Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lipid Profile of Type 2 Diabetic and Hypertensive Patients in the Jamaican Population

Aims: Previous studies have shown that diabetes mellitus (DM) increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases in females to a greater extent than in males. In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated the lipid profiles of type 2 diabetic males and females. Materials and Methods: The study included 107 type 2 diabetic patients (41 males and 66 females), and 122 hypertensive type 2 diabetic patients (39 males and 83 females), aged 15 years and older. Total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), very low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (VLDL-C) and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations were assayed for each group using standard biochemical methods. Results: The mean TC, TG, VLDL-C, HDL-C and LDL-C concentrations, TG/HDL and LDL/HDL ratios were higher in type 2 diabetic and hypertensive type 2 diabetic patients compared with non-diabetic, and hypertensive non-diabetic control subjects, although these were not significant (P > 0.05). Hypertensive type 2 diabetic females had significantly higher serum TC (7.42 ± 1.63 mmol/L) than hypertensive non-diabetic males (5.76±1.57 mmol/L; P < 0.05). All the other lipid and lipoprotein parameters except HDL-C were non-significantly higher in females with type 2 DM and those with hypertension and type 2 DM, compared with type 2 diabetic and hypertensive type 2 diabetic males, respectively (P > 0.05). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that dyslipidemia exists in our type 2 diabetic population with greater TC in hypertensive type 2 diabetic females compared with hypertensive type 2 diabetic males. This suggests that hypertensive type 2 diabetic females are exposed more profoundly to risk factors including atherogenic dyslipidemia compared with males.
The module of prediction of College Entrance Examination aspiration

Many factors are involved in the prediction of College Entrance Examination (CEE) aspiration which is a non-linear classification problem. We proposed a CEE aspiration prediction approach based on support vector machine learning algorithm. Firstly, CEE score and ranking in all subjects, the number of college admission plan and relevant data of the latest two years are collected and a training set is formed. Secondly we analyze the influential factors of CEE admission, and there are 14 features, such as score, score sorting, the lowest admission fractional lines of all batches, the number of enrollment plans of all batches in all levels of colleges and universities and school enrollment plans . And feature extraction is implemented on the two years' data to obtain the training staff for prediction, then the machine learning algorithm of Support Vector Machine is used to train the decision-making process of CEE aspiration and the analytical model for prediction is established. Finally, the admission data of 2009 and 2010 partial examinees is applied on prediction experiment. The result shows that the proposed method performs a very good effect, the prediction accuracy reaches 90%, giving very favorable guidance to examinees for aspiration filling.
Expression of Calcium/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II and Pain-Related Behavior in Rat Models of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

BACKGROUND:Abnormalities in peripheral nerves and dorsal root ganglia are noticed in the early stage of experimentally provoked diabetic neuropathy. Enzyme calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) may have a modulating role in diabetic neuropathy because of its role in calcium homeostasis. METHODS:A model of type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) was induced with 55 mg/kg of the streptozotocin and for DM2 induction a combination of high-fat diet and low-dose streptozotocin (35 mg/kg) was used. Pain-related behavior was analyzed using thermal and mechanical stimuli. Two weeks and 2 months after induction of diabetes rats were euthanized, and the expression of CaMKII and its isoforms in the dorsal root ganglia were analyzed using immunofluorescence. RESULTS:Both types of diabetes were successfully induced, as confirmed by hyperglycemia. Increased pain-related behavior became evident in DM1 rats in 2 weeks after diabetes induction, but not in DM2 rats. The expression of total CaMKII and the phosphorylated &agr; isoform of CaMKII increased in DM1 animals concurrently with pain-related behavior. Expression of &agr;, &bgr;, &ggr;, and &dgr; isoforms in DM1 animals and expression of total CaMKII and all of its analyzed isoforms in DM2 animals remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings may indicate involvement of CaMKII in transmission of nociceptive input early in DM1, but not in DM2. CaMKII may be a suitable pharmacological target for diabetic neuropathy.
First and second language vowel perception in early bilinguals

