Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association between corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 and 2 (CRHR1 and CRHR2) gene polymorphisms and personality traits

Previous studies have reported that the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis is involved with personality traits. We examined the association between corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor (CRHR) genes and personality traits. We investigated the 12 single-nucleotide polymorphisms of intron CRHR (six in CRHR1 and six in CRHR2, respectively) in 218 healthy volunteers using TaqMan PCR assays. Personality traits were assessed using the Revised NEO-Personality Inventory, the Temperament and Character Inventory, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. No significant associations were observed between CRHR1 and CRHR2 expression and personality traits. These results fail to provide support for an association of CRHR1 and CRHR2 with personality traits in a Japanese adult population.
Global environmental change effects on ecosystems: the importance of land‐use legacies

One of the major challenges in ecology is to predict how multiple global environmental changes will affect future ecosystem patterns (e.g. plant community composition) and processes (e.g. nutrient cycling). Here, we highlight arguments for the necessary inclusion of land‐use legacies in this endeavour. Alterations in resources and conditions engendered by previous land use, together with influences on plant community processes such as dispersal, selection, drift and speciation, have steered communities and ecosystem functions onto trajectories of change. These trajectories may be modulated by contemporary environmental changes such as climate warming and nitrogen deposition. We performed a literature review which suggests that these potential interactions have rarely been investigated. This crucial oversight is potentially due to an assumption that knowledge of the contemporary state allows accurate projection into the future. Lessons from other complex dynamic systems, and the recent recognition of the importance of previous conditions in explaining contemporary and future ecosystem properties, demand the testing of this assumption. Vegetation resurvey databases across gradients of land use and environmental change, complemented by rigorous experiments, offer a means to test for interactions between land‐use legacies and multiple environmental changes. Implementing these tests in the context of a trait‐based framework will allow biologists to synthesize compositional and functional ecosystem responses. This will further our understanding of the importance of land‐use legacies in determining future ecosystem properties, and soundly inform conservation and restoration management actions.
Acanthosis nigricans: Clinical predictor of abnormal glucose tolerance in Asian women with polycystic ovary syndrome

The aim of this retrospective study was to assess whether acanthosis nigricans is a predictive factor for abnormal glucose tolerance (AGT) in Asian women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Data from the record forms and electronic form of 121 PCOS women who consecutively attended the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Unit were reviewed. In accordance with the unit's guidelines, all women received a physical examination, had anthropometric measurements taken and underwent as a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test after diagnosis. Their age, body mass index (BMI) and waist/hip ratio (WHR) was 29.1±6.1 years, 27.4±6.8 kg/m2 and 0.84±0.6 (mean±standard deviation), respectively. The prevalence of AGT was 42.9%, with 1.6% having impaired fasting glucose, 32.3% having impaired glucose tolerance and 9.1% having type 2 diabetes mellitus. The PCOS women with acanthosis nigricans had significantly higher BMI, WHR, fasting glucose, 2-h post-load glucose, fasting insulin, 2-h post-load insulin and prevalence of AGT compared with those without acanthosis nigricans. By logistic regression analysis, acanthosis nigricans and WHR were independent predictors for AGT, with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 2.7 (1.1–7.1) and 10.1 (1.8–20.7), respectively. In conclusion, acanthosis nigricans was demonstrated as a predictive factor for AGT in Asian women with PCOS.
Substance Use and Antisocial Behavior in Adolescents: The Role of Family and Peer-Individual Risk and Protective Factors

Extant literature reports a frequent co-occurrence of substance consumption and antisocial behaviors. It is also postulated, therefore, that risk and protective factors are shared by the two behaviors. The purpose of this research is to test this notion by exploring whether family and peer-individual risk and protective factors are similarly associated with unique and co-occurring substance consumption and antisocial behaviors. A sample of 1,599 school students ranging between the ages of 11 and 19 completed a Spanish-language version of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTCYS). This instrument measures risk and protective factors and also captures adolescent drug consumption and antisocial behaviors. We find that risk and protective factors seem to operate in distinct ways for drug consumption and antisocial behaviors when they occur separately. Our findings indicate that the co-occurrence of both behaviors is related to risk factors, but it should not be inferred that the same factors will be present when only one behavior is observed.
Ontogeny of calcitonin receptor mRNA and protein in the developing central nervous system of the rat

