Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing expressed need and satisfaction in complete denture wearers.

OBJECTIVES The need to assess both lay and professional views of oral health is believed to be at the centre of success when providing dental health care for older patients. Self-perceived physical (oral) health and perceptions of psychosocial functioning must be included if expressed need is to be assessed. The aim of this work was to construct an expressed need schedule and to assess the ability of this assessment to predict older community-based patients' satisfaction with complete dentures. DESIGN Survey of 260 people aged 65 years and over. SETTING Community setting. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The participants were interviewed using a 55 item modified version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) to assess their psychological, social and perceptions of their oral health. All participants were subjected to an oral examination. RESULTS The results showed that complete denture wearers compared had greater experience of difficulties associated with oral health and psychological functioning. Factor analysis allowed the identification of three dimensions associated with psychological, social and self-perceived physical (oral) health. When these factors were regressed with normative denture treatment need against satisfaction with complete dentures, satisfaction was characterised by high self-perceived physical (oral) health, low social health problems and no identifiable normative need. CONCLUSION This work supports the inclusion of self-perceived physical (oral) health and psychosocial health (expressed need) questions in a schedule when predicting satisfaction with complete dentures.
The Postopera tive Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents with Craniopharyngioma.

BACKGROUND Craniopharyngioma is a tumor of low histological malignancy resulting from an anomaly of embryonic development. Affected children and adolescents are being studied with respect to their quality of life, progression-free survival, and overall survival in the framework of the ongoing KRANIOPHARYNGEOM 2007 project. METHODS This prospective, multicenter project consists of a randomized trial with an adaptive design combined with a purely observational study. The randomized, unblinded trial includes patients whose tumors have been incompletely resected and is intended to compare the outcomes of immediate postoperative radiotherapy versus radiotherapy on progression. Its primary endpoint is quality of life as assessed subjectively by the patients them- selves with the "Pediatric Quality of Life" questionnaire (PEDQOL). In exploratory analyses, linear mixed models were used to study the effect of further factors on quality of life. RESULTS An interim intention-to-treat analysis of the randomized trial revealed only minor differences between the treatment arms with respect to quality of life (n = 24). The exploratory analyses (n = 131) showed that preoperative involvement of, or operative damage to, the anterior and posterior regions of the hypothalamus was associated with a lower quality of life. Complete resection was followed by a lower quality of life than incomplete resection. Radiotherapy, a common treatment for tumors that progress after incomplete resection, was also associated with a lower quality of life. CONCLUSION Hypothalamus-sparing treatment approaches are recommended to optimize the quality of life of children and adolescents with cranio- pharyngioma. The available evidence does not support any recommendation as to when radiotherapy should be performed after incomplete resection so that the best quality of life can be achieved.
Developing assessment policy and evaluating practice: a case study of the introduction of a new marking scheme

ABSTRACT In 2011, Southampton Solent University, a post-1992 university in southern England, introduced a new marking scheme with the aims of changing marking practice to achieve greater transparency and consistency in marking, and to ensure that the full range of marks was being awarded to students. This paper discusses the strategic background to the scheme's development, analyses the role of the working group and stakeholder involvement in developing the initiative, and presents a critical commentary on its success within the frame of the university as a ‘learning organisation’ [Senge, P. M. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation. London: Random House].
CARDIOPROTECTIVE FUNCTIONS OF ATRIAL NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE AND B‐TYPE NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE: A BRIEF REVIEW

