Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Original Articles Prevalence, Types and Predictors of Illicit Substance Use among the Hashemite University Students in Jordan

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of illicit substance use among Hashemite University (HU) students, identify the types of substances frequently used, and identify variables that best predict substance use. Materials and Methods: Data were collected from 835 students studying at HU selected through stratified random sampling using an instrument developed and modified by the researchers. Results: Hundred forty five (17.5 %) of the participants indicated that they used at least one of the illicit substances during their entire life. Alcohol was found to be the most widely used substance among students, followed by Central Nervous System (CNS) depressants. The level of education of parents was found to be the best predictor of illicit substance use and explain for 6.2% of the total variance. Conclusions: This study shed light on the importance of health education programs at schools and universities especially for those students who are vulnerable to substance use. Also, parents, teachers and school administrators are responsible for watching the students and encouraging them to use more effective and adaptive ways for coping than using illicit substances.
Correlation Between PET/CT Parameters and KRAS Expression in Colorectal Cancer

Purpose The objective of this study was to correlate the association between mutated KRAS and wild-type colorectal cancer (CRC) by using various 18F-FDG PET–related parameters. Methods One hundred twenty-one CRC patients who had undergone preoperative PET/CT were included in this study. Several PET/CT-related parameters, including SUVmax and various thresholds of metabolic tumor volume, total lesion glycolysis, and PET/CT-based tumor width, were measured. Tumor- and PET/CT-related parameters were correlated with genomic expression between KRAS mutant and wild-type groups, using a Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression analysis. Results Colorectal cancer tumors with a mutated KRAS exhibited higher SUVmax and an increased accumulation of FDG among several threshold methods. Multivariate analysis showed that SUVmax and using a 40% threshold level for maximal uptake of TW (TW40%) were the 2 predictors of KRAS mutations. The odds ratio was 1.23 for SUVmax (P = 0.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.01–1.52) and 1.15 for TW40% (P = 0.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.02–1.30). The accuracy of SUVmax for predicting mutated KRAS was higher in patients with colon or sigmoid colon cancers, whereas it was TW40% in those with rectal cancers. Conclusions SUVmax and TW40% were associated in CRC with KRAS mutations. PET/CT parameters can supplement genomic analysis to determine KRAS expression in CRC.
Roles of Myofibroblasts and Notch and Hedgehog Signaling Pathways in the Formation of Intrahepatic Bile Duct Lesions in Polycystic Kidney Rats

Polycystic kidney (PCK) rats, an animal model of Caroli's disease, show a dilatation of intrahepatic bile ducts (IHBD) called “ductal plate malformation. ” Mesenchymal cells and the Notch and Hedgehog signaling pathways in portal tracts are reportedly involved in the normal development of IHBD, although there have been no studies on the roles of these signaling pathways in PCK rats. We immunohistochemically examined the expression of the molecules related to these signaling pathways in portal tracts. All molecules related to these signaling pathways expressed in portal tracts in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats (control) were also expressed in PCK rats. Mesenchymal cells (myofibroblasts) were frequently found in the connective tissue of portal tracts of 20 embryonic-day-old (E20D), 1-day-old (1D), and 1-week-old (1W) SD and PCK rats and were abundant in PCK rats. Interestingly, myofibroblasts almost disappeared at in both strains of 3W rats. Jagged1 was expressed in mesenchymal cells in portal tracts and was abundant in PCK rats. Double immunostaining showed that Jagged1-positive cells were myofibroblasts. Notch2 and HES1 were expressed in cholangiocytes of the bile ducts of both rats. Sonic Hedgehog was similarly expressed in the bile ducts of both rats. A well-balanced and time-sequential expression of the Notch and Hedgehog family in portal tracts might be essential for the normal development of IHBD in E20D to 1W SD rats, and an imbalanced interaction of these molecules, particularly increased Jagged1 expression in periductal and periportal myofibroblasts and Notch2 expressed in cholangiocytes, may be involved in the formation of bile duct lesions in PCK rats.
Prevalence of Human Papillomavirus Types in Invasive Vulvar Cancers and Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia 3 in the United States Before Vaccine Introduction

