Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental Trajectories and Predictors of Delinquent Peer Association

ABSTRACT Although the important relationship between age and peers is well-known, relatively little empirical attention has focused on heterogeneous patterns of deviant peer association over time. In light of this, the current study assessed developmental trajectories of peer delinquency and examined criminological factors that explain such patterns. Five waves of data from the Korean Youth Panel Survey (KYPS) were analyzed through group-based trajectory modeling. Results identified six delinquent peer trajectory groups and revealed that juveniles are likely to associate with peers with similar levels of criminal propensity (such as self-control and early onset of delinquency), but this relationship was also influenced by unstructured socialization. Such findings suggest that the nature of delinquent peer association is complex and shaped by a range of factors which require comprehensive examination. Implications and limitations are discussed.
NICE guideline – Menopause : diagnosis and management

One of the remits of the review was to assess the evidence for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) [2.4. 2]. Rather confusingly, it is then stated in the review under ‘Clinical issues that will not be covered’ 1 [2.5. 2] that this includes ‘treatment and/or prevention of chronic diseases that are common in postmenopausal women, such as osteoporosis and CVD’ 1 [2.5. 2]. It is not clear as to whether or not this latter statement just relates only to non-hormonal treatment.
Correlation between Biophysical Properties of Niosomes Elaborated with Chloroquine and Different Tensioactives and Their Transfection Efficiency

Lipid nanocarriers, such as niosomes, are considered attractive candidates for non-viral gene delivery due to their suitable biocompatibility and high versatility. In this work, we studied the influence of incorporating chloroquine in niosomes biophysical performance, as well as the effect of non-ionic surfactant composition and protocol of incorporation in their biophysical performance. An exhaustive comparative evaluation of three niosome formulations differing in these parameters was performed, which included the analysis of their thermal stability, rheological behavior, mean particle size, dispersity, zeta potential, morphology, membrane packing capacity, affinity to bind DNA, ability to release and protect the genetic material, buffering capacity and ability to escape from artificially synthesized lysosomes. Finally, in vitro biological studies were, also, performed in order to determine the compatibility of the formulations with biological systems, their transfection efficiency and transgene expression. Results revealed that the incorporation of chloroquine in niosome formulations improved their biophysical properties and the transfection efficiency, while the substitution of one of the non-ionic surfactants and the phase of addition resulted in less biophysical variations. Of note, the present work provides several biophysical parameters and characterization strategies that could be used as gold standard for gene therapy nanosystems evaluation.
VIRULENCE GENES OF LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES ISOLATED FROM SOME READY-TO-EAT CHICKEN MEALS

This study was conducted in Assiut, Egypt, to investigate the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in a total of 75 ready-to-eat (RTE) cooked chicken meals collected from different restaurants. All isolates were further examined for the virulence marker gene and antibiotic resistance genes. L. monocytogenes were isolated from 4(5.3%) of the samples analyzed, including 2(8%) of chicken shawerma, 1(4%) of chicken burger and 1(4%) of chicken breast fillet. All the recovered L. monocytogenes organisms were confirmed by PCR assay for the presence of 16S rRNA gene and all of the tested isolates harboured this gene, among which 100% were revealed to incode inlA and inlB virulence genes. Whereas, all four (100%) isolates of L. monocytogenes were found to harbor mefA gene (macrolides resistance gene) and Aad6 gene (aminoglycosides resistance gene). While, Kan gene (Kanamycin resistance gene), tetM gene (tetracycline resistance gene) and Cat gene (chloramphenicol resistance gene) couldn't be detected in any examined strains. These results signify the importance of sustained surveillance of L. monocytogenes in cooked chicken meat to minimize the risk of contamination and protecting consumers against outbreaks.
A