1. If one was to design a hormone to protect the heart, it would have a number of features shown by the cardiac natriuretic peptides atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and B‐type natriuretic peptide (BNP). These hormones are made in cardiomyocytes and are released into the circulation in response to atrial and ventricular stretch, respectively. Atrial natriuretic peptide and BNP can reduce the preload and after‐load in normal and failing hearts. They reduce blood volume over the short term by sequestering plasma and over the longer term by promoting renal salt and water excretion and by antagonizing the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system at many levels. Each of these actions affords indirect benefit to a volume‐ or pressure‐threatened heart.
Mapping the text culture of the subject of English. Genres and text types in national exams and published learning materials

v Table of contents. vii List of tables and figures. xiv Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Mapping the text culture of English as school subject in Norway . 1 1.1.1 Texts as mediators of language learning . 1 1.1.2 The text culture of English as a school subject . 3 1.2 English in Norway – second or foreign language? 6 1.3 Text, genre and text type . 8 1.4 Learning materials in the EFL subject . 10 1.5 Digitisation and multimodality. 12 1.6 Aims and research questions. 14 1.6. 1 Aims of the study . 14 1.6. 2 Research questions . 16 1.7 A brief presentation of corpus material and methods . 18 1.8 The structure of the thesis. 18 Chapter 2: The EFL subject and related research on materials for teaching, learning and testing 2.1 Texts in the context of education . 21 2.2 English as a common core subject in Norwegian upper secondary school . 23 2.2.1 The subject curricula of English in R94 and LK06 . 23 2.2.2 The EFL exam in Norwegian upper secondary education . 25 2.2. 3 The role of texts in the EFL subject curricula from R94 and LK06 . 26
Plasma 24 S-hydroxycholesterol levels in elderly subjects with late onset Alzheimer ’ s disease or vascular dementia : a case-control study

Background: In central nervous system cholesterol cannot be degraded but is secreted into circulation predominantly in the form of its polar metabolite 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol (24S-OH-Chol). Some studies suggested an association between 24S-OH-Chol metabolism and different neurological diseases including dementia. A possible decrease in 24S-OH-Chol plasma levels has been reported late onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) and vascular dementia (VD), but results of previous studies are partially contradictory. Methods: By high-speed liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry we evaluated the plasma levels of 24S-OH-Chol in a sample of 160 older individuals: 60 patients with LOAD, 35 patients with VD, 25 subjects affected by cognitive impairment no-dementia (CIND), and 40 (144 for genetics study) cognitively normal Controls. We also investigated the possible association between PPARgamma Pro12Ala polymorphism and dementia or 24S-OH-Chol levels. Results: Compared with Controls, plasma 24S-OH-Chol levels were higher in LOAD and lower in VD; a slight notsignificant increase in CIND was observed (ANOVA p: 0.001). A positive correlation between 24S-OH-Chol/TC ratio and plasma C reactive protein (CRP) levels was found in the whole sample, independent of possible confounders (multiple regression p: 0.04; r: 0.10). This correlation was strong in LOAD (r: 0.39), still present in CIND (r: 0.20), but was absent in VD patients (r: 0.08). The PPARgamma Pro12Ala polymorphism was not associated with the diagnosis of LOAD, VD, or CIND; no correlation emerged between the Ala allele and 24S-OH-Chol plasma levels. Conclusions: Our results suggest that plasma 24S-OH-Chol levels might be increased in the first stages of LOAD, and this phenomenon might be related with systemic inflammation. The finding of lower 24S-OH-Chol concentrations in VD might be related with a more advanced stage of VD compared with LOAD in our sample, and/or to different pathogenetic mechanisms and evolution of these two forms of dementia.
A Second Generation of Double Mutant Cholera Toxin Adjuvants: Enhanced Immunity without Intracellular Trafficking1

