Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lesion evolution after gamma knife irradiation observed by magnetic resonance imaging

Purpose: Our study is focused on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) observation of lesion development and hippocampus related functional impairments in rats after irradiation with a Leksell Gamma knife (LGK). Materials and methods: We exposed 32 three-month-old Long-Evans rats to various radiation doses (25 Gy, 50 Gy or 75 Gy). The rats were scanned by a 4.7 T magnetic resonance (MR) spectrometer at several timepoints (1 – 18 months) after irradiation. The lesion size was evaluated by manual segmentation; the animals were behaviorally tested in a Morris water maze and examined histologically. Results: We found that a dose of 25 Gy induced no edema, necrosis or behavioral change. The response of the rats to higher doses was not uniform; the first occurrence of lesions in the rat brains irradiated with 50 and 75 Gy was detected six months post-irradiation. Functional impairment correlated well with the lesion size and histology. Conclusions: Rat brains showed the development of expanding delayed lesions after 50 or 75 Gy doses from the LGK during the first year after irradiation.
What Accounts for the US Ascendancy to Economic Superpower by the Early Twentieth Century? The Morrill Act–Human Capital Hypothesis

Maddison’s international panel data show that technically it was the faster growth rate of the US economy that led to its overtaking the United Kingdom as economic superpower. We explore the contributing factors. Identifying the land-grant college system triggered by the 1862/1890 Morrill Acts (MAs) as a major contributor, we develop this hypothesis theoretically and test it via difference-in-differences regression analyses viewing the MAs as the experiment, the United States or US states as treatment groups, and the United Kingdom as the chief control group in the country-level comparisons. Using national and state-level data, we estimate that the MAs produced sizeable educational and economic returns that catapulted the United States into its leading status.
Outage analysis of opportunistic amplify-and-forward cooperative cellular systems with random relays

In this paper, the outage performance of an opportunistic amplify-and-forward cooperative downlink cellular system is analyzed. Different from prior works, the randomness of the network topology is taken into account by modeling the user nodes as a homogeneous Poisson point process. Based on this model, outage probability is derived and the impacts of several system parameters are investigated. Under certain conditions, the closed form expression of outage probability is derived. It is found from our results that the diversity order of this opportunistic cooperative system at high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) is one. Moreover, optimal power allocation can be found from our results to minimize the outage probability.
The Effect of Board Composition on the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Cameroon

The main driver of business engagement is to maximise shareholders net value.Investment is the postponement of present consumption for future gratifications. Therefore, investors will be interested in the value of the expected return on their investment ascompares to their opportunity cost. Successful leadership represents one of the most important factors that contribute to the enterprise success. Koontz et al. (1990) define leadership as a process of influencing employees in order to motivate and encourage them to achieve the enterprise's goals. Griffin(2002) believes that leadership is both a process and a trait. As a process, leadership represents the focus on activities that a leader takes, and as a trait, leadership represents leader's traits. Leadership can also be defined as the skill of encouraging employees to participate voluntarily in the realization of enterprise's goals (Rožman et al., 2017). It is important to point effective leadership leads to increase in the shareholder value. The responsibilities to lead organisations lies with the board of directors. These responsibilities of the directors include setting the company's strategic aims, providing the leadership to put them into effect, supervising the management of the business and reporting to shareholders on their stewardship which constitute the core of corporate governance. The Board's actions are subjected to laws, regulations and the shareholders in general meeting (Olayiwola, 2010).
Validation Study of Intraoperative Fine-Needle Aspiration of Parathyroid Tissue with Measurement of Parathyroid Hormone Levels Using the Rapid Intraoperative Assay