We study a double quantum dot (DQD) coupled to a strongly biased quantum point contact (QPC), each embedded in independent electric circuits. For weak interdot tunnelling we observe a ﬁnite current ﬂowing through the Coulomb blockaded DQD in response to a strong bias on the QPC. The direction of the current through the DQD is determined by the relative detuning of the energy levels of the two quantum dots. The results are interpreted in terms of a quantum ratchet phenomenon in a DQD energized by a nearby QPC.
Dietary Intake and Representativeness of a Diverse College-Attending Population Compared with an Age-Matched US Population

Young adults typically gain more dietary autonomy as they start college, though this can also present nutritional challenges; however, research on the generalizability of their dietary intake data is scarce. To address this representativeness concern, we compared food and nutrient intakes reported by college freshmen attending a large, diverse university to an age-matched sample from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We studied 269 students 18–24 years old recruited through the Mason: Health Start Here (HSH) study, a population-based cohort study of college students. Diet was assessed using a diet history questionnaire (DHQ-III) and estimated with food source composition tables. The NHANES sample of 835 adults was the reference dataset. Reported dietary intakes were weighted and compared with national intakes via t-tests. We observed comparable energy, carbohydrate, fat, and protein intakes in both groups; however, the HSH cohort reported a higher density intake of most micronutrients than the NHANES sample. Differences between these samples in intake, mode of dietary assessment administration, and reactivity may help explain the differences detected. These results demonstrate that when appropriately contextualized in terms of methodology and potential sources of bias, single college studies can be useful for understanding nutrition in young adults more broadly.
Developmental Trajectories of Children ’ s Adjustment across the Transition to Siblinghood : Pre-Birth Predictors and Sibling Outcomes at One Year ”

This article is part of the issue “Developmental Trajectories of Children’s Adjustment across the Transition to Siblinghood: Pre-Birth Predictors and Sibling Outcomes at One Year” Volling, Gonzalez, Oh, Song, Yu, Rosenberg, Kuo, Thomason, Beyers-Carlson, Safyer, and Stevenson (Issue Authors). For a full listing of articles in this issue, see: http://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/10.1111/mono.v82. 3/issuetoc.
Impact of Guidelines Publication on Acute Bronchiolitis Management: 10-Year Experience from a Tertiary Care Center in Italy

Bronchiolitis is the most common lower respiratory tract infection in infants. According to evidence-based guidelines, diagnosis is clinical, there is no need for routine use of laboratory or instrumental tests and therapy is primarily supportive, based on oxygen and adequate fluid supplementation. Nevertheless, unnecessary diagnostic tests and pharmacological treatments are still very common. The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to evaluate how the management of bronchiolitis has changed in the last ten years in a Tertiary Care Center in Italy, assessing adherence to national guidelines. Considering the publication of the Italian inter-society consensus document in 2014, we compared patients admitted in the prior four epidemic seasons with patients admitted in the latter six epidemic seasons. The comparison between the two groups showed a significant reduction in the prescription of systemic corticosteroids (58.9% vs. 41.8%, p < 0.001), nebulized epinephrine (73.8% vs. 38.3%, p < 0.001) and antibiotics (59.5% vs. 42.3%, p < 0.001), together with a drastic decrease in the use of chest X-ray (92.2% vs. 54.4%, p < 0.001). On the contrary, the use of inhaled salbutamol remained substantially stable over time (39.4% vs. 37.6%, p = 0.505). Despite the encouraging results, further efforts are needed to limit the prescription of ineffective therapies like antibiotics and inhaled salbutamol.
Effect of Bariatric Surgery on Metabolic Diseases and Underlying Mechanisms

