Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Children of the postwar years: A two-generational multilevel risk assessment of child psychopathology in northern Uganda

Abstract In postconflict settings risk factors at multiple levels of the social ecology, including community, family, and relationship factors, potentially affect children's mental health. In addition, intergenerational risk factors such as guardians’ history of childhood family violence, war exposure, and psychopathology may contribute to children's psychopathological symptoms. In this study, we aimed to identify risk constellations that predict child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms in the postconflict setting of northern Uganda. In a cross-sectional epidemiological study, 513 second-grade students and their female guardians were interviewed using standardized clinical questionnaires. A higher exposure to traumatic events, more witnessed or experienced violence within the family, and lower child-reported care from female guardians independently predicted psychopathological symptoms in children. While controlling for intergenerational risk factors in female guardians, serial mediation modeling revealed that the effect of trauma exposure on children's psychopathological symptoms was partially mediated by higher exposure to family violence and lower child-perceived care from female guardians. The mediation appeared to be stronger for children's depression symptoms and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems than for posttraumatic stress symptoms. The current findings support the need for targeted interventions at the individual and family system levels that are matched to children's psychopathological symptoms.
Rapid proliferation of activated lymph node CD4+ T cells is achieved by greatly curtailing the duration of gap phases in cell cycle progression

Peripheral T cells are in G0 phase and do not proliferate. When they encounter an antigen, they enter the cell cycle and proliferate in order to initiate an active immune response. Here, we have determined the first two cell cycle times of a leading population of CD4+ T cells stimulated by PMA plus ionomycin in vitro. The first cell cycle began around 10 h after stimulation and took approximately 16 h. Surprisingly, the second cell cycle was extremely rapid and required only 6 h. T cells might have a unique regulatory mechanism to compensate for the shortage of the gap phases in cell cycle progression. This unique feature might be a basis for a quick immune response against pathogens, as it maximizes the rate of proliferation.
PAX2 Distinguishes Benign Mesonephric and Mullerian Glandular Lesions of the Cervix From Endocervical Adenocarcinoma, Including Minimal Deviation Adenocarcinoma

Mesonephric remnants of the cervix are vestiges of the embryonic mesonephric system which typically regresses during female development. Uncommonly, hyperplasia of the mesonephric remnants may occur. The differential diagnosis of exuberant mesonephric hyperplasia includes minimal deviation adenocarcinoma of the cervix, a tumor with deceptively bland morphology for which no reliable diagnostic biomarkers currently exist. PAX2 encodes a transcription factor necessary in the development of the Wolffian duct system, and the protein is expressed in several tumors of mesonephric origin, including renal cell carcinoma, Wilm tumor, and nephrogenic adenoma. We hypothesized that PAX2 may also be expressed in mesonephric lesions of the cervix and may distinguish mesonephric hyperplasia from minimal deviation adenocarcinoma of the cervix. We demonstrated that PAX2 was strongly and diffusely expressed in mesonephric remnants (6 of 6) and in mesonephric hyperplasia (18 of 18); however, no expression was noted in mesonephric adenocarcinoma (0 of 1). PAX2 was expressed in normal endocervical glands (including tunnel clusters and Nabothian cysts) (86 of 86), lobular endocervical glandular hyperplasia (5 of 5), tubal/tuboendometrioid metaplasia (8 of 8), and cervical endometriosis (13 of 14). In contrast, only 2 cases of endocervical adenocarcinoma were positive for PAX2 [invasive adenocarcinoma of the minimal deviation type (0 of 5), usual type (1 of 22), and endometrioid type (1 of 1)]. Adjacent adenocarcinoma in situ, as well as cases of pure adenocarcinoma in situ (0 of 6), were also PAX2 negative. PAX2 expression in the 2 positive endocervical adenocarcinomas was patchy and weak. Most (11 of 15) stage II endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinomas lacked PAX2 expression but 1 of 10 grade 1 tumors and 3 of 5 grade 2 tumors did express PAX2. These results suggest that PAX2 immunoreactivity may be useful to (1) distinguish mesonephric hyperplasia from minimal deviation adenocarcinoma, (2) to distinguish lobular endocervical glandular hyperplasia from minimal deviation adenocarcinoma, and (3) to distinguish endocervical tubal metaplasia or cervical endometriosis from endocervical adenocarcinoma in situ. Overall, a strong, diffuse nuclear PAX2 expression pattern in a cervical glandular proliferation predicts a benign diagnosis (positive predictive value 90%, negative predictive value 98%; P<0.001); however, PAX2 should not be interpreted in isolation from the architectural and cytologic features of the lesion as it may be expressed in some stage II endometrial adenocarcinomas involving the cervix.
Trends in dietary patterns and compliance with World Health Organization recommendations: a cross-country analysis