Objective The study aimed to determine the baseline prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) types in invasive vulvar cancer (IVC) and vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia 3 (VIN 3) cases using data from 7 US cancer registries. Materials and Methods Registries identified eligible cases diagnosed in 1994 to 2005 and requested pathology laboratories to prepare 1 representative block for HPV testing on those selected. Hematoxylin-eosin–stained sections preceding and following those used for extraction were reviewed to confirm representation. Human papillomavirus was detected using L1 consensus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with PGMY9/11 primers and type-specific hybridization, with retesting of samples with negative and inadequate results with SPF10 primers. For IVC, the confirmatory hematoxylin-eosin slides were re-evaluated to determine histological type. Descriptive analyses were performed to examine distributions of HPV by histology and other factors. Results Human papillomavirus was detected in 121/176 (68.8%) cases of IVC and 66/68 (97.1%) cases of VIN 3 (p < .0001). Patients with IVC and VIN 3 differed by median age (70 vs 55 y, p = .003). Human papillomavirus 16 was present in 48.6% of IVC cases and 80.9% of VIN 3 cases; other high-risk HPV was present in 19.2% of IVC cases and 13.2% of VIN 3 cases. Prevalence of HPV differed by squamous cell carcinoma histological subtype (p < .0001) as follows: keratinizing, 49.1% (n = 55); nonkeratinizing, 85.7% (n = 14), basaloid, 92.3% (n = 14), warty 78.2% (n = 55), and mixed warty/basaloid, 100% (n = 7). Conclusions Nearly all cases of VIN 3 and two thirds of IVC cases were positive for high-risk HPV. Prevalence of HPV ranged from 49.1% to 100% across squamous cell carcinoma histological subtypes. Given the high prevalence of HPV in IVC and VIN 3 cases, prophylactic vaccines have the potential to decrease the incidence of vulvar neoplasia.
Content Classification Based Reference Frame Reduction and Machine Learning Based Non-square Block Partition Skipping for Inter Prediction of Screen Content Coding

Screen Content Coding (SCC) is the extension of the latest video compression standard High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). SCC is mainly developed for reducing the bit-rate of videos generated from computers. However, under inter configuration, SCC has large complexity which brings heavy burden to encoding. This paper proposes a content classification based reference frame reduction method and a non-square prediction unit (PU) skipping method to accelerate SCC. In reference frame reduction method, according to number of colors, input coding tree unit (CTUs) will be divided into two classes: natural contents and screen contents. For each class, reference frame can be reduced based on different standard. In PU partition skipping method, five features are extracted from a CTU. The classic learning tool SVM is used to classify CTUs, then six non-square PU partition in depth 1, 2, 3 can be skipped. Finally, 40.83% encoding time saving on average is achieved with only 0.71% BD-rate degradation compared with SCC reference software (SCM6.0).
Effects of Sorghum Malting on Colour, Major Classes of Phenolics and Individual Anthocyanins

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) grain contains many health-promoting phytochemicals, including a broad range of phenolic compounds. Malting of cereal grains is known to increase the bioavailability of macro- and micronutrients. However, the detailed effects of malting on sorghum grain anthocyanins, a major class of phenolics that influence the taste and colour of sorghum-based foods, requires further investigation. Eight commercial sorghum hybrids harvested from three regions in eastern Australia were malted and analysed for colour, tannin content, total phenolic content (TPC), flavan-4-ols, total flavonoids, total anthocyanins and 3-deoxyanthocyanins. Grains of all the sorghums were found to be tannin-free. Malting decreased the TPC of all samples. For TPC, the grand means among all the sorghum cultivars for raw and malted grain were 2.77 and 2.48 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g, respectively. For flavan-4-ols, the grand means for raw and malted sorghum grains were 2.98 and 2.23 abs/mL/g, respectively. Remarkably, total anthocyanin levels more than doubled upon malting whereas total flavonoid levels decreased by 12%. The average abundance of 3-deoxyanthocyanins in raw sorghum grains increased for about 8-fold upon malting. Our results will be valuable for sorghum breeders in the selection of lines for specific end uses and for food scientists developing sorghum-based products.
Normative estimates of cross-sectional and longitudinal brain volume decline in aging and AD