Background Surgical treatment of hyperparathyroidism relies on the ability to accurately identify parathyroid tissue. The use of intraoperative fine-needle aspiration (FNA) with measurement of intact parathyroid hormone level (iPTH-FNA) has been suggested as a useful adjunct and is evaluated in this pilot study. Methods An institutional review board–approved retrospective review was performed on patients undergoing parathyroid exploration for primary hyperparathyroidism who also underwent selective FNA at the end of the procedure. FNA was performed on excised parathyroid tissue, ipsilateral thyroid tissue, and muscle. Results Ten patients underwent FNA. Mean iPTH-FNA values were 1559.6 pg/mL (range, 675–1775) for parathyroid, 51.4 pg/mL (range, 10–248) for thyroid, and 34.1 pg/mL (range, 14–128) for muscle. All iPTH-FNA assay results were significantly higher for parathyroid tissue than for either thyroid tissue (P < 0.05) or muscle (P < 0.05). There were no significant iPTH-FNA assay differences between thyroid and muscle (P = 0.09). Conclusions Intraoperative FNA of parathyroid tissue with the rapid iPTH assay can correctly identify parathyroid tissue. It may prove to be a useful surgical adjunct in the treatment of hyperparathyroidism.
Sexual Abuse in a Classroom of Ten Male Students: A Group Victimization

The term “professional perpetrator” is used to describe individuals who commit sexual abuse in the capacity of a position of trust such as a teacher, household member, or employer. There is an increasing body of evidence focusing on educator sexual abuse in the school environment. However, data are limited about this topic. The aim of this paper is to present the rare occurrence of the case of a male teacher in Turkey who sexually abused his students in an elementary school. Although it is unknown which populations are most vulnerable to sexual abuse, in Turkey we think that the indigenous population is at risk. Abuse cases are not logged into the criminal justice system because the majority of abuse allegations are ignored or disbelieved by families.
Surgical Management of Breast Cancer in Africa: A Continent-Wide Review of Intervention Practices, Barriers to Care, and Adjuvant Therapy

Breast cancer has emerged as a leading cancer among women in Africa, necessitating improved understanding of its management across the continent. Although previous studies have described regional trends in therapy, this review aims to summarize continent-wide management and focus specifically on surgical interventions. Current literature shows that the rates of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy vary across different countries and institutions, indicating the need for greater use of standardized cancer treatment guidelines. Surgery, primarily modified radical mastectomy, is the most common form of therapy described. When chemotherapy is offered, the limited availability and cost of treatment lead to high rates of interruption and premature termination of cycles. Few patients have access to radiation or hormonal therapy because these treatments are not available in many countries. Significant delays in seeking treatment are common and contribute to patients presenting with advanced disease. Although limited infrastructure favors surgical management, interventions to improve early detection behavior, provide timely referrals to medical care, and initiate early treatment with access to clinically justified neo-adjuvant and adjuvant therapy are key to improving prognosis.
Learning Curve, Change in Industrial Environment, and Dynamics of Production Activities in Unconventional Energy Resources

Since 2007, shale oil and gas production in the United States has become a significant portion of the global fossil fuel market. The main cause for the increase in production of shale oil and gas in the US is the adoption of new production technologies, namely, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However, the production cost of shale oil and gas in the US is comparably higher than the production cost of conventional oil and gas. In 2014, the crude oil and natural gas price decreased significantly to approximately 40 dollars per barrel, and natural gas prices decreased to 3 dollars per million British thermal unit, and thus the productivity and financial conditions for the exploration and production of shale oil and natural gas for producers in the United States have worsened critically. Therefore, technological innovation has become one of the most interesting issues of the energy industry. The present study analyzes the trends in technological innovation having a relationship with production activities. This study calculates the learning rate of 30 companies from the petroleum exploration and production industry in the United States using an improved learning rate calculation formula that reflects the changes in the oil production ratio. Thus, more statistically confident calculation results and interpretations of strategic production activities with regard to changes in the industrial environment were achieved in this study.
Evidence That the Heme Regulatory Motifs in Heme Oxygenase-2 Serve as a Thiol/Disulfide Redox Switch Regulating Heme Binding*