Abstract Objectives To investigate time patterns of compliance with nutrient goals recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Design A single aggregated indicator of distance from the key WHO recommendations for a healthy diet is built using FAOSTAT intake data, bounded between 0 (maximum possible distance from goals) and 1 (perfect adherence). Two hypotheses are tested for different country groupings: (1) whether adherence has improved over time; and (2) whether cross-country disparities in terms of diet healthiness have decreased. Setting One hundred and forty-nine countries, including 26 countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and 115 developing countries (including 43 least developed countries), with yearly data over the period 1961–2002. Results The Recommendation Compliance Index (RCI) shows significant improvements in adherence to WHO goals for both developing and especially OECD countries. The latter group of countries show the highest levels of the RCI and the largest increase over time, especially between 1981 and 2002. No improvement is detected for least developed countries. A reduction in disparities (convergence of the RCI) is observed only within the OECD grouping. Conclusions Adherence to healthy eating guidelines depends on economic development. Diets are improving and converging in advanced economies, but developing and especially least developed countries are still far from meeting WHO nutrition goals. This confirms findings on the double burden of malnutrition and suggests that economic drivers are more relevant than socio-cultural factors in determining the healthiness of diets.
Deregulation of FGFR1 and CDK6 oncogenic pathways in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia harbouring epigenetic modifications of the MIR9 family

The role of epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) with a tumour‐suppressor function in human neoplasms has recently been established. Several miRNAs have been found to be inappropriately regulated by DNA methylation in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). We analysed the methylation status of the three members of the MIR9 family (MIR9‐1, MIR9‐2 and MIR9‐3) in a uniformly treated cohort of 200 newly diagnosed ALLs. MIR9 was methylated in 54% of the patients and was associated with downregulation of MIR9 (P < 0·01). Hypermethylation of MIR9 was an independent prognostic factor for disease‐free survival, overall survival and event‐free survival in a multivariate analysis (P < 0·01). Epigenetic downregulation of MIR9 induced upregulation of its targets, FGFR1 and CDK6, while treatment of ALL cells with FGFR1 (PD‐173074) and CDK6 (PD‐0332991) inhibitors induced a decrease in cell proliferation and an increase in apoptosis of ALL cells. Our results indicate that the MIR9 family is involved in the pathogenesis and clinical behaviour of ALL and provide the basis for new therapeutic strategies in the treatment of ALL, targeting the epigenetic regulation of miRNAs and/or the FGFR1 or CDK6‐RB pathway directly.
Identifying common elements of evidence-based psychosocial treatments for children's disruptive behavior problems.

OBJECTIVE : Almost all of the efforts to study and implement evidence-based practice (EBP) have used individual treatments as the unit of analysis. A complementary approach using aggregated common elements of multiple individual evidence-based treatment programs has been introduced. The purpose of this article is to describe a new method for identifying common elements of EBP and to present common elements resulting from a systematic review of interventions for children with disruptive behavior problems and their parents. METHOD : We identified eight individual treatment programs with established efficacy for children ages 4 to 13 with disruptive behavior problems, reviewed all of the treatment materials thoroughly, identified core elements of each treatment, and determined which elements were common to at least half of the programs. The validity of these common core elements was confirmed through a survey of national experts using a modified Delphi technique. RESULTS : We identified 21 treatment elements that were common to multiple evidence-based treatment programs. These included therapeutic content (e.g., principles of positive reinforcement, problem-solving skills training), treatment techniques (e.g., role-playing, assigning homework), aspects of the working alliance, and other parameters such as treatment duration. CONCLUSIONS : Identification of common core elements of EBP has important implications for efforts to characterize practice, as well as therapist training and implementation of EBP in community-based service settings. Therapist training and ongoing supervision that builds on common elements of EBP could potentially improve the effectiveness of care overall. It could also build a strong foundation for targeted individual treatment implementation efforts by enhancing therapists' skills and attitudes about EBP.
Sexual and reproductive health services for people living with HIV: a systematic review