Objective: To test the hypotheses 1) that whole-brain volume decline begins in early adulthood, 2) that cross-sectional and longitudinal atrophy estimates agree in older, nondemented individuals, and 3) that longitudinal atrophy accelerates in the earliest stages of Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods: High-resolution, high-contrast structural MRIs were obtained from 370 adults (age 18 to 97). Participants over 65 (n = 192) were characterized using the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) as either nondemented (CDR 0, n = 94) or with very mild to mild dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT, CDR 0.5 and 1, n = 98). Of these older participants, 79 belonged to a longitudinal cohort and were imaged again a mean 1.8 years after baseline. Estimates of gray matter (nGM), white matter (nWM), and whole-brain volume (nWBV) normalized for head sizes were generated based on atlas registration and image segmentation. Results: Hierarchical regression of nWBV estimates from nondemented individuals across the adult lifespan revealed a strong linear, moderate quadratic pattern of decline beginning in early adulthood, with later onset of nWM than nGM loss. Whole-brain volume differences were detected by age 30. The cross-sectional atrophy model overlapped with the rates measured longitudinally in older, nondemented individuals (mean decline of −0.45% per year). In those individuals with very mild DAT, atrophy rate more than doubled (−0.98% per year). Conclusions: Nondemented individuals exhibit a slow rate of whole-brain atrophy from early in adulthood with white-matter loss beginning in middle age; in older adults, the onset of dementia of the Alzheimer type is associated with a markedly accelerated atrophy rate.
Agenda Setting and the Policy Process: Focusing Events

Agenda setting is a crucial aspect of the public policy process. Sudden, rare, and harmful events, known as focusing events, can be important influences on the policy process. Such events can reveal current and potential future harms, mobilize people and groups to address the policy failures that may be revealed by such events, and open the “window of opportunity” for intensive policy discussion and potential policy change. But focusing events operate differently at different times and in different policy domains. Although the idea of focusing events is firmly rooted in Kingdon’s “streams approach” to the policy process, focusing events are an important element of most contemporary theories of the policy process. But not every event works as a focusing event. The process by which a focusing event can yield policy change is complex and involves attention to the problems revealed by the event as well as evidence of learning from the event on the part of policymakers. Although focusing events are important, in many ways the concept remains underdeveloped, with few researchers seeking to understand the dynamics of these important events.
Does Compulsory Education Really Increase Life Satisfaction

This paper examines the impact of the 1972 British education reform on life satisfaction using 1996-2008 British Household Panel Survey data. The education reform increased compulsory education by one year for those who were born after the 1st of September 1957, yielding an exogenous change in education for the treated group. Contrary to other work, we find no evidence that a one-year rise in compulsory education increased life satisfaction, even though it is often estimated to increase income. Many of our estimates suggest a negative relationship: the positive life-satisfaction effect found in research using earlier data does not then seem to have endured.
Neuroprotective Effect of Fagopyrum dibotrys Extract against Alzheimer's Disease

Accumulated evidence suggests that polyphenolic antioxidants present in herbs play important roles in prevention of AD; the molecular mechanisms behind neuroprotective actions rely on the phenols through different effects on the amyloid-aggregation pathway. Fagopyrum dibotrys is a traditional herbal medicine which contains high quantity phenols. In present study, we investigate the beneficial pharmacological actions of Fagopyrum dibotrys extract in the APP/PS1 transgenic mouse mode; meanwhile, effects of the FDE on the fibrillation and cytotoxicity of Aβ peptide were evaluated in vitro. After 9-month treatment, FDE exhibited multifunctional properties on Aβ-related pathologies, which cleaned Aβ deposits in the brain and decreased Aβ burden in the plasma, inhibited microhaemorrhage, and reduced reactive microglia in APP/PS1 transgenic mice and also promoted Aβ fibrils disaggregation and inhibited neurotoxicity induced by Aβ in SH-SY5Y cells. These results highlighted that FDE is an AD type pathology modulator with therapeutic potential against AD.
Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein 1, Active Carboxypeptidase B and CAPAP at Hospital Admission Are Predictive Markers for Severe Acute Pancreatitis

