Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corticotropin Releasing Hormone Stimulation Test and Nocturnal Cortisol Levels in Normal Children

ABSTRACT: This study examined hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning in a group (n = 25) of very carefully screened normal children with considerable attention to issues of adaptation and procedural stress. The subjects (mean age 10.3 ± 1.6 y) were selected as “supernormal” controls as a part of a large psychobiologic study of childhood depression. After careful acclimatization over 24 h, the subjects underwent all-night sampling of plasma cortisol every 20 min, then the following evening had a corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) stimulation test (using human CRH). Human CRH resulted in a rapid stimulation of adrenocorticotropin and cortisol. Adrenocorticotropin levels increased from 6.8 ± 3.5 (± SD) pmoI/L (30.7 ± 16.1 pg/dL) to a peak of 11.6 ± 5.5 pmol/L (52.9 ± 24.8 pg/mL) at 15 min with return to baseline levels by 60 min. Cortisol levels increased from 131.4 ± 59.7 nmol/ L (4.8 ± 2.2 Mg/dL) to a peak of 427.0 ± 113.5 nmol/L (15.5 ± 4.1 Mg/dL) at 30 min with return to baseline by 120 min. The cortisol peak was significantly greater (p < 0.05) in boys [474.6 ± 129.7 nmol/L (17.2 ± 4.7 ng/dL)] than in girls [366.9 ± 52.4 nmol/L (13.3 ± 1.9 ng/dL, p < 0.05)]. Age, body mass index, and pubertal status were not significantly related to hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis measures. Nocturnal cortisol reached a nadir at 160 ± 60 min after sleep onset (0102 h) and a peak 480 ± 60 min after sleep onset (0612 h). Nocturnal cortisol levels were significantly (positively) correlated with human CRH-stimulated cortisol (r = 0.56, p = 0.004). There was also significant correlation between sleep continuity and nocturnal cortisol (Spearman rho = −0.55, p = 0.005) and between sleep continuity and human CRH-stimulated cortisol (Spearman rho = −0.53, p = 0.008). These significant correlations across different stress measures indicate the importance of individual (subject) differences in patterns of stress response. These results also highlight the need to consider procedural, subjective, and psychologic factors when conducting tests measuring stress hormone levels in children.
History Spacebook: A Constructive Use of Wikis in Social Studies

This study examines student engagement and short-term and long-term achievement when a wiki was used constructively in place of traditional lecture to learn about the Civil Rights Movement. The study was conducted with students enrolled in two rural high school contemporary issues classes in the southeastern United States. The results indicated that participants in the experimental and control groups were engaged and enjoyed the topic that was studied. The participants in the experimental group showed significant increases in engagement while synthesizing information from numerous resources to develop wiki pages and while working collaboratively with other participants. There was no significant increase in short-term or long-term student achievement. Students in both groups enjoyed learning about the Civil Rights Movement, but several became emotional, voicing concerns. Comments included, “I hate the thought [of] that happening to people, and I couldn’t imagine going through that or watching others go through it. It was cruel and wrong and I don’t understand how people can hate someone on the basis of their skin. ” Another added, “it [Civil Rights Movement] is still a touchy subject,” and yet another said, “the Civil Rights Movement was a beautiful display of courage, support, and righteousness. ”
Relationship between local anti-sperm antibodies and sperm-mucus interaction in vitro and in vivo.