Heme oxygenase (HO) catalyzes the O2- and NADPH-dependent conversion of heme to biliverdin, CO, and iron. The two forms of HO (HO-1 and HO-2) share similar physical properties but are differentially regulated and exhibit dissimilar physiological roles and tissue distributions. Unlike HO-1, HO-2 contains heme regulatory motifs (HRMs) (McCoubrey, W. K., Jr., Huang, T. J., and Maines, M. D. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 12568–12574). Here we describe UV-visible, EPR, and differential scanning calorimetry experiments on human HO-2 variants containing single, double, and triple mutations in the HRMs. Oxidized HO-2, which contains an intramolecular disulfide bond linking Cys265 of HRM1 and Cys282 of HRM2, binds heme tightly. Reduction of the disulfide bond increases the Kd for ferric heme from 0.03 to 0.3 μm, which is much higher than the concentration of the free heme pool in cells. Although the HRMs markedly affect the Kd for heme, they do not alter the kcat for heme degradation and do not bind additional hemes. Because HO-2 plays a key role in CO generation and heme homeostasis, reduction of the disulfide bond would be expected to increase intracellular free heme and decrease CO concentrations. Thus, we propose that the HRMs in HO-2 constitute a thiol/disulfide redox switch that regulates the myriad physiological functions of HO-2, including its involvement in the hypoxic response in the carotid body, which involves interactions with a Ca2+-activated potassium channel.
Regulation of myosin and overall protein degradation in mouse C2 skeletal myotubes

We compared the breakdown of total cellular protein with that of the contractile protein, myosin, in cultured C2 mouse skeletal myotubes. The degradation of long‐lived cellular proteins (which comprise the vast majority of myotube proteins) was inhibited by serum, insulin, and rat insulin‐like growth factor‐2. A physiological concentration of insulin was effective, but most of the effect of insulin occurred at concentrations well above the physiological range. IGF‐2 inhibited protein breakdown at concentrations well within the range of total IGF‐2 known to be present in the serum of fetal and neonatal rats. The breakdown of short‐lived proteins was not altered by insulin or serum. We measured myosin degradation using a monoclonal antibody directed against myosin heavy chain. The half‐life of myosin was 27 hours, and myosin breakdown was not altered by withdrawal of serum. Therefore, the enhanced protein degradation in response to serum withdrawal applies to certain proteins, but not to others.
Prevalence and comorbidity of mental disorders in persons making serious suicide attempts: a case-control study.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence and comorbidity patterns of psychiatric disorders in subjects making medically serious suicide attempts and in comparison subjects. METHOD The association between mental disorders and the risk of a suicide attempt was examined in 302 consecutive individuals who made serious suicide attempts and 1,028 randomly selected comparison subjects. Each subject completed a semistructured interview, and a significant other underwent a parallel interview; best-estimate DSM-III-R diagnoses were then generated. RESULTS Of those who made serious suicide attempts, 90.1% had a mental disorder at the time of the attempt. Multiple logistic regression showed that those who made suicide attempts had high rates of mood disorders (odds ratio = 33.4, 95% confidence interval = 21.9-1.2); substance use disorders (odds ratio = 2.6, 95% confidence interval = 1.6-4.3); conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder (odds ratio = 3.7, 95% confidence interval = 2.1-6.5); and nonaffective psychosis (odds ratio = 16.8, 95% confidence interval = 2.7-105.8). The relationship between psychiatric morbidity and suicide risk varied with age and gender. The incidence of comorbidity was high: 56.6% of those who made serious suicide attempts had two or more disorders. The risk of a suicide attempt increased with increasing psychiatric morbidity: subjects with two or more disorders had odds of serious suicide attempts that were 89.7 times the odds of those with no psychiatric disorder. CONCLUSIONS Individuals who made serious suicide attempts had high rates of mental disorders and of comorbid disorders. Subjects with high levels of psychiatric comorbidity had markedly high risks of serious suicide attempts.
Consultations in the emergency department: a systematic review of the literature