Background: CAPAP, the activation peptide of procarboxypeptidase B, is a predictor of severe acute pancreatitis (AP). Active carboxypeptidase (aCAP) may be a better predictor, as its turnover is slower. Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) is an early inflammatory marker and increases before complications in severe AP. We conducted a cohort study to evaluate these markers as predictors for severe AP. Method: 140 patients with AP were included, retrospectively grouped as severe or mild by the Atlanta classification. CAPAP, MCP-1 and aCAP were analyzed in admission samples. Receiver operating characteristic curves determined high vs. low levels. Results: The levels of all markers were significantly higher in patients with severe disease. High levels of serum MCP-1 was associated with a high risk of developing severe AP (OR 40.8; 95% CI 8.5–195). High ORs were also seen for urine MCP-1 (OR 7.3; 95% CI 2.2–24.3), serum CAPAP (OR 5.4; 95% CI 1.6–17.7), urine CAPAP (OR 4.8; 95% CI 1.6–14.2), and serum aCAP (OR 3.7; 95% CI 1.2–11.3). Conclusion: Serum MCP-1 at admission was strongly associated with development of severe AP. MCP-1 in urine, CAPAP in serum and urine and aCAP may also be useful for predicting severe AP.
Saccade and vergence eye movements: a review of motor and premotor commands

Neuropsychology examines the relationship between cognitive activity and corresponding cerebral conditions. At one end, psychophysics meticulously describes the details of behavior. At the other, physiology records brain cell activity during cognitive tasks. Bridging the two, neuropsychology establishes the neural correlate of behaviour when correlation methods are used, and extends to the critical neural substrate when a causal relationship can be established. Here we revisit the Hering‐versus‐Helmholtz controversy on binocular coordination from the psychophysician's description of combined saccade‐vergence eye movements to the neurophysiological recording of motor and premotor neurons of the oculomotor neural circuitry. Whilst neo‐Heringian psychophysicians and physiologists have accumulated arguments for separate saccade and vergence systems, at both the behavioral and the neural premotor levels, neo‐Helmholtzians have also provided evidence for monocular programmed eye movements and commands at the premotor level. Bridging the two, we conclude that Hering and Helmholtz were both right. Importantly, the latter's viewpoint brings to the fore the importance of adaptive processes throughout life, in view of the neurobiological constraints emphasized by the former.
Placental Inflammatory Response Is Associated With Poor Neonatal Growth: Preterm Birth Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether placental markers of intrauterine inflammation were associated with poor weight gain among premature infants in the neonatal period. METHODS: We reviewed 697 preterm births prospectively enrolled as part of an ongoing molecular epidemiological study. Placental markers and serial weight gain were analyzed for premature infants who were hospitalized for ≥21 days (N = 256). Placentas were examined for maternal inflammatory response (MIR), defined as subchorionitis, chorioamnionitis, deciduitis, or free membranitis, and fetal inflammatory response (FIR), defined as inflammation extending to the umbilical cord or chorionic plate. Multivariate linear regression and stratified analyses were performed. RESULTS: Decreases in weight gain at day 21 were associated with the presence of either MIR or FIR (β coefficient = −4.63 ± 1.41; P = .001). The association was stronger with FIR than MIR (P for trend = .0027) and persisted in the remaining hospitalized infants at day 28 (n = 223; β coefficient = −5.53 ± 1.85; P = .0028). Mean body weights were similar among the 3 groups by corrected age of 36 weeks or discharge, whichever came first. Associations between placental inflammation and poor growth persisted among infants with prenatal corticosteroid exposure and/or neonatal complications and remained marginally significant in the nonexposed groups. Among infants without intrauterine growth restriction, significant association persisted (n = 186; β coefficient = −5.68 ± 1.56; P = .0003). CONCLUSIONS: Placental inflammation is associated with poor neonatal growth. MIR and FIR may be useful markers for identifying infants at risk for postnatal growth failure.
Correlation between biofilm production, antibiotic susceptibility and exopolysaccharide composition in Burkholderia pseudomallei bpsI, ppk, and rpoS mutant strains