In this study, the expression of receptors for calcitonin (CTR), the CTR C1a and C1b isoforms, was investigated during development of the fetal rat central nervous system (CNS) by using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Coincident expression with both techniques was evident. Immunohistochemical evidence for the expression of the C1a isoform alone was found. Expression was first observed at embryonic day 12/13 (E12/E13) within and adjacent to the ventricular zones known to include primary matrices of proliferation, in regions of the preoptic area, anterior and posterior hypothalamus, anterior and posterior pons, medulla, and spinal cord. At later times, with the decline in the density of immunoreactivity at these loci (E15), expression in primary matrices was found later at distinct loci within the ventricular zones of cerebellum (E17), and at E19, the tectum, lateral ventricle, and cortical subplate. By E19, the density of staining had increased and was widespread throughout the expanding CNS. In the rostral domains, moderate to high density was found in the external plexiform layer; the medial preoptic area and nucleus; the ventromedial, dorsomedial, and arcuate hypothalamic nuclei; and the lateral and posterior hypothalamic areas. In the midbrain, similar levels of expression were noted in the central nucleus of raphe; the deep mesencephalic, dorsal raphe, and laterodorsal tegmental nuclei; and the ventral periaqueductal gray. In the pons, positive loci included the locus coeruleus and the gigantocellular and pontine reticular nuclei. In the medulla, high expression was evident in the gigantocellular, intermediate, magnocellular, and medullary reticular, spinal trigeminal and cuneate nuclei; and the nucleus tractus solitarius. In the spinal cord, moderate to high density of staining was found in the ventral, dorsal, and lateral horns, and in the ventral, dorsal, and cuneate funiculi. On the other hand, transitory expression was found in the diagonal band, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, amygdala, and the lateral mamillary and anterobasal nuclei of the hypothalamus. These studies indicate a role for CTR in the activation of some premigratory neuroblasts in the CNS as well as a possible role later in an undefined function associated with mature neurons of particular nuclei. J. Comp. Neurol. 456:29–38, 2003. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Assessment of complications of EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration.

BACKGROUND EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) permits both morphologic and cytologic analysis of lesions within or adjacent to the GI tract. Despite increasing use of this technique, the safety and overall complication rates remain poorly defined. METHODS During a period of 20 months, 322 consecutive patients underwent EUS-FNA in 2 centers. All procedures were performed with the patients under general anesthesia. All complications (including local complications resulting from endoscopy/aspiration or clinical complications after the procedure) were evaluated. Potential risk factors for the development of complications were also analyzed including site and nature of the lesion, presence of portal hypertension, and number of needle passes. RESULTS A total of 345 lesions were aspirated in 322 patients. EUS-FNA involved the pancreas in 248 cases. Pancreatic lesions included solid (134) and cystic (114) types, which required a mean of 2.5 and 1.4 needle passes, respectively. Complications were observed in 4 (1.2%) patients after aspiration of pancreatic cystic lesions (acute pancreatitis, n = 3; aspiration pneumonia, n = 1) and all cases of pancreatitis resulted from FNA of lesions in the head/uncinate process. No complications resulted from FNA of solid pancreatic lesions. Complications were not observed after FNA of lymph nodes (n = 62) and one case of aspiration pneumonia was observed after FNA of a stromal tumor. EUS-FNA was performed without complication in 16 patients (5%) with portal hypertension. The number of needle passes was not predictive of complications. CONCLUSIONS Because the overall risk of complications from EUS-FNA was relatively low (1.6%) with no severe or fatal incidents and although the risk appears slightly higher than that for standard EUS alone, the safety of EUS-FNA appears acceptable based on this analysis from an experienced center.
Impacts of Conversion of Farmland to Forestland Program on Household Income:Evidence from a Sand Control Program in the Vicinity of Beijing and Tianjin