Previous research has shown that the perception of speech sounds is strongly influenced by the internal structure of maternal language categories. Specifically, it has been shown that stimuli judged as good exemplars of a phonemic category are more difficult to discriminate from similar sounds than bad exemplars from equally similar sounds. This effect seems to be restricted to phonemes present in the maternal language, and is acquired in the first months of life. The present study investigates the malleability of speech acquisition by analysing the discrimination capacities for L2 phonemes in highly proficient Spanish-Catalan bilinguals born in monolingual families. In Experiment I subjects were required to give goodness of fit judgments to establish the best exemplars corresponding to three different vowel categories (Catalan /e/ and /ε/ Spanish /e/). In Experiments 2 and 3, bilinguals were asked to perform a discrimination task with materials in their maternal language (Exp. 2) and in their second language (Exp. 3). Results reveal that bilinguals show a reduced discrimination capacity only for good exemplars of their maternal language, but not for good exemplars of their second language. The same pattern of results was obtained in Experiment 4, using a within-subjects design and a bias-free discrimination measure (d'). These findings support the hypothesis that phonemic categories are not only acquired early in life, but under some circumstances, the acquisition of new phonemic categories can be seriously compromised, in spite of early and extensive exposure to L2.
Squeezing at Entrance of Proton Transport Pathway in Proton-translocating Pyrophosphatase upon Substrate Binding*

Background: H+-PPase is a proton pump that hydrolyzes PPi to transport protons for maintenance of pH homeostasis. Results: The FRET efficiencies between two corresponding residue pairs at the pathway entrance were altered upon substrate binding. Conclusion: Substrate mediates squeezing at the pathway entrance of H+-PPase. Significance: Squeezing at the pathway entrance is essential for the initial step of proton translocation. Homodimeric proton-translocating pyrophosphatase (H+-PPase; EC 3.6.1.1) is indispensable for many organisms in maintaining organellar pH homeostasis. This unique proton pump couples the hydrolysis of PPi to proton translocation across the membrane. H+-PPase consists of 14–16 relatively hydrophobic transmembrane domains presumably for proton translocation and hydrophilic loops primarily embedding a catalytic site. Several highly conserved polar residues located at or near the entrance of the transport pathway in H+-PPase are essential for proton pumping activity. In this investigation single molecule FRET was employed to dissect the action at the pathway entrance in homodimeric Clostridium tetani H+-PPase upon ligand binding. The presence of the substrate analog, imidodiphosphate mediated two sites at the pathway entrance moving toward each other. Moreover, single molecule FRET analyses after the mutation at the first proton-carrying residue (Arg-169) demonstrated that conformational changes at the entrance are conceivably essential for the initial step of H+-PPase proton translocation. A working model is accordingly proposed to illustrate the squeeze at the entrance of the transport pathway in H+-PPase upon substrate binding.
‘It's for the best’: child movement in search of health in Njabini, Kenya

Previous studies produced on the movement of individuals with HIV/AIDS for the obtainment of medical services have rarely been conducted in the Global South and have neglected the experiences of child patients. This article presents a new type of travel for medical care, where HIV+ children in Kenya are being placed or choose to be placed in orphanages in order to obtain constant access to antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, proper nutrition, and education. Through participant observation and photo-elicitation interviews with children in orphanages and their immediate family members in the surrounding Njabini community, this study focused on documenting children's agency in influencing movement decisions to orphanages for better health outcomes. Photo-elicitation interviews in particular allowed for greater insight into children's lives, their motivations for moving to an orphanage, and as a tool to facilitate discussion. Qualitative methods utilized with family members similarly privileged their interpretations of how child movement out of the house would help achieve the ‘best’ possible future for their children, particularly those living with HIV. Study findings shed light on the active role played by children in decisions to move to orphanages, the visualization of these facilities as the best place to secure access to ARV therapy and ensure proper child health, and the interaction that continues to take place between children and their family members once they enter these spaces.
Role of Age and Myopia in Simultaneous Assessment of Corneal and Extraocular Tissue Stiffness by Air-Puff Applanation.

PURPOSE To assess the correlation of age and myopia with corneal and extraocular tissue stiffness derived from air-puff applanation using a composite viscoelastic model. METHODS This retrospective, cross-sectional study evaluated 155 normal eyes (age range: 5 to 50 years) measured on Corvis ST (Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH, Wetzlar, Germany). Manifest refraction spherical equivalent was also analyzed. A linear viscoelastic model that segregated corneal and extraocular tissue stiffness from the applanation deformation waveform was implemented. Corvis ST measured the total deformation (deformation amplitude waveform), which was simply the sum of corneal and extraocular tissue deformation. Age- and myopia-based multivariate analyses of variance between deformation parameters were performed after adjusting for intraocular pressure and central corneal thickness. Corvis ST corneal hysteresis was also calculated from the corneal deformation waveform. RESULTS All myopia and age groups were matched for intraocular pressure and central corneal thickness. Extraocular tissue stiffness significantly increased with age (P = .03). Some other extraocular tissue deformation parameters also correlated with age, indicating age-related stiffening (P < .05). Corneal and extraocular tissue stiffness decreased with increasing myopia, but the trend was not significant (P = .10). Corvis ST corneal hysteresis increased with increasing age (P = .01) but not with increasing myopia (P = .61). CONCLUSIONS Extraocular deformation parameters indicated stiffening of the extraocular tissues with age. Corneal deformation parameters were unaffected by age and myopia. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to clearly understand the effect of myopia on corneal and extraocular tissue stiffness. [J Refract Surg. 2016;32(7):486-493. ].
The Association between Change Styles and Job Satisfaction Among Teachers Working in International Schools