Obesity is a highly prevalent public health concern, attributed to multifactorial causes and limited in treatment options. Several comorbidities are closely associated with obesity such as the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Bariatric surgery, which can be delivered in multiple forms, has been remarked as an effective treatment to decrease the prevalence of obesity and its associated comorbidities. The different types of bariatric surgery create a variety of new pathways for food to metabolize in the body and truncate the stomach’s caliber. As a result, only a small quantity of food is tolerated, and the body mass index noticeably decreases. This review describes the improvements of obesity and its comorbidities following bariatric surgery and their mechanism of improvement. Additionally, endocrine function improvements after bariatric surgery, which contributes to the patients’ health improvement, are described, including the role of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), fibroblast growth factors 19 and 21 (FGF-19, FGF-21), and pancreatic peptide YY (PYY). Lastly, some of the complications of bariatric surgery, including osteoporosis, iron deficiency/anemia, and diarrhea, as well as their potential mechanisms, are described.
Elliptic Localization of a Moving Object by Transmitter at Unknown Position and Velocity: A Semidefinite Relaxation Approach

This paper investigates the elliptic localization for moving object problem from time delay (TD) and Doppler frequency shift (DFS) measurements, where the transmitter position and velocity are unknown. The transmitter is not perfectly time synchronized such that unknown offsets exist in the TD and DFS measurements. We propose to jointly estimate the object and transmitter positions and velocities and the offsets. Using the TD and DFS measurements from both the indirect and direct paths between the transmitter and the receivers, we formulate a non-convex weighted least squares (WLS) problem. Local convergence may occur when solving the non-convex WLS problem, implying that good estimate is not guaranteed. Thus, we relax the non-convex WLS problem into a convex semidefinite program by applying semidefinite relaxation (SDR). Moreover, we theoretically show that the performance can be improved by using multiple transmitters as compared to that using single transmitter, although more unknown parameters are introduced. We then extend the proposed SDR method to handle the multiple transmitters case. Finally, the mean square error analysis is provided to show that the proposed WLS method reaches the Cramer-Rao lower bound accuracy under small Gaussian noise condition. Simulation results validate the theoretical analysis and show the superior performance over the existing methods.
Clinical Associations of Preoperative and Postoperative Serum CEA and Lung Cancer Outcome

Background: Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a classic tumour marker, is widely used in lung cancer in clinical practice. Nevertheless, few studies have elucidated the influence of dynamic changes in CEA in the perioperative phases, as a prognostic indicator, on lung cancer prognosis. Methods: This retrospective cohort analysis included consecutive patients with stage I-III lung cancer who underwent curative resection between December 2010 and December 2014. The patients were grouped into three cohorts: group A included patients with normal preoperative CEA, group B included patients with elevated preoperative CEA but normal postoperative CEA, and group C included patients with elevated preoperative and postoperative CEA. Five-year overall survival (OS) was estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis (log-rank test). Multivariate analyses were performed with Cox proportional hazard regression. Results: A total of 1662 patients with stage I-III lung cancer were enrolled in our study. Patients with normal preoperative CEA had 15.9 and 20.1% better 3- and 5-year OS rates than the cohort with elevated preoperative CEA (p < 0.001). Furthermore, group C had 36.0 and 26.6% lower 5-year OS rates (n = 74, 32.4%) than group A (n = 1188, 68.4%) and group B (n = 139, 59.0%) (p < 0.001). Group B had poorer OS than group A (p = 0.016). For patients with different pathological TNM stages, subgroup analyses showed that group C had the shortest OS in stages I and II (p < 0.05), and patients with a post-preoperative CEA increment had poorer OS than those without an increment (p = 0.029). Multivariate analyses suggested that group C (HR = 2.0, 95% CI, 1.5–2.7, p < 0.001) rather than the group with normalized postoperative CEA (HR = 1.2, 95% CI, 0.9–1.5, p = 0.270) was an independent prognostic factor. In subgroup analysis of adenocarcinoma (ADC), survival analyses suggested that group C predicted a worse prognosis. Multivariate analysis of ADC indicated that group C was an independent adverse prognostic factor (HR = 1.9, 95% CI, 1.4–2.7, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Combined elevated preoperative and postoperative CEA is an independent adverse prognostic factor for stage I-III lung adenocarcinoma. Additionally, routine perioperative detection of serum CEA can yield valuable prognostic information for patients after lung cancer surgery.
Hepatitis C virus infects and perturbs liver stem cells

