Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Traumatic Stress and Children

����� News reports, official statistics, and research data indicate that relatively large numbers of inner-city children are exposed to violence on a regular basis. Furthermore, the exposure occurs in such a manner that it and its pernicious effects are often subtle and underestimated. While child victims of violence elicit considerable concern, and rightfully so, many more children witness extreme acts of violence, often perpetrated against family and friends. This direct observation of the violent assault of another person, referred to as "co-victimization" by Shakoor1, is frequently accompanied by immersion in a violent milieu in which the child is in constant danger if, in fact, never actuaUy victimized. Such exposure to violence has serious consequences for the child's mental health, often resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms similar to those resulting from direct victimization. In the absence of understanding the symptoms and the circumstances under which they occur, the child's dysfunctional behavior, which often includes poor achievement and acting out, maybe misinterpreted, inaccurately diagnosed, and inappropriately treated. This paper discusses black youths' exposure to violence, the traumatic
Practice Profiles in Breast Reduction: A Survey Among Canadian Plastic Surgeons

Background Breast reduction is an increasingly common procedure performed by Canadian plastic surgeons. Recent studies in the United States show that use of the inferior/central pedicle inverted T scar method is predominant. However, it is unknown what the practice preferences are among Canadian plastic surgeons. Objective The goal of the present study was to assess trends in breast reduction surgery among Canadian surgeons, including patient selection criteria, surgical techniques and outcomes. Method Surveys were distributed to plastic surgeons at the Canadian Society for Plastic Surgery meetings in 2005 and 2006. Completed surveys were obtained from 140 respondents, and results were analyzed with Excel and SAS software. Results There was a 40% response rate. The majority of surgeons (66%) used more than one technique for breast reduction. Most commonly, surgeons use the inverted T scar technique (66%) followed by vertical scar techniques (26%). The most popular vertical scar techniques included the Hall-Findlay (14%) and Lejour (13%) methods. Most surgeons (55%) reported complication rates of less than 5% and the most common complication reported was wound dehiscence. There was no difference in overall complication rates between inverted T scar and vertical scar surgeries. The majority of surgeons (98%) carried out breast reduction either exclusively as day surgery or in combination with same-day admission. Breast reduction performed as day surgery resulted in cost savings of $873 per patient. Conclusions Canadian plastic surgeons are performing more vertical scar breast reductions than American surgeons. However, both groups rely predominantly on inverted T scar techniques.
Older adults in cardiac rehabilitation: a new strategy for enhancing physical function.

PURPOSE This study contrasted the effect of a group-mediated cognitive-behavioral intervention (GMCB) versus traditional cardiac rehabilitation (CRP) upon changes in objective and self-reported physical function of older adults [mean (SD) age of 64.7 (7.5) yr] after 3 months of exercise therapy. METHODS This randomized clinical trial enrolled 147 participants who were eligible for inclusion into cardiac rehabilitation. Baseline to 3-month changes in self-reported and performance related measures of physical function were assessed using a physical functioning questionnaire, a 6-min walk test, and measured MET levels. RESULTS Paired t-tests revealed that participants made improvements in all measures across the first 3 months of the study, irrespective of group treatment (P < 0.001). General linear models including effects for baseline levels of physical function, treatment, and gender revealed that lower functioning men in the GMCB treatment made greater improvements than any other subgroup on the two performance outcomes: 6-min walk and measured MET levels (P < 0.01). Gender did not moderate change in self-reported level of physical function (P > 0.05); however, the lower functioning participants in the GMCB intervention experienced greater improvements in self-reported physical function than those in CRP (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Exercise therapy is a valuable intervention for improving physical function of older adults with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and those at increased risk for CVD. Baseline level of physical function and gender are important variables to consider when studying the relationship between exercise therapy and improvements in physical function.
The Square of a Map, Symbolic Dynamics and the Conley Index

We consider a map f from a locally compact metric space to itself, and use the discrete Conley index to study the dierence between the local dynamics of f and f 2 . In particular, we present a method, based on work by Mischaikow, Szymczak, et al., for detecting positive entropy symbolic dynamics by measuring the dierence between Conley indices for f and f 2 .
Effect of tear hyperosmolarity and signs of clinical ocular surface pathology upon conjunctival goblet cell function in the human ocular surface.

