Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mental Health in Adults With Mild and Moderate Intellectual Disabilities: The Role of Recent Life Events and Traumatic Experiences Across the Life Span

The aim of the present study is to investigate the association between recent life events and traumatic experiences across the life span and psychiatric disorders in people with ID. One hundred seventy-seven individuals with mild and moderate intellectual disability and their principal carers were assessed. Psychiatric disorders were evaluated with a semistructured psychiatric interview, the Psychiatric Assessment for Adults with Developmental Disabilities. This interview also includes a checklist of life events experienced over the previous 12 months, which was assessed through key informants. Presence of traumas was assessed through Allen's trauma history screen, also administered to key informants. After a descriptive analysis, binary logistic regression was used to see whether traumatic events and life events predicted the presence of ICD-10 disorders. A 75% of the participants had experienced at least 1 traumatic event during their life span, and 50% of the participants had experienced at least 1 life event in the 12 months previous to the study. Binary logistic regression showed that exposure to 1 or more traumatic experiences significantly increased the odds of a mental disorder (OR = 1.8), as did exposure to life events (OR = 1.4). However, when both life events and traumatic experiences were entered together in the model, calculation of odds ratios revealed that traumatic experiences significantly increased the odds of ICD-10 disorders (OR = 1.7) although life events were no longer significant. Though they have been less studied by the literature regarding predictors of mental illness in people with intellectual disability, traumatic experiences seem to play a more important role in psychopathology than life events.
Apoptosis regulation and spontaneous apoptosis index of testicular germ cell tumors are associated with differentiation and resistance to systemic treatment.

BACKGROUND Cisplatin-based chemotherapy can cure more than 80% of metastatic germ cell testicular tumors (GCT). Germ cells are particularly susceptible to apoptosis and it is reasonable to presume that GCTs are curable because of an intact and effective apoptotic pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS The expression of p53 and p21 was investigated in conjunction with the spontaneous apoptotic index in 20 refractory and 50 chemosensitive GCTs, with a complete follow-up. To detect a differentiation-dependent alteration in the apoptotic pathway, all of the histological tumor types were examined separately. RESULTS Embryonal carcinoma components showed significantly higher p53 expression compared to other histological subtypes of GCTs. p21 was barely detectable in the majority of tumors. Seminomatous components showed no p21 expression. Mature teratomas and syncytiotrophoblasts showed significantly higher p21 expression than other tumor subtypes. Embryonal carcinomas showed significantly higher apoptotic indices than other non-seminomatous components. On the other hand, choriocarcinomas and mature teratomas showed the lowest spontaneous apoptotic potential. The apoptotic index correlated with the fraction of p53-positive cells, but not with the p21 expression rate. The refractory group showed significantly lower p53 expression, higher p21 expression and a higher apoptosis index than the sensitive group. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that the p53 and p21 expression levels and the apoptosis index seem to be important factors in the issue of the chemosensitivity of GCTs. The protein expression pattern reflects a differentiation-dependent preference for G1/S-phase arrest in terminally differentiated syncytiotrophoblasts and mature teratoma cells, while p53 mediated apoptosis induction is meaning to less differentiated tumor types.
Predictors of Neuropsychological Improvement Following Cognitive Rehabilitation in Patients with Gliomas

Abstract This study investigated the specific patient factors that predict responsiveness to a cognitive rehabilitation program. The program has previously been demonstrated to be successful at the group level in patients with gliomas, but it is unclear which patient characteristics optimized the effect of the intervention at the individual level. Four categories of possible predictors of improvement were selected for evaluation: sociodemographic and clinical variables, self-reported cognitive symptoms, and objective neuropsychological test performance. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses were conducted, beginning with the most accessible (sociodemographic) variables and ending with the most difficult (baseline neuropsychological) to identify in clinical practice. Nearly 60% of the participants of the intervention were classified as reliably improved. Reliable improvement was predicted by age (p = .003) and education (p = .011). Additional results suggested that younger patients were more likely to benefit specifically from the cognitive rehabilitation program (p = .001), and that higher education was also associated with improvement in the control group (p = .024). The findings are discussed in light of brain reserve theory. A practical implication is that cognitive rehabilitation programs should take the patients’ age into account and, if possible, adapt programs to increase the likelihood of improvement among older participants. (JINS, 2011, 17, 256–266)
Antinociceptive effects of FTY720 during trauma-induced neuropathic pain are mediated by spinal S1P receptors