Nasal application of native cholera toxin (nCT) as a mucosal adjuvant has potential toxicity for the CNS through binding to GM1 gangliosides in the olfactory nerves. Although mutants of cholera toxin (mCTs) have been developed that show mucosal adjuvant activity without toxicity, it still remains unclear whether these mCTs will induce CNS damage. To help overcome these concerns, in this study we created new double mutant CTs (dmCTs) that have two amino acid substitutions in the ADP-ribosyltransferase active center (E112K) and COOH-terminal KDEL (E112K/KDEV or E112K/KDGL). Confocal microscopic analysis showed that intracellular localization of dmCTs differed from that of mCTs and nCTs in intestinal epithelial T84 cells. Furthermore, both dmCTs exhibited very low toxicity in the Y1 cell assay and mouse ileal loop tests. When mucosal adjuvanticity was examined, both dmCTs induced enhanced OVA-specific immune responses in both mucosal and systemic lymphoid tissues. Interestingly, although both dmCT E112K/KDEV and dmCT E112K/KDGL showed high Th2-type and significant Th1-type cytokine responses by OVA-specific CD4+ T cells, dmCT E112K/KDEV exhibited significantly lower Th1-type cytokine responses than did nCT and dmCT E112K/KDGL. These results show that newly developed dmCTs retain strong biological adjuvant activity without CNS toxicity.
Changes in life goals of people with neurological disabilities

Objective: To investigate the relationship between changes in life goals and progression of disabilities among subjects with neurological disorders over a period of four years. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: A centre for continuing disability management in the UK. Subjects: Patients with static or progressive neurological disabilities. Interventions: Review of rehabilitation team notes. Main outcome measures: Barthel ADL Index and Rivermead Life Goals Questionnaire from four consecutive annual assessments from 1997 to 2000. Results: Thirty-two subjects had progressive disabilities and 24 had static disabilities. In subjects with static disabilities there was no significant change in grades of any of the life goals over a period of four years. Among subjects with progressive disabilities, significant reductions were noted in importance given to partner (p = 0.034), work (p = 0.008) and leisure (p = 0.028) over four years. While there was no significant change in number of life goals considered as extremely important in subjects with static disabilities, there was a significant reduction in number of goals considered as extremely important in subjects with progressive disabilities (p = 0.022) Conclusion: People with progressive disabilities tend to downgrade the significance attached to goals related to partner, work and leisure. They also reduce number of goals graded as extremely important. This change is not seen in people with static disability.
Working memory and inferences: Evidence from eye fixations during reading

Eye fixations during reading were monitored to examine the relationship between individual differences in working memory capacity—as assessed by the reading span task—and inferences about predictable events. Context sentences predicting likely events, or non-predicting control sentences, were presented. They were followed by continuation sentences in which a target word represented an event to be inferred (inferential word) or an unlikely event (non-predictable word). A main effect of reading span showed that high working memory capacity was related to shorter gaze durations across sentence regions. More specific findings involved an interaction between context, target, and reading span on late processing measures and regions. Thus, for high- but not for low-span readers, the predicting condition, relative to the control condition, facilitated reanalysis of the continuation sentence that represented the inference concept. This effect was revealed by a reduction in regression-path reading time in the last region of the sentence, involving less time reading that region and fewer regressions from it. These results indicate that working memory facilitates elaborative inferences during reading, but that this occurs at late text-integration processes, rather than at early lexical-access processes.
The shaping of contemporary medical tourism and patient mobility

Travel for health benefits pre-dates the rise of modern medicine and existence of passports, harking back to porous borders and less institutionalized medicine. Alongside change in travel technology, scientific and surgical developments encouraged growing patient mobility during the twentieth century. In recent decades wealthy people from less developed areas of the world travelled to developed nations to access better facilities and highly trained clinicians, drawn by innovation and reputation. In what is predominantly a private sector there has been dramatic commodification of health and medical treatments. This chapter traces the shaping of contemporary medical tourism, including the strategic role of governments in supporting and promoting national interests, and demands for regulation.
GP2, A GPI-Anchored Protein in the Apical Plasma Membrane of the Pancreatic Acinar Cell, Co-Immunoprecipitates with src Kinases and Caveolin