PURPOSE To investigate the effect of tear hyperosmolarity and signs of clinical ocular surface pathology on conjunctival goblet cell population. METHODS 111 participants were assessed using tear osmolarity (TO) measurements and a comprehensive selection of clinical ophthalmic tests. The resultant clinical database was assessed for evidence of patterns of composite increasing pathology. The total, filled, and empty goblet cell numbers were measured: total number of goblet cells as per cytokeratin 7 (CK7) immunofluorescence and number of filled goblet cells as per periodic acid Schiff's reagent (PAS) or lectin helix pomatia agglutinin (HPA). Goblet cell profile was correlated with composite clinical pathologic grades. RESULTS No significant correlation was found between TO and goblet cell number or function (as indicated by number of filled or unfilled goblet cells). Distinct composite clinical pathologic groups 0-IV with increasing pathology were created based on the frequency of positive pathologic signs, which adhered to the Dry Eye Workshop purported mechanism. Only in group IV was there significantly increased mean tear osmolarity of 344 mOsm/L (P < 0.000) along with significantly decreased empty goblet cell number (CK7+ and HPA-) compared to filled (CK7+ and HPA+, P = 0.000). When the number of filled goblet cells (PAS+) was analyzed there was significant increase in tear osmolarity for the two most severe grades; 3 and 4. CONCLUSIONS The goblet cell population does not appear to be affected by isolated tear hyperosmolarity. Hyperosmolarity when combined with other ocular surface pathology or inflammation alters the goblet cell population.
[Interventional effect of platelet lysate on osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs in rats].

OBJECTIVE To explore the interventional effect of platelet lysate (PL) on osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs by induction in rats in vitro. METHODS Twenty-four clean-grade adult Wistar rats, weighing from 250 g to 300 g, male or female, were included in this study. PL was obtained through three times of centrifugation and repeated freeze-thaw for the blood aspirated from cardiac cavities in 16 Wistar rats. ELISA assay was conducted to detect the concentration of growth factors PDGF, TGF-beta1, IGF-1 and VEGF in PL. The BMSCs harvested by flushing femurs of 8 adult Wistar rats were isolated, cultivated and expanded in vitro. The cells at the 4 passage were performed for osteogenic differentiation by induction in three groups of A (5% PL of final concentration in basic induction medium), B (1% PL of final concentration in basic induction medium), and C (no presence of PL in basic induction medium as a control). The morphological changes of the cells were dynamically observed with inverted phase contrast microscope during the whole period. At different time-points, ALP staining (7 days) and ALP/TP (2, 8, 12 days) of the cells were detected to evaluate ALP activity, and the mineral formation in extracellular matrix was examined with Alizarin red staining which provided quantitative analysis of mineral deposits. RESULTS ELISA assay showed that the content of PDGF, TGF-beta1, IGF-1 and VEGF in PL reached (300 +/- 30), (140 +/- 25), (80 +/- 35), (70 +/- 20) pg/mL, respectively. Morphological observation displayed BMSCs in group A or B gradually turned from spindle-shape to square- or polygon-shape as the morphological type of osteoblast-like cells at 7 days. The cells in group A showed slower shape changes but higher proliferation than that in group B or C. Moreover, at the 20 days, the cells in group A still displayed dense growth and produced obviously decreased amount of mineral deposits in ECM when compared with group B or C. At the 7 days, the cells of group A showed smaller amount of granules positive for ALP staining in cytoplasm when compared with groups B and C, and displayed marked reduction in ALP activity assay at the 2, 8, and 10 days compared with that of groups B and C (P < 0.05). At the 20 days, Alizarin red staining showed the number of mineral deposits in groups A, B and C were 7.67 +/- 1.10, 12.87 +/- 0.81 and 15.59 +/- 0.25, respectively, while the area of mineral deposits were (161 778.70 +/- 44 550.80), (337 349.70 +/- 56 083.24), and (415 921.70 +/- 71 725.39) pixels, respectively. The number of mineral deposits and the area of mineral deposits in group A were smaller than those in groups B and C (P < 0.05). But there was no statistically significant difference between groups B and C (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION PL is a kind of system carrying various growth factors. Exposure of PL inhibits both ALP activity and mineral formation of BMCs in a dose-dependent way under the osteogenic induction environment.
INSTRUMENTAL APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING MESOAMERICAN ECONOMY: ELUSIVE PROMISES