Abstract FTY720 (fingolimod) is, after its phosphorylation by sphingosine kinase (SPHK) 2, a potent, non-selective sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor agonist. FTY720 has been shown to reduce the nociceptive behavior in the paclitaxel model for chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain through downregulation of S1P receptor 1 (S1P1) in microglia of the spinal cord. Here, we investigated the mechanisms underlying the antinociceptive effects of FTY720 in a model for trauma-induced neuropathic pain. We found that intrathecal administration of phosphorylated FTY720 (FTY720-P) decreased trauma-induced pain behavior in mice, while intraplantar administered FTY720-P had no effect. FTY720-P, but not FTY720, reduced the nociceptive behavior in SPHK2-deficient mice, suggesting the involvement of S1P receptors. Fittingly, intrathecal administration of antagonists for S1P1 or S1P3, W146 and Cay10444 respectively, abolished the antinociceptive effects of systemically administered FTY720, demonstrating that activation of both receptors in the spinal cord is necessary to induce antinociceptive effects by FTY720. Accordingly, intrathecal administration of S1P1 receptor agonists was not sufficient to evoke an antinociceptive effect. Taken together, the data show that, in contrast to its effects on chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, FTY720 reduces trauma-induced neuropathic pain by simultaneous activation of spinal S1P1 and S1P3 receptor subtypes.
The Role of Biomarkers in Clinical Trials for Alzheimer Disease

Biomarkers are likely to be important in the study of Alzheimer disease (AD) for a variety of reasons. A clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer disease is inaccurate even among experienced investigators in about 10% to 15% of cases, and biomarkers might improve the accuracy of diagnosis. Importantly for the development of putative disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer disease, biomarkers might also serve as indirect measures of disease severity. When used in this way, sample sizes of clinical trials might be reduced, and a change in biomarker could be considered supporting evidence of disease modification. This review summarizes a meeting of the Alzheimer's Association's Research Roundtable, during which existing and emerging biomarkers for AD were evaluated. Imaging biomarkers including volumetric magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography assessing either glucose utilization or ligands binding to amyloid plaque are discussed. Additionally, biochemical biomarkers in blood or cerebrospinal fluid are assessed. Currently appropriate uses of biomarkers in the study of Alzheimer disease, and areas where additional work is needed, are discussed.
Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist mediates the antiinflammatory and antifibrotic effect of mesenchymal stem cells during lung injury

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been exploited as cellular vectors to treat a wide array of diseases but the mechanisms responsible for their therapeutic effect remain indeterminate. Previously, we reported that MSCs inhibit bleomycin (BLM)-induced inflammation and fibrosis within the lungs of mice. Interrogation of the MSC transcriptome identified interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL1RN) as a potential mediator of this effect. Fractionation studies indicated that MSCs are the principal source of IL1RN in murine bone marrow and that its expression is restricted to a unique subpopulation of cells. Moreover, MSC-conditioned media was shown to block proliferation of an IL-1α-dependent T cell line and inhibit production of TNF-α by activated macrophages in vitro. Studies conducted in mice revealed that MSC administration was more effective than recombinant IL1RN delivered via adenoviral infection or osmotic pumps in inhibiting BLM-induced increases in TNF-α, IL-1α, and IL1RN mRNA in lung, IL1RN protein in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and trafficking of lymphocytes and neutrophils into the lung. Therefore, MSCs protect lung tissue from BLM-induced injury by blocking TNF-α and IL-1, two fundamental proinflammatory cytokines in lung. Identification of IL1RN-expressing human MSC subpopulations may provide a novel cellular vector for treating chronic inflammatory diseases in humans.
‘Doing Rapport’ and the Ethics of ‘Faking Friendship’