We previously showed that endocytosis at the apical plasma membrane (APM) of the pancreatic acinar cell is activated by the cleavage of GP2, a GPI-linked protein, from the apical cell surface. This endocytic process, as measured by horseradish peroxidase uptake into pancreatic acinar cells, is blocked by the tyrosine kinase inhibitors genistein and tyrphostin B42 as well as by disruption of actin filaments with cytochalasin. This suggests that the cleavage of GP2 from the cell membrane may activate endocytosis through a tyrosine kinase–regulated pathway. However, the mechanism by which GP2 and tyrosine kinases act together to activate endocytosis at the APM remains unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that pp60, p62yes, caveolin, and annexin, which have previously been implicated in endocytosis in other cell lines, were present in high abundance in GPI-enriched membranes by Western blot analysis. pp60, p62yes, and caveolin all co-immunoprecipitated with GP2 except annexin. An 85-kDa protein whose tyrosine-dependent phosphorylation is correlated with the activation of endocytosis in intact acinar cells also was present in these immunoprecipitates. This suggests that in pancreatic acini, GP2 may exist in a complex with src kinases, caveolin, and an 85-kDa phosphorylated substrate to regulate endocytosis at the APM.
Naturally Occurring Antisense Transcripts Are Present in Chick Embryo Chondrocytes Simultaneously with the Down-regulation of the 1(I) Collagen Gene (*)

It has previously been shown that very low steady state levels of α1(I) collagen mRNA are present in chick embryo sternal chondrocytes (Askew, G. R., Wang, S., and Lukens, L. N.(1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 16834-16841), yet nuclear run-on experiments with double-stranded cDNA probes indicated a high transcription rate at this locus. These findings were investigated in this study using single-stranded probes, where nuclear run-on experiments showed that antisense transcription of the α1(I) collagen gene was occurring in chondrocytes, while sense strand transcription was down-regulated. Treatment of these chondrocytes with 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU), which causes the cells to resemble their mesenchymal precursors, resulted in an antiparallel situation, where antisense transcription was lost, and instead, sense strand transcription was acquired, suggesting that the reverse switch from sense to antisense transcription occurs during chondrogenesis. Very large (>10 kilobases) and heterogeneous antisense transcripts of moderate stability were shown to span both ends of the gene in chondrocytes, while their absence was shown in BrdU-treated chondrocytes, chick embryo fibroblasts, and a variety of other tissues. The function of these antisense transcripts is so far unknown, but their unusual chondrocyte-specific appearance, concurrent with little or no sense strand transcription, suggests a possible functional role in the down-regulation of the α1(I) collagen gene.
Anti-tumour necrosis factor-alpha therapy increases body weight in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis: a retrospective cohort study.

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Chronic plaque psoriasis is associated with overweight or obesity. Anti-tumour necrosis factor-alpha (anti-TNF-alpha) treatments are now frequently used in psoriasis management. TNF-alpha is deeply involved in body weight homeostasis, which may be affected by TNF-alpha-targeted therapy. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether anti-TNF-alpha treatments is associated with changes in body weight in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis. METHODS We performed a retrospective controlled analysis comparing the variations in body weight and body mass index (BMI) in three closed cohorts of psoriatic patients during a 6-month treatment with etanercept (N = 58), infliximab (N = 40) or methotrexate (N = 43). RESULTS We observed a body weight increment of 1.5 +/- 2.7 kg (mean +/- SD; P = 0.0002) and 2.5 +/- 3.3 kg (P = 0.004) in patients treated with etanercept and infliximab, respectively. In contrast, a non-significant change (0.6 +/- 1.4 kg; P = 0.4) was measured in patients treated with methotrexate. The BMI increased with 0.5 +/- 0.5 (P = 0.01) and 0.8 +/- 1 (P = 0.003) points in patients treated with etanercept and infliximab, respectively, whereas it did not change (< 0.2 +/- 0.5; P = 0.06) in patients treated with methotrexate. About one fourth of patients experienced a 4- to 10-kg weight gain. Differences in body weight variations among patients treated with anti-TNF-alpha therapies and methotrexate were statistically significant (P = 0.0005). We could not identify clinical parameters predicting this phenomenon. CONCLUSIONS Patients with psoriasis treated with long-term anti-TNF-alpha therapies may manifest a body weight gain. This effect should be taken into account in the global approach to patients with psoriasis.
Cerebellar Potentiation and Learning a Whisker-Based Object Localization Task with a Time Response Window