Abstract More than four decades ago, instrumental developments, such as those involving neutron activation and X-ray florescence, began to generate relatively large quantities of data from the analysis of archaeological materials. These data served as the basis for many models of long-distance exchange as a means of explaining the development of cultural complexity. I review aspects of this early history and the how use of compositional data is now more directed toward localized investigations of economic activity. Even with this refocus of research interest, studies involving material characterization appear to be declining. Using traditional citation, personal experience, and highly selective examples, I discuss the use of analytical techniques for studies of long-distance trade, as it developed and now confronts interpretive difficulties that are inherent in the data and rendered more so by use of abstract constructs and resource limitations.
Learning Deep Neural Network Control Policies for Agile Off-Road Autonomous Driving

We present an end-to-end learning system for agile, off-road autonomous driving using only low-cost on-board sensors. By imitating an optimal controller, we train a deep neural network control policy to map raw, high-dimensional observations to continuous steering and throttle commands, the latter of which is essential to successfully drive on varied terrain at high speed. Compared with recent approaches to similar tasks, our method requires neither state estimation nor online planning to navigate the vehicle. Real-world experimental results demonstrate successful autonomous driving, matching the state-of-the-art performance
Risk Assessment and Offender–Victim Relationship in Juvenile Offenders

The present study compares the Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management–20 (HCR-20) checklist in a male offender population of 108 adolescents using the relationship between the offender and the victim as a classification factor. Two types of relationship were retained for comparison purposes: family victim/known victim and unknown victim. All adolescents admitted to the Adolescent program of Montréal's Philippe-Pinel Institute from February 1998 to April 2003 were assessed and their families were met. The HCR-20 checklist was completed for each adolescent. Statistically significant differences were observed for the mean rank of the total score of the HCR-20 and two sub-scales, the historical subscale (H) and the risk management subscale (R). The results indicate that the adolescents who victimize strangers have more violent risk factors compared to those who victimize family/known victims. These results have important implications regarding prevention and treatment.
An exact SER expression for QPSK OFDM system in presence of residual CFO and STO

In this paper exact closed form expressions of the symbol error rate (SER) are derived for a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system in presence of both residual carrier frequency offset (CFO) and symbol timing offset (STO). Analytical expressions for SER computation are given for transmission over additive white Gaussian noise and frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels. Enumerative results for each SER expression are given and verified through a comparison with Monte Carlo simulations.
GASTROINTESTINAL COLONISATION OF VANCOMYCIN‐RESISTANT ENTEROCOCCUS IN A SINGAPORE TEACHING HOSPITAL