Objectives: Consultation is a common and important aspect of emergency department (ED) practice which can lead to delays in patient flow. Little is known about ED consultations and this review systematically evaluated the literature on ED consultations. Methods: Comprehensive searches of MEDLINE, PUBMED, SCIRUS, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Health Star and other databases from 1966 to 2007 were performed. The grey literature and reference lists were searched and authors were contacted to identify other eligible studies. Published and unpublished studies reporting the proportion of consultations in the ED using any type of design were considered for this review. Eligible studies were required to involve patients presenting to the ED. Studies reporting on the proportion of consultation in a specific subpopulation of patients and interventions to improve consultations were also considered for inclusion. Two reviewers independently selected studies and extracted data from included studies regarding the proportion of consultations in the ED or the patient subgroup. Individual study proportions were calculated together with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: From more than 15 000 pre-screened citations, 12 studies were finally included in the review. All but three of the included studies were published. Overall, four studies examined ED consultation proportions, six identified the rate of consultation for special populations of ED presentations and two examined interventions to improve consultations. Consultation varied from 20% to 40% for all patients, with lower proportions in the selected populations studied and a high rate of hospitalisation for consulted patients. Limited research on interventions to improve the ED consultation process has also been completed. Conclusions: Consultation research in the emergency setting is limited and variable; however, high consultation rates exist in some centres. This systematic review outlines the current state of the literature and suggests that further research is urgently needed.
Genome-Wide Analysis of Chromosomal Features Repressing Human Immunodeficiency Virus Transcription

ABSTRACT We have investigated regulatory sequences in noncoding human DNA that are associated with repression of an integrated human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) promoter. HIV-1 integration results in the formation of precise and homogeneous junctions between viral and host DNA, but integration takes place at many locations. Thus, the variation in HIV-1 gene expression at different integration sites reports the activity of regulatory sequences at nearby chromosomal positions. Negative regulation of HIV transcription is of particular interest because of its association with maintaining HIV in a latent state in cells from infected patients. To identify chromosomal regulators of HIV transcription, we infected Jurkat T cells with an HIV-based vector transducing green fluorescent protein (GFP) and separated cells into populations containing well-expressed (GFP-positive) or poorly expressed (GFP-negative) proviruses. We then determined the chromosomal locations of the two classes by sequencing 971 junctions between viral and cellular DNA. Possible effects of endogenous cellular transcription were characterized by transcriptional profiling. Low-level GFP expression correlated with integration in (i) gene deserts, (ii) centromeric heterochromatin, and (iii) very highly expressed cellular genes. These data provide a genome-wide picture of chromosomal features that repress transcription and suggest models for transcriptional latency in cells from HIV-infected patients.
HIV Seroincidence Among Patients at Clinics for Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Nine Cities in the United States

Summary: Although the numbers of newly reported diagnoses of AIDS decreased in the 1990s, it is not clear whether they reflect a decreasing number of new HIV infections. Direct measurement of HIV incidence through follow‐up cohort studies is difficult and costly. We estimated HIV incidence and trends in incidence among men who have sex with men (MSM) and heterosexual men and women at clinics for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) by using a recently developed serologic testing algorithm that requires only a single blood specimen. Cross‐sectional anonymous serosurveys were conducted at 13 STD clinics in nine cities in the United States from 1991 through 1997. Before anonymous HIV testing, demographic and clinical information was abstracted. Of 129,774 specimens tested, 362 (0.28%) were from persons estimated to be recently infected. Incidence among MSM was 7.1% (95% confidence interval (CI): 4.8‐10.3), 14 times higher than that among heterosexuals, which was 0.5% (CI: 0.4‐ 0.7). Incidence among MSM and heterosexuals remained unchanged during the time studied. Decreasing rates of new AIDS diagnoses in the 1990s do not reflect stable rates of new HIV infections among MSM and heterosexual patients attending these clinics.
Female Leadership in a Rural School: A Feminist Perspective

