and as leading to poverty. Nevertheless, participants evoked the social prestige of polygyny to explain men's present-day concurrency, even outside the bounds of marriage, and despite continued social prohibitions against extramarital affairs. Difficult economic conditions, combined with this prestige, made it easier for men to engage in concurrency without the considerable obligations to wives and children in polygyny. Local economic conditions also compelled women to seek concurrent partners to meet basic needs and to access consumer goods, but risked greater moral judgement than men, especially if deemed to have excessive ‘desire’ for money.