This chapter centres on discussion of some of the ethical, feminist, emotional and methodological issues associated with how rapport is gained, maintained, and ‘used’ in qualitative interviews. Our interest in rapport was stimulated by our own research,1 where we found that in order to persuade some of our women interviewees2 to talk freely, we needed consciously to exercise our interviewing skills in ‘doing rapport’ with – or rather to – them. Uncomfortably, we came to realize that even feminist interviewing could sometimes be viewed as a kind of job where, at the heart of our outwardly friendly interviews, lay the instrumental purpose of persuading interviewees to provide us with data for our research, and also (hopefully) for our future careers. Our discomfort in our research interviews has broader analogies and deeper roots. For example, there are strong parallels between ‘doing rapport’ and the kinds of ‘emotion work’ that women, in particular, perform in their relationships by simulating empathy to make others feel good (Hochschild, 1983). Hochschild has argued that the spread of jobs where women are paid to simulate empathy represents the ‘commercialization’ of human feeling, and those who do such work run the risk of feeling, and indeed actually becoming, ‘phoney’ and ‘inauthentic’ (Hochschild, 1983). Seen in this light, feelings of ‘insincerity’ that we sometimes experience as interviewers can be linked to the pressures of commercialization in the ‘job’ of qualitative interviewing; even within feminist research (see also Bott, 2010). An obvious starting point for a discussion of ethical issues associated with rapport is the early seminal article by Ann Oakley, which has played a large part in opening up feminist discussion of this ‘commonly used but ill-defined term’ (Oakley, 1981: 35). Oakley criticized the model of ‘rapport’ advocated in methods textbooks for being instrumental, hierarchical and non-reciprocal, qualities she characterized as would-be ‘professional’ and ‘scientific’, and basically masculine. By aiming to suppress the role of gender and individual personality in interview relationships, this model failed to
Demography and Function of Children with Limb Loss

This retrospective study was designed for the period 1982 – 2002 to collect the basic data on the demography, level and side of the amputation, involved limbs, age, gender, and prosthetic functional level in children with limb loss. A total of 232 children were assessed through their prosthetic records. Seventy-two percent (195 children) presented lower-limb involvement, and 28% (77 children) had upper-limb loss. The age of the children varied between 1 and 15 years with a mean age of 9.90 ± 2.32 years. Results of the study revealed that the leading amputation cause in children was congenital limb absence. The most frequent levels were determined as trans-tibial and trans-radial in lower and upper limbs, respectively. Findings showed that more boys (60%) were affected, and 84% of all amputations were found to be unilateral. It was also seen that right-side amputations (54%) were more common than left-side amputations (46%). The outcome of the study showed that 96% of children with lower-limb loss reached a functional gait pattern without any aids, while the percentage of independence in activities of daily living was found to be 88% in upper-limb loss.
Solution‐Processed Tin‐Based Perovskite for Near‐Infrared Lasing

The family of solution-processed tin-based perovskites is demonstrated as a new and superior near-infrared gain medium. Due to the large electron-hole bimolecular recombination associated with tin and the reduced trap density with SnF2 treatment, these lead-free "green" perovskites yield stable coherent light emission extending to ≈1 μm at strikingly low thresholds.
Role of Mechanical Stimuli in Oral Implantation

Prosthetic implantation has been a prevalent surgical procedure in dentistry. Insertion of dental implant significantly changes local oral conditions and leads to the surrounding bone to remodel to a new morphology. To predict how the bone responds such a biomechanical change, finite element analysis (FEA) based remodeling simulation has proven effective. For a range of mechanical stimuli, which should be used remains controversial arguable? This paper aims to compare how the different mechanical stimuli, including mechostat model (effective strain), daily stress and strain energy density (SED) affect the predictions of bone remodeling.
Excitatory Influence of the Locus Coeruleus in Hypothalamic‐Pituitary‐Adrenocortical Axis Responses to Stress