Summary Vancomycin‐resistant enterococcus (VRE) has become an important nosocomial pathogen in many countries but is still rare in Singapore. A study was conducted from January to March 1997 at a 900‐bed teaching hospital to determine the prevalence of intestinal colonisation of VRE in the patient population. A total of 299 consecutive stool specimens received by the microbiology laboratory for routine testing were plated onto two different selective media for comparison. VRE isolated were phenotypically characterised using minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) to vancomycin and teicoplanin and then typed using pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with Sma I digestion of DNA. VRE were detected in the stool of 35 patients (12.3%). This group consisted of four isolates with VanB (one Enterococcus faecalis and three E. faecium ) and 31 isolates with VanC (30 E. casseliflavus and one E. gallinarum). Two patients (0.7%) carried isolates (both VanB) with high level resistance to vancomycin (MIC ≥ 256 μg/ml) while the rest had isolates of low level resistance (MIC = 8 μg/ml). Except for isolates from the same patients, PFGE patterns were diverse, suggesting that the VRE isolates were genotypically different and possibly introduced from many sources. This study demonstrates that VRE colonisation is not uncommon in the Singapore patient population.Abbreviations: BHIA, brain heart infusion agar; HLAR, high‐level aminoglycoside resistance; MHA, Mueller‐Hinton agar; MIC, inimum inhibitory concentration; NCCLS, National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards; PFGE, pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis; QC, quality control; VRE, vancomycin‐resistant enterococcus.
Probabilistic Assessment of Civil Infrastructure Resilience to Earthquakes

The large losses occurred in the past due to earthquakes, even in highly developed countries, as well as the ensuing prolonged inactivity of the stricken societies, imparted momentum to research into regional seismic impact and community resilience to earthquakes. Need for comprehensive and consistent modeling is apparent, and this work presents a contribution in this direction. The extension of a recently developed civil infrastructure simulation framework to the evaluation of resilience, as well as the introduction of a new infrastructure network‐based resilience metric represent the novelties of the article and allow one to explore the effect that sources of uncertainty and key vulnerability factors have on the probability distribution of resilience.
Lipoatrophic Diabetes-Associated Utero-Ovarian Dysfunction: Influence of Cellular Lipid Deposition on Norepinephrine Indices

Objective: Elucidation of the intracellular lipoatrophic diabetic state and the concomitant alterations in norepinephrine (NE) parameters characterizing female reproductive failure. Methods: Quantitation of intrinsic NE levels in utero-ovarian and pancreatic tissue samples of C57BL/KsJ (+/? ) control and (db/db) diabetic littermate mice was by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and compared with the microspectrofluorometric histofluorescent (HF) localization of cellular and parenchymal NE. Results: Diabetes-associated elevations in HPLC-detectable tissue NE concentrations occurred in all pancreatic and reproductive tract tissue samples as compared to control-matched samples, whereas concurrent HF analysis revealed suppressed perivascular and parenchymal NE depositions in diabetic mice. Conclusions: These data suggest that progressive hypertriglyceridemia/lipidemia may suppress the effectiveness of intrinsic elevations in tissue NE concentrations from effectively counterregulating the deleterious effects of the hyperglycemic, type-2 diabetic condition.
Nanog promotes osteogenic differentiation of the mouse mesenchymal cell line C3H10T1/2 by modulating bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling

How the pluripotency of stem cells is maintained and the role of transcription factors in this maintenance remain major questions. In the present study, in order to clarify the mechanism underlying the pluripotency of stem cells for the advancement of regenerative medicine, we examined the effect of forced Nanog expression in mesenchymal cells, with a particular focus on osteogenic differentiation. The human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) or mouse mesenchymal cell line C3H10T1/2 cells were transduced with the Nanog gene or control green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene by using retrovirus vectors. Short‐term, forced Nanog gene expression had few effects on the terminal osteogenic differentiation of either hMSCs or C3H10T1/2 cells. To determine its long‐term effects, we established C3H10T1/2 cells expressing Nanog constitutively. Constitutive Nanog expression strongly induced osteogenic differentiation of C3H10T1/2 cells. In regard to cell proliferation, constitutive Nanog expression only repressed the proliferation of the cells treated with rhBMP‐2. Moreover, Nanog also had the potential to promote the proliferation of C3H10T1/2 cells in the absence of rhBMP‐2. Constitutive Nanog expression enhanced phosphorylation of Smad1/5/8 and suppressed Cdk4 and cyclinD1. The promoter activities of both the osteocalcin and Id‐1 genes were activated in cells expressing Nanog constitutively. To identify downstream molecules of Nanog involved in the promotion of osteogenic differentiation, we performed a DNA microarray analysis and discovered that NFATc1 was one of the downstream effectors of Nanog. These results indicate that Nanog functions as a modulator of BMP signaling in C3H10T1/2 cells probably through a genome reprogramming process. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 163–171, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Nutritional impact of elevated calcium transport activity in carrots