Sperm-mucus interaction under in-vitro or in-vivo conditions can be affected by local anti-sperm antibodies (ASA). In a prospective study, a mixed antiglobulin reaction (MAR) test, using immunoglobulin-coated red cells and spermatozoa, was used to detect the presence of IgG and/or IgA on the spermatozoal surface in 209 males of infertile partnerships. The results of direct MAR tests range from 0 to 100% and a significant correlation between MAR % IgG and MAR % IgA (r = 0.74) was found. MAR positive semen samples were significantly more frequent in the group of patients with an inadequate outcome of postcoital testing (PCT). The sperm-mucus interaction in vitro, evaluated by means of the in-vitro sperm-cervical mucus penetration test (SCMPT) with cervical mucus (CM) of patients' partners, was particularly related to spermatozoal surface antibodies of the IgA class: MAR IgA positive ejaculates were seen in 13.9% of males with inadequate SCMPT versus 4.4% when SCMPT was adequate. The significant correlation between MAR IgA and the sperm penetration ability in vitro could also be proven when donors' CM was taken for the SCMPT, but not when a non-human material was used for in-vitro penetration testing. Microbial colonization of semen specimens did not interfere with the outcome of MAR testing. The pregnancy rate after 12 months was 23% (48/209) and was significantly lower when greater than 30% of spermatozoa were covered with surface ASA of the IgG or IgA class. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Caregiver quality of life in multiple sclerosis: a multicentre Italian study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of life (QoL) of multiple sclerosis (MS) caregivers, and to determine relationships that may exist between caregiver and patient QoL. Patients with definite MS (n=445) and their caregivers (n=445) were required to complete the generic, 36-item short-form (SF-36) Health Survey. Median SF-36 dimension scores ranged from 55 to 100 for caregivers and from 46 to 78 for patients. Although the QoL of MS carers was not as severely affected as that of patients, caregiving was associated with lower mental health, vitality and general health scores, compared to healthy subjects. Multivariate analyses revealed significant differences between the predictors of patient QoL and caregiver QoL. The main predictors of patient QoL were Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score, MS course, fatigue and depression. Female gender and advanced age were the main predictors of lower QoL in caregivers. In addition, patient BDI score was found to be a significant predictor of almost all caregiver SF-36 dimension scores, while EDSS score, disease duration and course, and patient therapeutic characteristics were found to be predictors of some caregiver SF-36 dimension scores. Therefore, caregiver QoL was significantly influenced by patient characteristics, and supportive strategies for MS caregivers are warranted. Multiple Sclerosis 2007; 13: 412-419. http://msj.sagepub. com
Optical coherence tomography-based evaluation of in-stent neoatherosclerosis in lesions with more than 50% neointimal cross-sectional area stenosis.

AIMS To use optical coherence tomography (OCT) to evaluate the time course, risk factors, and clinical implication of in-stent neoatherosclerosis. METHODS AND RESULTS The neointimal characteristics of 152 lesions, 128 drug-eluting stents (DESs) and 24 bare metal stents (BMSs), with >50% percent cross-sectional area (CSA) neointimal stenosis were evaluated. Neoatherosclerosis was defined as neointima with presence of lipid or calcification. Neoatherosclerosis was observed in 54 lesions (35.5%, 35 DESs and 19 BMSs). Median time to follow-up was 70.7 months in lesions with neoatherosclerosis (longer than lesions without neoatherosclerosis [13.4 months, p<0.001]): 58.7 months in DES-treated lesions and 129.5 months in BMS-treated lesions (p<0.001). The optimal cut-off time to predict neoatherosclerosis in DES-treated lesions was 30 months with a sensitivity of 91.4% and a specificity of 72.0% (area under curve: 0.839, 95% confidence interval: 0.764-0.898, p<0.001). Independent risk factors for neoatherosclerosis were stent age, use of first-generation DES and hypertension. Patients with neoatherosclerosis (versus without neoatherosclerosis) had a higher rate of target lesion revascularisation (92.6% vs. 77.6%, respectively, p=0.018) and stent thrombosis (14.8% vs. 0%, respectively, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Neoatherosclerosis occurred in one-third of stented lesions with >50% percent CSA stenosis of neointima. Late-phase development of neoatherosclerosis might be associated with clinical deterioration of stented lesions.
Owning Immigration: Messenger Ethnicity, Issue Ownership, and Support for Latino Candidates