The locus coeruleus (LC) is a key brainstem region involved in arousal and is highly responsive to alerting/stressful stimuli, including those that activate the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenocortical (HPA) axis. It is currently unclear whether the LC exerts any regulatory influence on the HPA axis and, consequently, on neuroendocrine responses to stress. The present studies were designed to test the hypothesis that the LC promotes HPA axis responses to acute and chronic stress. Adult male rats received bilateral (6‐hydroxydopamine) lesions of the LC that produced severe cell loss in the LC and 80% depletion of noradrenaline in medial prefrontal cortex. Notably, lesions did not affect dopamine‐β‐hydroxylase protein content in the parvocellular paraventricular nucleus (PVN), indicating a lack of collateral damage to other ascending noradrenergic pathways. LC lesions significantly reduced peak adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone responses to 30 min acute restraint stress. However, LC lesions did not significantly attenuate neuroendocrine or other physiological responses to a 4‐week chronic variable stress regimen. LC lesions did not substantially affect basal concentrations of plasma corticosterone or corticotropin‐releasing hormone mRNA expression in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus following chronic stress. We conclude that the LC is a HPA‐excitatory brain region, promoting neuroendocrine and physiological responses primarily to acute stress. However, a potential role for the LC in the induction of HPA axis hyperactivity following chronic stress can not be ruled out.
Dental caries patterns and oral health behaviors in Arizona infants and toddlers.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to use tooth eruption sequence, and a tooth- and surface-specific caries analysis method to determine: (1) the temporal relationship between tooth eruption and caries onset; (2) the validity of pre-existing concepts of caries progression; and (3) the relationship of certain putative health behaviors with caries prevalence. METHODS A total of 2,428 Arizona children aged 6-36-months, who were recruited from WIC programs (a federal program for low-income children at nutritional risk), health fairs and private day care centers, received visual dental caries examinations. Additionally, an oral health behavior survey was administered to the parents of the 1,529 children recruited from the WIC programs. RESULTS Dental caries was detected soon after tooth eruption, and by 34-36 months of age 25% of this population had caries. Maxillary anterior caries developed as early as 10-12 months of age. Fissure caries of the molars, either by itself or with maxillary anterior caries, was seen as early as 13-15 months of age. Posterior proximal caries was seen as early at 19-21 months, and only was present in conjunction with the other patterns. Over 40% of the 13-36-month-old children whose parents completed the survey still used a bottle. Night-time bottle use was associated with maxillary anterior caries in 24-36-month-old children, but no association was found in younger children or with posterior caries patterns. Survey responses also showed that fewer than 15% of these children reported having had a dental visit. CONCLUSIONS Dental caries was a significant health issue for these children under 3 years of age, and factors other than bottle feeding may play an important role in its etiology. Prevention of dental caries in children under age three will depend on a better understanding of the etiology as well as improved access to care.
Different types of cytotoxic lymphocytes recovered from the lungs of patients with hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

To better characterize the cytotoxic lymphocytes present in the lung of patients with hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP), we studied cells recovered from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of 5 subjects with farmer's lung disease. Specifically, this cytotoxic activity was evaluated: (1) in resting conditions and after boosting with interleukin-2 (IL-2) against NK-sensitive, NK-insensitive target cell lines, and against specific antigen-sensitized (Micropolyspora faenl) autologous monocytes; (2) after removal of NK-related populations; (3) in blocking experiments with CD3 and CD2 monoclonal antibodies. It has been demonstrated that lung lymphocytes from patients with HP in resting conditions are able to lyse both NK-susceptible and NK-resistant targets and that IL-2 is able to induce BAL cells to generate lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell activity. Neither resting nor activated HP lung lymphocytes were capable of specific lysis of autologous monocytes previously sensitized with specific antigen. Removal of HNK-1+ or CD16+ cells reduces, but does not completely eliminate the cytotoxic function, whereas blocking with anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody almost completely abolishes the cytotoxicity. All these data taken together suggest that different types of cytotoxic cells are recovered from the BAL of patients with HP, i.e., NK cells and non-MHC-restricted cytotoxic lymphocytes, including LAK cells.
Ceftriaxone therapy of bone and soft tissue infections in hospital and outpatient settings