[Abstract]This research was conducted among the population of teachers working in international schools around the world, focusing on change, job satisfaction and the transition process. Change style is believed to be an innate aspect of personality, which influences the preferences, attitudes and emotions surrounding change (Musselwhite,2004). Although these change style preferences are manageable and fluid within our lives, knowledge of them can assist in greater self-awareness and professional satisfaction. The purpose of the study was twofold. First, it aimed to determine if an association exists between an individual’s change style and job satisfaction. Secondly, it aimed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of cultural, technical and political factors connected with professional satisfaction and the relocation process. The research was guided by an interpretivist lens. An exploratory case study was conducted, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Quantitative data collection included a psychometric assessment tool on change styles and a survey questionnaire, completed by 204 respondents. The qualitative element consisted of semi-structured interviews with seven volunteers, identified from the quantitative data set. Communication with participants was conducted through the Internet so as to reach a globally diverse sample of teachers. Qualitative responses were separated by themes, which in turn were refined into broader categories, leading to systematic interpretations of change styles among this specific group of international teachers. Quantitative data provided descriptive statistics with which to compare qualitative interpretations. Quantitative and qualitative data were compared and contrasted throughout, leading to greater credibility and applicability of the study. The research contributed to existing knowledge in three ways. Methodologically, it demonstrated the value of using mixed data sets in interpretive inquiry. Theoretically, it added to the existing research into and application of change styles. Empirically, it offered understanding and interpretations of international school employees as they experience the relocation process and job satisfaction. Generally, the research contributes to a broader understanding of international school teachers which could enhance professional development opportunities and self-awareness and thereby promote increased levels of job satisfaction.
Self-concept and Coping with Developmental Demands in German and Polish Adolescents

Changes in development during adolescence may be understood as the result of the adolescent's active pursuit of developmental tasks. Various choices made by adolescents relating to specific developmental goals can be determined, among other factors, by personality dispositions such as control beliefs, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. In this study, these concepts were integrated into a single construct of self-as-agent belief, assessed by items derived from scales measuring the three factors. It was predicted that adolescents holding strong self-as-agent beliefs (a) would persistently prefer active and self-reliant strategies to cope with developmental goals and (b) would show lower discrepancies between desired goal states and present developmental states in the three developmental domains of autonomy, preparation for professional life, and opposite-sex partnership, when compared with adolescents holding weak self-as-agent beliefs. Furthermore, it was hypothesised that (c) the persistently more active adolescents would also reveal less discrepancy between developmental goal and state. Supportive evidence was found for all of the three hypotheses, but type of developmental task, gender, age, and culture were also relevant variables. Cross-cultural differences pertained to, for example, general demand level and preference of active approach to developmental goals (German higher than Polish adolescents), as well as timing of changes in demand level (Polish later than German adolescents).
A fuzzy ontology: based framework for reasoning in visual video content analysis and indexing

Multimedia indexing systems based on semantic concept detectors are incomplete in the semantic sense. We can improve the effectiveness of these systems by using knowledge-based approaches which utilize semantic knowledge. In this paper, we propose a novel and efficient approach to enhance semantic concept detection in multimedia content, by exploiting contextual information about concepts from visual modality. First, a semantic knowledge is extracted via a contextual annotation framework. Second, a Fuzzy ontology is proposed to represent the fuzzy relationships (roles and rules) among every context and its semantic concepts. We use an abduction engine based on βeta function as a membership function for fuzzy rules. Third, a deduction engine is used to handle richer results in our video indexing system by running the proposed fuzzy ontology. Experiments on TRECVID 2010 benchmark have been performed to evaluate the performance of this approach. The obtained results show consistent improvement in semantic concepts detection, when a context space is used, and a good degree of indexing effectiveness as compared to existing approaches.
Density Estimation by Mixture Models with Smoothing Priors