This paper uses household panel data to analyze the short-term impacts of the conversion of farmland to forestland program on household income in the Vicinity of Beijing and Tianjin where a sand control program has been implemented. Our results indicate that: 1) The conversion program has a positive impact on household income; 2) household income tends to be 17.37% higher if the sample villages introduced the program one year earlier; and 3) poverty reduction issue is not seriously considered during the implementation of the program.
Testing for habit formation, autocorrelation and theoretical restrictions in linear expenditure systems

The purpose of this paper is to present full information maximum likelihood estimates of linear expenditure systems (LES) and to test for habit formation, autocorrelation and regularity conditions using the likelihood ratio procedure. Estimators for the model and associated tests are based on annual Canadian data for the years 1957-1972. The results obtained provide a basis for helping to clarify concerns with the appropriateness of the LES and an evaluation of alternative characterizations for persistence in consumption patterns. The linear expenditure system has been used in many empirical demand studies. Stone [18], Parks [13], Yoshihara [22], Pollak and Wales [15], Phlips [14], Powell [16] and Deaton [6] and others have presented estimates of the static and simple habit formation variants of the linear expenditure system. Lluch and Williams [11], MacKinnon [12], and Green, Hassan, and Johnson [8] have provided estimates of the LES assuming autoregressive errors. More recently, Howe, Pollak, and Wales [10] estimated the LES considering simultaneously effects of autocorrelation and habits. In this paper we extend our earlier work on autocorrelation and habit formation by developing results which permit a broader basis for evaluating the implications of persistence in consumption behavior for the LES. The plan of the study is as follows. Section II contains a brief review of the LES includ
Study of REIT ETF beta

Purpose - The aim of this study is to examine real estate investment trust exchange-traded funds (REIT ETFs) and test for the existence of the “asymmetric beta puzzle” phenomenon in these financial instruments that are relatively new and are gaining popularity. The “asymmetric beta puzzle” phenomenon is used to identify the hedging and diversification benefits of a financial instrument. “Asymmetric beta puzzle” exists when betas in declining markets are higher than betas in advancing markets. Design/methodology/approach - To study 14 REIT ETFs by using monthly and daily Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) data. Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and Fama–French three-factor model were used to estimate betas in REIT ETFs and those in advancing and declining markets. Both the S&P 500 and the CRSP value-weighted indices were used in the beta estimation. Two hypotheses with regard to betas in both advancing and declining markets were defined and tested to test for the existence of the “asymmetric beta puzzle” phenomenon. Findings - This study confirms the presence of the “asymmetric beta puzzle” in the data of monthly REIT ETFs as documented by Goldstein and Nelling (1999) and Chatrath Originality/value - Goldstein and Nelling (1999) and Chatrath
Background initialization based on bidirectional analysis and consensus voting

Background modeling and subtraction are essential to video surveillance applications. There are two main issues related to background modeling: how to initialize the background model, and how to update the model based on observations. In this paper, we consider the first issue with the aim of generating a clear background image that does not contain foreground objects or noise. We used a bidirectional analysis and consensus voting strategy to achieve this goal. We demonstrated the effectiveness of our technique using open access datasets.
Insulin reduction with metformin increases luteal phase serum glycodelin and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 1 concentrations and enhances uterine vascularity and blood flow in the polycystic ovary syndrome.