Burkholderia pseudomallei is the cause of melioidosis, a fatal tropical infectious disease, which has been reported to have a high rate of recurrence, even when an intensive dose of antibiotics is used. Biofilm formation is believed to be one of the possible causes of relapse because of its ability to increase drug resistance. EPS in biofilms have been reported to be related to the limitation of antibiotic penetration in B. pseudomallei. However, the mechanisms by which biofilms restrict the diffusion of antibiotics remain unclear. The present study presents a correlation between exopolysaccharide production in biofilm matrix and antibiotic resistance in B. pseudomallei using bpsI, ppk, and rpoS mutant strains. CLSM revealed a reduction in exopolysaccharide production and disabled micro‐colony formation in B. pseudomallei mutants, which paralleled the antibiotic resistance. Different ratios of carbohydrate contents in the exopolysaccharides of the mutants were detected, although they have the same components, including glucose, galactose, mannose, and rhamnose, with the exception being that no detectable rhamnose peak was observed in the bpsI mutant. These results indicate that the correlation between these phenomena in the B. pseudomallei biofilm at least results from the exopolysaccharide, which may be under the regulation of bpsI, ppk, or rpoS genes.
Pharmacokinetics of terbinafine and five known metabolites in children, after oral administration

As an extensive study, the pharmacokinetics of terbinafine and five known metabolites have been investigated after single and repeated oral administration to 12 pediatric patients. After single administration of 125 mg terbinafine, four compounds were unconjugated and the hydroxymetabolites appeared in trace amounts as glucuronides. The main metabolites in plasma were unconjugated carboxy compounds. Kinetics of terbinafine and N‐desmethylterbinafine metabolite were comparable. The interindividual AUCt variability was similar for terbinafine, N‐desmethylterbinafine and carboxyterbinafine. In urine, the major fraction was the hydrophilic unconjugated N‐desmethyl‐carboxyterbinafine (15%). After repeated administration of 125 mg day−1, mean trough levels of terbinafine, N‐desmethylterbinafine, carboxyterbinafine and N‐desmethylhydroxy‐terbinafine, and also that of hydroxyterbinafine metabolite were similar, for each compound, on days 21, 42 and 56 denoting that steady state was reached at least on day 21 and no accumulation occurred between days 21 and 56. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
What role for trade in food sovereignty? Insights from a small island archipelago

The food sovereignty movement has been gathering momentum in advocating the rights of individuals and nations to control their own food systems. Alongside this is a mounting critical engagement regarding its privileging of local food production as the means through which to achieve this goal. Adopting a place-based approach, we explore the foodways of diverse communities across a small island archipelago – the Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies. Based on interviews and focus groups, we unpack narratives relating to islanders’ changing food practices and aspirations. These are understood as two competing but inter-related themes of disruption and reification of current practices shaped by wider food regimes in interaction with ecological challenges. Given that conditions of historic dependency implicate the islands in a myriad of dependent trade relationships, we argue that small island economies offer, and require, unique cases for understanding how sovereign conditions for trade might be developed in line with a food sovereignty framework. We underline the importance of an inter-disciplinary focus for bringing forth a nuanced understanding of what might be required to shape more sustainable, sovereign and secure food futures. Doing so is necessarily rooted in an appreciation of islanders’ accounts of social, economic, political and ecological change over time.