Abstract The public opinion literature stresses the importance of source cues in determining which types of messages affect attitudes and which types do not. Building upon such research, we seek to determine if messenger ethnicity influences how individuals evaluate candidates speaking on immigration in the context of a campaign. Do Americans (and Anglo Americans in particular) view Latino candidates as more experienced, stronger leaders, more trustworthy, and more qualified on immigration than Anglo candidates? Moreover, do such relationships hold regardless of the valence of the message itself? Through an original survey experiment presenting subjects with immigration talk on the campaign trail, we find Latino candidates are reviewed more positively than Anglo candidates when it comes to the immigration messages they speak (especially when it comes to pro-immigration messages). Such findings give us insight into whether or not Latino candidates have the potential to “own” the issue of immigration, as well as offering another path by which Latino candidates can gain a strong foothold with the public in the context of a campaign.
[A discussion on utility and purposed value of obesity and abdomen obesity when body mass index, waist circumference, waist to hip ratio used as indexes predicting hypertension and hyper-blood glucose].

OBJECTIVE Discussion on utility and purposed value of obesity and abdomen obesity when body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHR) used as indexes predicting hypertension, hyper-blood glucose, and both clusters, to provide scientific basis for the decision on the indexes and their cut-off points of obesity and abdomen obesity in Chinese people. METHODS Using the data of diabetes mellitus (DM) from epidemiological studies carried out in 11 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities of China from July 1995 to June 1997. Partial relative analysis, logistic multi-factors regression analysis, interaction analysis were used. Relative risk (RR), attributable risk proportion (ARP) and population attributable risk proportion (PARP) of hypertension, hyper-blood glucose, and the both cluster as BMI, WC, WHR with the different cut off points were analysed. RESULTS 1) The correlations between BMI, WC and blood pressure, blood glucose were better than the WHR. 2) After adjusted by age, sex, occupation leisure physical activity, education degree and the family history of DM, the results suggested that BMI, WC, WHR were important predictive factors, with relative importance as BMI > WC > WHR. 3) There were augment interactions on BMI, WC and WHR with hypertension, hyper-blood glucose, with the interaction of BMI and WC in particular. Their pure attributable interaction proportion were from 5.95% to 29.34%. 4) The values of RR were about 2.5 when BMI >/= 23, >/= 24 and >/= 25, suggesting the relationship with exposure factors and diseases were with medium and high maleficent extent. Their ARP were from 0.580 to 0.623 with PARP from 0.259 to 0.425. The values of RR were from 2.06 to 3.08 as WC >/= 85 cm in males, WC >/= 80 cm in females while WC >/= 90 cm in males, WC >/= 80 cm in females, which suggested that the relationship with exposure factors and diseases were in medium and high maleficent extent. Their ARP were from 0.515 to 0.676 while PARP from 0.241 to 0.431. CONCLUSIONS Since the maleficent extent of exposure factors to diseases, the acceptability for overweight and obesity in population, and the prevention and care for overweight and obesity were just in the introduction stage in China. The utility value of predicted hypertension, hyper-blood glucose in BMI and WC seemed to be better then in WHR. We suggested that BMI used as the obesity index, with the diagnostic cut-off point BMI >/= 24. WC as the abdomen obesity index. The diagnostic cut-off points are suggested to be WC >/= 85 cm in males, and WC >/= 80 cm in females.
Chromosomal copy number alterations are associated with tumor response to chemoradiation in locally advanced rectal cancer