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the leading cause of death from liver disease. How HCV infection causes lasting liver damage and increases cancer risk remains unclear. Here, we identify bipotent liver stem cells as novel targets for HCV infection, and their erroneous differentiation as the potential cause of impaired liver regeneration and cancer development. We show 3D organoids generated from liver stem cells from actively HCV-infected individuals carry replicating virus and maintain low-grade infection over months. Organoids can be infected with a primary HCV isolate. Virus-inclusive single-cell RNA sequencing uncovered transcriptional reprogramming in HCV+ cells supporting hepatocytic differentiation, cancer stem cell development, and viral replication while stem cell proliferation and interferon signaling are disrupted. Our data add a new pathogenesis mechanism—infection of liver stem cells—to the biology of HCV infection that may explain progressive liver damage and enhanced cancer risk through an altered stem cell state. IMPORTANCE The hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes liver disease, affecting millions. Even though we have effective antivirals that cure HCV, they cannot stop terminal liver disease. We used an adult stem cell-derived liver organoid system to understand how HCV infection leads to the progression of terminal liver disease. Here, we show that HCV maintains low-grade infections in liver organoids for the first time. HCV infection in liver organoids leads to transcriptional reprogramming causing cancer cell development and altered immune response. Our finding shows how HCV infection in liver organoids mimics HCV infection and patient pathogenesis. These results reveal that HCV infection in liver organoids contributes to liver disease progression. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes liver disease, affecting millions. Even though we have effective antivirals that cure HCV, they cannot stop terminal liver disease. We used an adult stem cell-derived liver organoid system to understand how HCV infection leads to the progression of terminal liver disease. Here, we show that HCV maintains low-grade infections in liver organoids for the first time. HCV infection in liver organoids leads to transcriptional reprogramming causing cancer cell development and altered immune response. Our finding shows how HCV infection in liver organoids mimics HCV infection and patient pathogenesis. These results reveal that HCV infection in liver organoids contributes to liver disease progression.
Primate taxonomy

Apes are no monkeys! The best way to insult a scientist working on chimpanzees is to say he/she is working with monkeys. We, humans, belong to the same family as the anthropoid (human-like) apes, also known as the "great" apes. No other animals are as close to us: at the DNA level we are 98.4 % identical to chimpanzees and bonobos. Here is a diagram of a primate evolutionary tree based on DNA comparisons. Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) are classified as Hominoidae. Other members of this family are the four great apes: chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), bonobo (Pan paniscus), gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), and orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). The Hominoid family also includes the "lesser" apes: gibbons and siamangs. No other primates are called apes: they are monkeys and prosimians. The Hominoids split off from the other primates (Old World monkeys, New World monkeys, and prosimians) an estimated 23 million years ago. The latest discoveries in paleontology make early hominids look ever more ape-like thus confirming the validity of comparisons of Homo sapiens with its "living links," the extant anthropoid apes. The split between them and us is now estimated to have occurred a "mere" 6 million years ago. Whereas paleontologists tend to focus on the last 3-4 million years marked by
Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation System Components on the Performance of National Non-Governmental Organizations (NNGOs): A Case of Global Aim Uganda