Whisker-based object localization requires activation and plasticity of somatosensory and motor cortex. These parts of the cerebral cortex receive strong projections from the cerebellum via the thalamus, but it is unclear whether and to what extent cerebellar processing may contribute to such a sensorimotor task. Here, we subjected knock-out mice, which suffer from impaired intrinsic plasticity in their Purkinje cells and long-term potentiation at their parallel fiber-to-Purkinje cell synapses (L7-PP2B), to an object localization task with a time response window (RW). Water-deprived animals had to learn to localize an object with their whiskers, and based upon this location they were trained to lick within a particular period (“go” trial) or refrain from licking (“no-go” trial). L7-PP2B mice were not ataxic and showed proper basic motor performance during whisking and licking, but were severely impaired in learning this task compared with wild-type littermates. Significantly fewer L7-PP2B mice were able to learn the task at long RWs. Those L7-PP2B mice that eventually learned the task made unstable progress, were significantly slower in learning, and showed deficiencies in temporal tuning. These differences became greater as the RW became narrower. Trained wild-type mice, but not L7-PP2B mice, showed a net increase in simple spikes and complex spikes of their Purkinje cells during the task. We conclude that cerebellar processing, and potentiation in particular, can contribute to learning a whisker-based object localization task when timing is relevant. This study points toward a relevant role of cerebellum–cerebrum interaction in a sophisticated cognitive task requiring strict temporal processing.
Dynamic Labor Demand Estimation and Stability of Coefficients: The Case of the Czech Republic

Estimates of the dynamic labor demand equation, derived from a cost-minimization model on monthly data on Czech firms from 1992 to 1993, are presented together with derived long-term elasticities. The different sets of instruments have been used and the tests of exogeneity carried out. The stability of the parameters and long-term elasticities between 1992 and 1993 have been tested. The low significant estimates of short and long-term elasticities, robust with respect to choice of instruments, suggest the possibility of labor hoarding.
Effects of roscovitine on maintenance of the germinal vesicle in horse oocytes, subsequent nuclear maturation, and cleavage rates after intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of roscovitine on suppression of meiosis, subsequent meiotic maturation, and cleavage rates after intracytoplasmic sperm injection of horse oocytes. Oocytes were classified as having compact or expanded cumuli (Com or Exp oocytes) and were divided into three culture groups: 30 h culture in maturation medium (30 h Mat); 54 h culture in maturation medium (54 h Mat), or 24 h culture in medium containing 66 micro mol roscovitine l(-1) and then 30 h culture in maturation medium (Ros+M). After maturation, oocytes were subjected to intracytoplasmic sperm injection and cultured in G1.2 medium for 96 h. Among oocytes fixed immediately after roscovitine culture, 26 of 31 (84%) Com oocytes and 16 of 28 (57%) Exp oocytes were at the germinal vesicle stage (P<0.05). After maturation culture, there were no differences in maturation rates or morphological cleavage rates among treatments. Among Com oocytes, significantly more embryos in the Ros+M treatment than in the 54 h Mat treatment had cleaved with > or = two normal nuclei (63 versus 36%; P<0.05); whereas among Exp oocytes, significantly more embryos in the 30 h Mat treatment than in the Ros+M treatment (63 versus 42%; P<0.05) had cleaved with > or = two normal nuclei. The average number of nuclei in embryos at 96 h was significantly higher (P<0.05) in Ros+M Com oocytes (13.5) than in any other Com or Exp group. These results demonstrate that roscovitine can reversibly maintain equine oocytes in the germinal vesicle stage for up to 24 h, and that such suppression may increase the developmental potential of Com, but not Exp, oocytes.