Rectal cancer response to chemoradiation (CRT) varies from no response to a pathologic complete response (pCR). Identifying predictive biomarkers of response would therefore be useful. We assessed whether chromosomal copy number alterations (CNAs) can assist in predicting pCR. Pretreatment tumor biopsies and paired normal surgical tissues from the proximal resection margin were collected from 95 rectal cancer patients treated with preoperative CRT and total mesorectal excision in a prospective Phase II study. Tumor and control DNA were extracted, and oligonucleotide array‐based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) was used to identify CNAs, which were correlated with pCR. Ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) was then used to identify functionally relevant genes in aberrant regions. Finally, a predictive model for pCR was built using support vector machine (SVM), and leave‐one‐out cross validation assessed the accuracy of aCGH. Chromosomal regions most commonly affected by gains were 20q11.21‐q13.33, 13q11.32‐23, 7p22.3‐p22.2, and 8q23.3‐q24.3, and losses were present at 18q11.32‐q23, 17p13.3‐q11.1, 10q23.1, and 4q32.1‐q32.3. The 25 (26%) patients who achieved a pCR had significantly fewer high copy gains overall than non‐pCR patients (P = 0.01). Loss of chromosomal region 15q11.1‐q26.3 was significantly associated with non‐pCR (P < 0.00002; Q‐bound < 0.0391), while loss of 12p13.31 was significantly associated with pCR (P < 0.0003; Q‐bound < 0.097). IPA identified eight genes in the imbalanced chromosomal regions that associated with tumor response. SVM identified 58 probes that predict pCR with 76% sensitivity, 97% specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of 91% and 92%. Our data indicate that chromosomal CNAs can help identify rectal cancer patients more likely to develop a pCR to CRT. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss,Inc.
Fibronectin 1 is a potential biomarker for radioresistance in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Radiotherapy remains the backbone of head and neck cancer therapy but response is sometimes impeded by tumor radioresistance. Identifying predictive biomarkers of radiotherapy response is a crucial step towards personalized therapy. The aim of this study was to explore gene expression data in search of biomarkers predictive of the response to radiotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Microarray analysis was performed on five cell lines with various intrinsic radiosensitivity, selected from a panel of 29 HNSCC cell lines. The bioinformatics approach included Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment profiling and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA). The GO-analysis detected 16 deregulated categories from which development, receptor activity, and extracellular region represented the largest groups. Fourteen hub genes (CEBPA, CEBPB, CTNNB1, FN1, MYC, MYCN, PLAU, SDC4, SERPINE1, SP1, TAF4B, THBS1, TP53 and VLDLR) were identified from the IPA network analysis. The hub genes in the highest ranked network, (FN1, SERPINE1, THBS1 and VLDLR) were further subjected to qPCR analysis in the complete panel of 29 cell lines. Of these genes, high FN1 expression associated to high intrinsic radiosensitivity (p=0.047). In conclusion, gene ontologies and hub genes of importance for intrinsic radiosensitivity were defined. The overall results suggest that FN1 should be explored as a potential novel biomarker for radioresistance.
Doubts about necessity and concerns about adverse effects: identifying the types of beliefs that are associated with non-adherence to HAART

This cross-sectional study assessed beliefs about highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and their association with reported adherence to HAART among 109 HIV-positive patients receiving HAART while attending an ambulatory care clinic in Brighton, UK. Patients' beliefs about the necessity for and concerns about HAART and their adherence to it were assessed using validated questionnaires. There was considerable variation in beliefs and reported adherence. A quarter of participants reported low adherence to HAART and this was related to concerns about adverse effects as well as to the way in which each individual balanced concerns against perceptions of necessity. Patients were significantly more likely to report low adherence rates if their concerns were high relative to their perceptions of personal need for HAART. Patients with higher CD4 counts were significantly more likely to hold a view of HAART in which perceptions of necessity were higher relative to their concerns about adverse effects. CD4 was not related to reported adherence. A comparison of most recent viral load results between high and low adherence group identified differences in the predicted direction but these were not statistically significant. These preliminary findings suggest that patients' perceptions of HAART are important determinants of adherence with implications for future research and clinical practice.
CHLOROPLAST DNA EVOLUTION AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS IN CLARKIA SECT. PERIPETASMA (ONAGRACEAE)