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system components on the performance of National Non-Governmental Organizations (NNGOs) in Uganda: A case of Global Aim Uganda. The study focused on the i) influence of organizational structure on the performance of Global Aim Uganda (GAU), ii) influence of routine M&E on the performance of GAU and the influence of utilization of M&E information on the performance of GAU. Methodology: The study used a cross sectional study design employing both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The population of the study consisted of the staff of Global Aim Uganda, implementing partners and project beneficiaries to which stratified random sampling was applied. 164 respondents (100% response rate) were reached for the survey and 15 respondents out of 17 (88.23% response rate) were reached for interviews. Qualitative data were collected using interview guides analyzed using content analysis and presented as text in normative form. Quantitative data was collected using researcher administered questionnaires. Responses were rated on a 5-Likert scale and were coded, cleaned and analyzed for descriptive and inferential statistic using SPSS software (version 20.0) presented in tables. Findings: Correlational analysis showed a significant and positive correlation between performance of Global Aim Uganda and organizational structure (r=.244**, p=.002, <0.05), routine M&E (r=.403**, p=.000, <0.01) and utilization of M&E information (r=.526**, p=.000, <0.01). Results from regression analysis revealed a non-significant and negative influence of organizational structure (β= -.013, p=.873, >0.05) on performance. While, there is a positive and significant influence of routine M&E (β=.199, p=.001, <0.05) and utilization of M&E information (β=.327, p=.000, <0.05) on the performance. The coefficient of determination (r2) between predictor variables and performance of Global Aim Uganda is 0.322 (32.2%). Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: There is need to strengthen the M&E system components. These can be done through improved internal reporting, broadening the functions of the M&E unit, incorporating aspects of M&E in staff roles and responsibilities, conducting project specific baseline surveys, starting to conduct project evaluations and increasing the utilization of M&E information in decision making. Further study should focus on the M&E capacity of the organization.
Valency Patterns of Old Irish verbs: finite and non-finite syntax

This paper compares argument marking of finite and non-finite forms (verbal nouns) of 26 Old Irish verbs, focusing on the relationship of transitive coding patterns of finite forms with the mapping of the argument in the genitive case with non-finite forms. The collection of argument structures is cast in the framework of the Leipzig Valency Patterns Project (Hartmann, Haspelmath, and Taylor 2013, Malchukov and Comrie 2015). The paper argues that, although most genitive arguments with transitive verbs express the microrole which corresponds to the second argument (the P-argument), this is not a strict rule, and some verbal nouns of transitive verbs clearly allow the first argument (the A-argument) to surface in the genitive. It is claimed that there is a correlation between the likelihood for finite forms to occur with an accusative argument and the likelihood for the genitive argument of non-finite forms to correspond to the P-argument. This likelihood is measured through a transitivity index that tries to supply a criterion that substitutes acceptability judgments, which are unavailable for past varieties. Each verb’s index can be calculated and each verb can consequently be accommodated in the resulting transitivity scale. Finally, the scale ranking Old Irish verbs according to the transitivity index is compared with crosslinguistic hierarchies of transitivity which have been put forward in the literature.
A statistical definition of the Antarctic marginal ice zone

Abstract. The marginal ice zone (MIZ) is a transitional region between the open ocean and pack ice. This region is circumpolar in the Antarctic, with different sea ice types depending on the season and the sector of the Southern Ocean. The MIZ extent have traditionally been inferred from satellite-derived sea-ice concentration (SIC, one of the essential climate variables), using the 15–80 % range as indicative of sea ice with MIZ characteristics. This proxy has been proven effective in the Arctic, where there is a good correspondence between sea-ice type and sea-ice cover. It is less reliable in the Southern Ocean, where sea-ice type is less linked to the concentration value, since wave penetration and free drift conditions have been reported with 100 % cover. I propose an alternative definition of the MIZ that is based on statistical properties of the SIC and its spatial and temporal variability. The indicator is derived from the standard deviation of daily SIC anomalies, which is often employed in the climate sciences. The use of a monthly climatological mean as the baseline allows to capture changes due to both the seasonal advancement/retreat and the local weather-driven variability typical of less consolidated sea-ice conditions. This method has been tested on the available climate data records to derive maps of the MIZ distribution over the year. It reconciles the discordant seasonal extent estimates using the SIC threshold, which is now independent of the used algorithm. This indicator also allows to derive the climatological probability of exceeding a certain threshold of SIC variability, which can be used for ship navigation, design of observational networks and for testing the skills of sea-ice models in forecasting or climate mode.