Nutrition recommendations worldwide emphasize ingestion of plant-based diets rather than diets that rely primarily on animal products. However, this plant-based diet could limit the intake of essential nutrients such as calcium. Osteoporosis is one of the world's most prevalent nutritional disorders, and inadequate dietary calcium is a known contributor to the pathophysiology of this condition. Previously, we have modified carrots to express increased levels of a plant calcium transporter (sCAX1), and these plants contain ≈2-fold-higher calcium content in the edible portions of the carrots. However, it was unproven whether this change would increase the total amount of bioavailable calcium. In randomized trials, we labeled these modified carrots with isotopic calcium and fed them to mice and humans to assess calcium bioavailability. In mice feeding regimes (n = 120), we measured 45Ca incorporation into bones and determined that mice required twice the serving size of control carrots to obtain the calcium found in sCAX1 carrots. We used a dual-stable isotope method with 42Ca-labeled carrots and i.v. 46Ca to determine the absorption of calcium from these carrots in humans. In a cross-over study of 15 male and 15 female adults, we found that when people were fed sCAX1 and control carrots, total calcium absorption per 100 g of carrots was 41% ± 2% higher in sCAX1 carrots. Both the mice and human feeding studies demonstrate increased calcium absorption from sCAX1-expressing carrots compared with controls. These results demonstrate an alternative means of fortifying vegetables with bioavailable calcium.
Sensitivity analysis of voltage imbalance in distribution networks with rooftop PVs

A comprehensive voltage imbalance sensitivity analysis and stochastic evaluation based on the rating and location of single-phase grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic cells (PVs) in a residential low voltage distribution network are presented. The voltage imbalance at different locations along a feeder is investigated. In addition, the sensitivity analysis is performed for voltage imbalance in one feeder when PVs are installed in other feeders of the network. A stochastic evaluation based on Monte Carlo method is carried out to investigate the risk index of the non-standard voltage imbalance in the network in the presence of PVs. The network voltage imbalance characteristic based on different criteria of PV rating and location and network conditions is generalized. Improvement methods are proposed for voltage imbalance reduction and their efficacy is verified by comparing their risk index using Monte Carlo simulations.
Low hospital referral rates of school scoliosis screening positives in an urban district of mainland China

Abstract Significant prevalence rates of adolescent scoliosis in China were suggested in previous studies. However, school screenings for adolescent scoliosis have been suspended due to low rates of positive detection under the past screening system in China. The present study was undertaken to screen for adolescent scoliosis in middle school students under a modern assessment system in a district of Shanghai. We performed a population-based, cross-sectional study of a middle school scoliosis screening program in the Jingan district. In 2015, schoolchildren were initially screened by visual inspection of clinical signs and the forward-bending test. Suspected cases were referred for radiography in hospital for scoliosis diagnosis. A total of 5327 middle school students (grades 6–8) were screened with 520 (9.76%) positives (the positive rates of girls and boys at 15.28% and 4.59%, respectively) and no statistically significant difference among grades. Only 301 positives (57.9%) followed the referral for hospital radiography. There were 102 cases (33.9%) that were diagnosed with scoliosis by radiography criteria (Cobb angle ≥10°) including mild scoliosis (Cobb 10–25) for 94 cases and moderate scoliosis (Cobb 25–40) for 8 cases, and false-positives (Cobb 0) for 39 cases. The putative prevalence rate was estimated as 1.9% from the referred students. Under an accurate and modern assessment system, school screenings can detect scoliosis at a significant rate, but awareness of scoliosis risks is needed for residents in China to take up referrals for hospital diagnosis after school screenings.