Restriction‐site analysis of chloroplast DNA in Clarkia sect. Peripetasma (Onagraceae) was done to test previously proposed phylogenetic models. One hundred nineteen restriction‐site mutations were identified among the nine species using 29 restriction enzymes, and these were used to construct rooted most parsimonious trees (Wagner and Dollo). A chloroplast DNA evolutionary clock could not be statistically rejected. Branch points of this tree were statistically tested by Felsenstein's bootstrap method. This tree 1) provided an unambiguous and detailed genealogical history for the section, 2) verified a previous partial phylogenetic model for the section based on gene duplications and differential silencing, 3) provided details of the phylogenetic model not inferred or expected based on morphology and reproductive isolation, and 4) indicated that morphology evolves at markedly different rates within and between lineages in the section.
Cross-national variation in determinants of climate change concern

ABSTRACT Our understanding of the determinants of public concern about climate change relies heavily on survey research in the United States. But can those findings be generalized to the rest of the world? Analysis of the Pew Research Center’s 2015 Global Attitudes Survey shows fairly similar patterns in the English-speaking Western democracies and, to a lesser extent, western Europe, but party identification and political ideology matter much less in most of the globe, and demographic factors have very different impacts. Female, younger, and less religious people tend to worry more about climate change in English-speaking Western democracies. In most of the world, however, concern is only weakly correlated with gender, rises with age and religiosity, and is more strongly correlated with education. A new measure of commitment to democratic values proved to be the most consistent predictor of concern globally.
Restoring the balance between stuff and things in scene understanding

Scene understanding is a central field in computer vision that attempts to detect objects in a scene and reason about their spatial, functional and semantic relations. While many works focus on things (objects with a well-defined shape), less attention has been given to stuff classes (amorphous background regions). However, stuff classes are important as they allow to explain many aspects of an image, including the scene type, thing classes likely to be present and physical attributes of all objects in the scene. The goal of this thesis is to restore the balance between stuff and things in scene understanding. In particular, we investigate how the recognition of stuff differs from things and develop methods that are suitable to deal with both. We use stuff to find things and annotate a large-scale dataset to study stuff and things in context. First, we present two methods for semantic segmentation of stuff and things. Most methods require manual class weighting to counter imbalanced class frequency distributions, particularly on datasets with stuff and thing classes. We develop a novel joint calibration technique that takes into account class imbalance, class competition and overlapping regions by calibrating for the pixel-level evaluation criterion. The second method shows how to unify the advantages of region-based approaches (accurately delineated object boundaries) and fully convolutional approaches (end-to-end training). Both are combined in a universal framework that is equally suitable to deal with stuff and things. Second, we propose to help weakly supervised object localization for classes where location annotations are not available, by transferring things and stuff knowledge from a source set with available annotations. This is particularly important if we want to scale scene understanding to real-world applications with thousands of classes, without having to exhaustively annotate millions of images. Finally, we present COCO-Stuff – the largest existing dataset with dense stuff and thing annotations. Existing datasets are much smaller and were made with expensive polygon-based annotation. We use a very efficient stuff annotation protocol to densely annotate 164K images. Using this new dataset, we provide a detailed analysis of the dataset and visualize how stuff and things co-occur spatially in an image. We revisit the question whether stuff or things are easier to detect and which is more important based on visual and linguistic analysis.
The Ganoine Membrane of the Scales of Polypterus senegalus Includes a Labyrinth-Like Structure

The ganoine membrane is a basement membrane-like structure appearing between the maturation stage inner ganoine epithelium (IGE) and mineralized ganoine of polypterids and lepisosteids. In the present study, further ultrastructural investigation of the ganoine membrane of Polypterus senegalus was made and it was confirmed that it possessed a specialized labyrinth-like structure. The complete ganoine membrane was composed of six distinct zones: (1) a filamentous zone facing the distal plasmalemma of IGE, (2) lamella zone I, (3) vertical striation zone, (4) lamella zone II, (5) electron-dense zone, (6) electron-lucent zone directly facing the maturing ganoine surface. The ganoine membrane sometimes partially lacked some of these zones, but the electron-dense zone was usually present. Oblique or horizontal sections of the membrane showed that the vertical striation zone was made up of a typical labyrinth-like structure. Certain sulfated glycoconjugates were localized at the filamentous zone, especially adjacent to the lamella zone I and over the electron-dense zones.