Ceftriaxone, a broad-spectrum cephalosporin with a markedly extended half-life, was administered to 100 patients with 56 bone and 44 soft tissue infections. Sixty-eight received 1 g twice daily, and 32 received 2 g once daily intravenously. Overall, 91% had a satisfactory clinical response, with similar efficacies in both treatment regimens. In six patients, failure to achieve a cure correlated well with the development of resistance to ceftriaxone during therapy in Enterobacter and Pseudomonas species (two cases) and with superinfection with Bacteroides fragilis (four cases). In 41 patients, intravenous drug therapy was continued after discharge from the hospital. In this group, 1,093 patient-days of hospitalization were saved, amounting to $150,020 in cost savings. The prolonged half-life facilitated the administration of ceftriaxone in this setting.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN ALTITUDINAL VERSUS LATITUDINAL VARIATION FOR MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Understanding how natural environments shape phenotypic variation is a major aim in evolutionary biology. Here, we have examined clinal, likely genetically based variation in morphology among 19 populations of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) from Africa and Europe, spanning a range from sea level to 3000 m altitude and including locations approximating the southern and northern range limit. We were interested in testing whether latitude and altitude have similar phenotypic effects, as has often been postulated. Both latitude and altitude were positively correlated with wing area, ovariole number, and cell number. In contrast, latitude and altitude had opposite effects on the ratio between ovariole number and body size, which was negatively correlated with egg production rate per ovariole. We also used transgenic manipulation to examine how increased cell number affects morphology and found that larger transgenic flies, due to a higher number of cells, had more ovarioles, larger wings, and, unlike flies from natural populations, increased wing loading. Clinal patterns in morphology are thus not a simple function of changes in body size; instead, each trait might be subject to different selection pressures. Together, our results provide compelling evidence for profound similarities as well as differences between phenotypic effects of latitude and altitude.
Menstrual characteristics and prevalence of dysmenorrhea in college going girls

Background: Dysmenorrhea is a common gynecological condition with painful menstrual cramps of uterine origin. Prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea is not yet clearly studied in central India. Objective: To study prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea in young girls and to evaluate associated clinical markers of dysmenorrhea. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, data was collected among 310 girls (18–25 years) on age at menarche, presence and absence of dysmenorrhea, dysmenorrhea duration, pre-menstrual symptoms (PMS), family history, menses irregularities, menstrual history, severity grading using visual analogue scale (VAS) using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Dysmenorrhea was reported in 84.2% (261) girls and 15.8% (49) reported no dysmenorrhea. Using VAS, 34.2% of girls experienced severe pain, 36.6% moderate and 29.2% had mild pain. Bleeding duration was found to be significantly associated with dysmenorrhea (χ2 = 10.5; P < 0.05), girls with bleeding duration more than 5 days had 1.9 times more chance of getting dysmenorrhea (OR: 1.9; 95% CI: 1.7–3). Moreover, girls with the presence of clots had 2.07 times higher chance of having dysmenorrhea (OR: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.04–4.1) (P < 0.05). Almost 53.7% girls who had some family history of dysmenorrhea, 90.9% experience the condition themselves (χ2 = 11.5; P < 0.001). Girls with family history of dysmenorrhea had three times greater chance of having the same problem (OR: 3.0; 95% CI: 1.5–5.8; P = 0.001). Conclusion: Dysmenorrhea is found to be highly prevalent among college going girls. Family history, bleeding duration and presence of clots were significant risk factors for dysmenorrhea.