We hypothesized that hyperinsulinemia contributes to early pregnancy loss in the polycystic ovary syndrome by adversely affecting endometrial function and environment. Serum glycodelin, a putative biomarker of endometrial function, is decreased in women with early pregnancy loss. Insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 may also play an important role in pregnancy by facilitating adhesion processes at the feto-maternal interface. We studied 48 women with polycystic ovary syndrome before and after 4 weeks of administration of 500 mg metformin (n = 26) or placebo (n = 22) 3 times daily. Oral glucose tolerance tests were performed, and serum glycodelin and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 were measured during the follicular and clomiphene-induced luteal phases of menses. In the metformin group, the mean (+/-SE) area under the serum insulin curve after glucose administration decreased from 62 +/- 6 to 19 +/- 2 nmol/L.min (P < 0.001). Follicular phase serum glycodelin concentrations increased 20-fold from 150 +/- 46 to 2813 +/- 1192 pmol/L (P < 0.001), and serum insulin-like-growth factor-binding protein-1 concentrations increased from 936 +/- 152 to 2396 +/- 300 pmol/L (P < 0.001). Similarly, luteal phase serum glycodelin concentrations increased 3-fold from 3434 +/- 1299 to 10624 +/- 1803 pmol/L (P < 0.001), and serum insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 concentrations increased from 1220 +/- 136 to 4916 +/- 596 pmol/L (P < 0.001). Uterine vascular penetration also increased in the metformin group, as did blood flow of spiral arteries, as demonstrated by a 20% decrease in the resistance index from 0.71 +/- 0.02 to 0.57 +/- 0.03 (P < 0.001). These variables did not change in the placebo group. We conclude that insulin reduction with metformin increases follicular and luteal phase serum glycodelin and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 concentrations and enhances luteal phase uterine vascularity and blood flow in the polycystic ovary syndrome. These changes may reflect an improved endometrial milieu for the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy.
Fragile X syndrome, the Fragile X related proteins, and animal models

The Fragile X syndrome (FraX), which is characterized among other physical and neurologic impairments by mental retardation, is caused by the absence of the product of the FMR1 gene. The Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP) is a member of a novel family of RNA‐binding proteins. The latter includes two other proteins highly homologous with FMRP: the fragile X related proteins 1 and 2 (FXRP1 and FXRP2). Characterization of FXRPs, including their interaction with FMRP, will provide critical information about the mechanisms of action of FMRP and the role of this group of proteins in FMRP‐deficient conditions such as FraX. Genetic manipulations of FMRP and the FXRPs should also provide valuable tools for investigating pathophysiology and gene therapies in FraX. The present review summarizes the strategies used for identifying the FXRPs, their chromosomal localization, molecular structure, and tissue distribution. It also reviews interactions between different members of this family of RNA‐binding proteins. Animal models, both knockout and transgenic, of FMRP and the FXRPs are discussed. Phenotypic features of the FMR1 knockout mouse, the FMR1 transgenic rescue mouse, and other novel strategies for manipulating and delivering FMRP and FXRPs to the brain and other tissues are described. Microsc. Res. Tech. 57:148–155, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ions and adrenergic transmission in the rabbit's ear 1

POTASSIUM [Brown & Feldberg, 1936] and calcium ions [Bronk, Larrabee, Gaylor & Brink, 1938; Harvey & MacIntosh, 1940] have been found to exert an important influence on synaptic transmission in the cat's superior cervical ganglion. Evidence is not lacking that, on the cholinergic and adrenergic transmission at the postganglionic terminals, these ions may exert an equally important influence. But so confusing is the literature, which will be dealt with briefly later, that a reinvestigation of this matter with better methods seemed desirable. As the title implies, this report deals only with the effect of cations on adrenergic transmission. Gaddum & Kwiatkowski's rabbit-ear preparation was chosen for the present study for the following reasons: (1) In this preparation, electrical stimulation can be applied directly to the postganglionic sympathetic fibres, which appear to consist of pure adrenergic nerves, thus excluding the complication of synaptic transmission in the ganglion which was involved in some of the earlier experiments, in which preganglionic nerves were used for stimulation. (2) The substance liberated from adrenergic fibres of this preparation is in all probability adrenaline itself [Gaddum & Kwiatkowski, 1939; Gaddum, Jang & Kwiatkowski, 1939]; thus, by matching the effect of injected adrenaline with that of adrenergic stimulation, it is possible to study the effect of ions on the two components of the transmission in this preparation: (a) the liberation of the transmitter, and (b) the response ofeffector cells to the action ofadrenaline or the transmitter itself.
The Cost of Decentralization: Linguistic Polarization and the Provision of Education