Abstract This qualitative narrative inquiry focused on relational female leadership and ethics of care from a feminist perspective. Female leadership in a rural educational setting called for in-depth qualitative inquiries specifically on the African continent. In this inquiry one female school principal was researched over a period of three years. Empirical data were sourced from observations and guided conversations. The research participant was a female school principal of a rural primary (elementary) school, taught reading classes, gathered food for the hungry learners in her school, has established a Non-Profit Organisation, educated parents, disciplined learners, chaired committees, managed the school finances, initiated school building projects, and even made time to share as research participant her roles as a leader. Her school was located in a disadvantaged community, where most learners lived in squatter camps, 85% of the parents were unemployed, many were refugees from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and many were orphaned, and most had only one meal per day, which was provided by the school. This narrative inquiry was framed in relational leadership and spoke to how the principal found grounding in the complex demands of the everyday school activities, while not neglecting to enact curriculum leadership.
Hopelessness and positive and negative future thinking in parasuicide.

OBJECTIVES Hopelessness about the future is a key element in suicidal behaviour. The aim of the present study was to examine possible components of hopelessness, in particular, to contrast positive and negative future thinking and to examine separately number, expectancy, and value of anticipated positive and negative future experiences. DESIGN A correlational design. METHOD Repeat parasuicide patients (N = 441) were administered the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the future thinking task, a measure of future positive and negative thinking that assesses number, perceived likelihood, and perceived value of anticipated future positive and negative events. RESULTS Consistent with predictions, hopelessness correlated more strongly with lack of positive thoughts about the future than it did with presence of negative thoughts. Both positive and negative future thinking showed a relationship to hopelessness over and above their relationships to depression (positive future thinking) and anxiety (negative future thinking). Number and likelihood of positive events and likelihood and value of negative events showed both simple and partial relationships to hopelessness. Number of negative events related to hopelessness but only after the other future thinking variables had been controlled for and value of positive events no longer related to hopelessness after controlling for the other variables. CONCLUSIONS Hopelessness about the future in suicidal individuals is a multi-faceted construct but lack of positive future thinking is more important than presence of negative future thinking.
Value of magnifying chromoendoscopy and narrow band imaging (NBI) in classifying colorectal polyps: a prospective controlled study.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS Chromoendoscopy in combination with magnifying endoscopy is useful in distinguishing neoplastic from non-neoplastic colorectal polyps. Narrow band imaging (NBI) has been developed as a new technique to differentiate tissue patterns in vivo. The aim of the present study was to directly compare the diagnostic values of chromoendoscopy and NBI for the differentiation of neoplastic from non-neoplastic colorectal polyps. PATIENTS AND METHODS In total, 200 colorectal polyps from 99 patients were distributed in a 1 : 1 ratio in order to analyze the surface according to the pit pattern classification and vascular patterns by either magnifying chromoendoscopy or NBI magnification. Histologic analysis was performed on all lesions. RESULTS Using the Kudo classification of mucosal patterns, NBI with magnification resulted in a sensitivity of 90.5 % and a specificity of 89.2 % for the differentiation of neoplastic vs. non-neoplastic lesions. This performance was comparable to magnifying chromoendoscopy with a sensitivity of 91.7 % and a specificity of 90 %, respectively. Using vascular patterns for differentiation, NBI with magnification correctly identified 93.7 % of neoplastic polyps and 89.2 % of non-neoplastic colorectal lesions, whereas magnifying chromoendoscopy had a specificity of 95 % but a sensitivity of only 66.7 %. CONCLUSION NBI in combination with magnifying endoscopy is a promising tool for the differentiation of neoplastic from non-neoplastic colorectal polyps in vivo without the necessity of using dye. The detection of capillary vessels with NBI allows the evaluation of colorectal lesions based on the vascular patterns with high diagnostic accuracy.