In the statistical approach for self-organizing maps (SOMs), learning is regarded as an estimation algorithm for a gaussian mixture model with a gaussian smoothing prior on the centroid parameters. The values of the hyperparameters and the topological structure are selected on the basis of a statistical principle. However, since the component selection probabilities are fixed to a common value, the centroids concentrate on areas with high data density. This deforms a coordinate system on an extracted manifold and makes smoothness evaluation for the manifold inaccurate. In this article, we study an extended SOM model whose component selection probabilities are variable. To stabilize the estimation, a smoothing prior on the component selection probabilities is introduced. An estimation algorithm for the parameters and the hyperparameters based on empirical Bayesian inference is obtained. The performance of density estimation by the new model and the SOM model is compared via simulation experiments.
The Predicted TM10 Transmembrane Sequence of the Cardiac Ca2+ Release Channel (Ryanodine Receptor) Is Crucial for Channel Activation and Gating*

The predicted TM10 transmembrane sequence, 4844IIFDITFFFFVIVILLAIIQGLII4867, has been proposed to be the pore inner helix of the ryanodine receptor (RyR) and to play a crucial role in channel activation and gating, as with the inner helix of bacterial potassium channels. However, experimental evidence for the involvement of the TM10 sequence in RyR channel activation and gating is lacking. In the present study, we have systematically investigated the effects of mutations of each residue within the 24-amino acid TM10 sequence of the mouse cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) on channel activation by caffeine and Ca2+. Intracellular Ca2+ release measurements in human embryonic kidney 293 cells expressing the RyR2 wild type and TM10 mutants revealed that several mutations in the TM10 sequence either abolished caffeine response or markedly reduced the sensitivity of the RyR2 channel to activation by caffeine. By assessing the Ca2+ dependence of [3H]ryanodine binding to RyR2 wild type and TM10 mutants we also found that mutations in the TM10 sequence altered the sensitivity of the channel to activation by Ca2+ and enhanced the basal activity of [3H]ryanodine binding. Furthermore, single I4862A mutant channels exhibited considerable channel openings and altered gating at very low concentrations of Ca2+. Our data indicate that the TM10 sequence constitutes an essential determinant for channel activation and gating, in keeping with the proposed role of TM10 as an inner helix of RyR. Our results also shed insight into the orientation of the TM10 helix within the RyR channel pore.
Short cuts to safety: Risk and 'rules of thumb' in accounts of food choice

A number of 'food scares' over the past decade in Europe have generated considerable debate about public understandings of food risk, and the extent to which such understandings impact on decision making. This paper reports on a focus group study of how UK consumers discuss choosing safe food. Strategies for making food choices were, in general, characterised by confidence rather than anxiety. Although concerned in an abstract way with the safety of food and how it was monitored, 'risk' and 'safety' were rarely the primary discursive framework used for justifying food choices. Other discourses, such as health, naturalness, economy and convenience, competed with, overlapped with or were legitimated by that of 'risk'. However, everyday decision making was presented as a routine endeavour, aided by a number of 'short cuts' or rules of thumb for establishing food choices as routine and unremarkable. These short cuts divided safe from risky categories of food, but also divided preferred from despised foodstuffs in relation to other food discourses. Rules of thumb provided useful rhetorical devices for routinising accounts of food choice. In practice, however, rules of thumb are reported as being utilised in complex and contingent ways. They thus provide a sophisticated bulwark against the uncertainties of food risks when events (such as the media concern over BSE) threaten everyday trust in routine decisions.
Education about Religions and Beliefs in Victoria

While the role of religion in Australian schools has been vigorously debated since the 1870s, it has recently generated considerable controversy, particularly in the state of Victoria. This article provides a historical analysis of religious instruction (RI) in Victorian schools, particularly drawing on the 1974 Russell Report’s review of RI programs. It then focusses on more recent developments, notably the 2010 Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) case, Aitken and Others vs. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, which has reignited the ‘religion in schools debate’. Based on recommendations of the Russell Report and a number of recent Australian studies in this field, this article argues that a more inclusive model of education about religions and beliefs (ERB) is required for Australia’s Government schools to meet the needs of its increasingly multifaith and secular society. This research also suggests that ERB programs can be effective strategies for countering prejudices and building socially inclusive societies.
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Do Humans Produce the Speed–accuracy Trade-off That Maximizes Reward Rate?

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Cerebral white matter changes and rate of progression of dementia during cholinesterase inhibitor treatment: a retrospective cohort study

Cerebral white matter changes (WMC) represent cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and are common in dementia. Cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) are effective in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) with or without CVD, and in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Predictors of treatment response are controversial.