In this paper we argue that different preferences in a decentralized system lead to under provision of public goods. We analyze the provision of public primary education in nineteenth-century Prussia which was characterized by a linguistically polarized society and a decentralized education system. Using unique county-level data on education spending we show that linguistic polarization has a negative impact on local spending. Instrumental variable estimates using distance to the eastern border suggest that the relationship can be causally interpreted. Exploiting a reform of education spending, we show that centralization increases the provision of primary education relatively more in linguistically polarized counties.
A comparison of the association between socioeconomic position and cardiovascular disease risk factors in three age cohorts of Australian women: findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.

OBJECTIVES To assess the associations between three measurements of socioeconomic position (SEP) -- education, occupation and ability to cope on available income -- and cardiovascular risk factors in three age cohorts of Australian women. METHODS Cross-sectional analysis of three cohorts of Australian women aged 18-23, 45-50 and 70-75 years. RESULTS In general, for all exposures and in all three cohorts, the odds of each adverse risk factor (smoking, obesity and physical inactivity) were lower in the most advantaged compared with the least advantaged. Within each of the three cohorts, the effects of each measurement of SEP on the outcomes were similar. There were, however, some notable between-cohort differences. The most marked differences were those with smoking. For women aged 70-75 (older), those with the highest educational attainment were more likely to have ever smoked than those with the lowest level of attainment. However, for the other two cohorts, this association was reversed, with a stronger association between low levels of education and ever smoking among those aged 18-23 (younger) than those aged 45-50 (mid-age). Similarly, for older women, those in the most skilled occupational classes were most likely to have ever smoked, with opposite findings for mid-age women. Education was also differently associated with physical inactivity across the three cohorts. Older women who were most educated were least likely to be physically inactive, whereas among the younger and mid-age cohorts there was little or no effect of education on physical inactivity. CONCLUSION These findings demonstrate the dynamic nature of the association between SEP and some health outcomes. Our findings do not appear to confirm previous suggestions that prestige-based measurements of SEP are more strongly associated with health-related behaviours than measurements that reflect material and psychosocial resources.
The NEF4 Complex Regulates Rad4 Levels and Utilizes Snf2/Swi2-Related ATPase Activity for Nucleotide Excision Repair

ABSTRACT Nucleotide excision repair factor 4 (NEF4) is required for repair of nontranscribed DNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Rad7 and the Snf2/Swi2-related ATPase Rad16 are NEF4 subunits. We report previously unrecognized similarity between Rad7 and F-box proteins. Rad16 contains a RING domain embedded within its ATPase domain, and the presence of these motifs in NEF4 suggested that NEF4 functions as both an ATPase and an E3 ubiquitin ligase. Mutational analysis provides strong support for this model. The Rad16 ATPase is important for NEF4 function in vivo, and genetic analysis uncovered new interactions between NEF4 and Rad23, a repair factor that links repair to proteasome function. Elc1 is the yeast homologue of a mammalian E3 subunit, and it is a novel component of NEF4. Moreover, the E2s Ubc9 and Ubc13 were linked to the NEF4 repair pathway by genetic criteria. Mutations in NEF4 or Ubc13 result in elevated levels of the DNA damage recognition protein Rad4 and an increase in ubiquitylated species of Rad23. As Rad23 also controls Rad4 levels, these results suggest a complex system for globally regulating repair activity in vivo by controlling turnover of Rad4.