Abstract People living with HIV often have unmet needs for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. We present results of a systematic review of studies offering SRH services targeted to people living with HIV. Studies were selected from a broader SRH and HIV linkages review. Inclusion criteria included: (1) peer-reviewed journal articles with a pre–post or multiple-arm study design; (2) reported post-intervention evaluation data; and (3) published 1 January 1990 through 31 December 2007. Nine studies were identified with an average rigour score of 5.1 out of 9. Services included family planning (one study), sexually transmitted infection (STI) services (two studies), combined family planning and STI services (three studies) and multiple services (three studies). The review identified mostly positive effects on the outcomes measured, including condom and contraceptive use and quality of services. Yet gaps remain in the research to establish the best approaches for addressing needs and choices of people living with HIV. There is a need for high-quality intervention studies to determine the most successful and cost-effective strategies for providing SRH services to people living with HIV.
Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy affecting an African American man: identification of a novel 15-base pair NOTCH3 duplication.

BACKGROUND Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is the best characterized genetic cause of vascular dementia and stroke and has been extensively reported in European and Asian populations. OBJECTIVE To report the pathological and genetic analysis of CADASIL in an African American man with a 15-base pair NOTCH3 duplication. DESIGN Case report. SETTING University hospital. PATIENT A 78-year-old man with dementia, recurrent strokes, a family history of similar neurological disease, and white matter abnormalities seen on brain magnetic resonance imaging. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Brain pathology and genetic analysis of NOTCH3. RESULTS The patient's brain showed widespread arteriopathy in large and small arteries. Using electron microscopy, granular osmiophilic material typical of CADASIL was identified abutting the plasma membrane of smooth muscle cells. Brain extracts contained elevated NOTCH3 protein levels. Sequencing of the NOTCH3 gene revealed a novel 15-base pair heterozygous duplication in exon 7, which is predicted to direct expression of a protein that contains 5 extra amino acids, including a cysteine residue. CONCLUSIONS To our knowledge, this is the first reported pathological and genetic analysis of an African American patient with CADASIL. The mutation in NOTCH3 is the longest duplication within this gene yet reported.
Systematic integration of acoustic echo canceller and noise reduction modules for voice communication systems

This paper proposes an efﬁcient way of integrating acoustic echo canceller (AEC) and background noise reduction (NR) modules for voice communication systems. The main strategy for designing a standalone AEC or NR module is straightforward, but it is not easy to integrate two modules in a single system because of the undesired effect caused by the nonlinear nature of each module’s output. The proposed algorithm directly estimates noise and echo components from the observed signal, then they are utilized in the process of updating AEC module. Since the estimation step is independent of the actual processing of NR module, the nonlinear effect caused by coupling the NR module with the AEC module can be minimized. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves the performance of standalone AEC in terms of echo-return-loss-enhancement (ERLE) metric while maintaining that of standalone NR module in the spectral distortion aspect.
Magnetic resonance elastography of the brain using multishot spiral readouts with self‐navigated motion correction

Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) has been introduced in clinical practice as a possible surrogate for mechanical palpation, but its application to study the human brain in vivo has been limited by low spatial resolution and the complexity of the inverse problem associated with biomechanical property estimation. Here, we report significant improvements in brain MRE data acquisition by reporting images with high spatial resolution and signal‐to‐noise ratio as quantified by octahedral shear strain metrics. Specifically, we have developed a sequence for brain MRE based on multishot, variable‐density spiral imaging, and three‐dimensional displacement acquisition and implemented a correction scheme for any resulting phase errors. A Rayleigh damped model of brain tissue mechanics was adopted to represent the parenchyma and was integrated via a finite element‐based iterative inversion algorithm. A multiresolution phantom study demonstrates the need for obtaining high‐resolution MRE data when estimating focal mechanical properties. Measurements on three healthy volunteers demonstrate satisfactory resolution of gray and white matter, and mechanical heterogeneities correspond well with white matter histoarchitecture. Together, these advances enable MRE scans that result in high‐fidelity, spatially resolved estimates of in vivo brain tissue mechanical properties, improving upon lower resolution MRE brain studies that only report volume averaged stiffness values. Magn Reson Med 70:404–412, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Development of Marked Elevation in White Blood Cell Count Does Not Predict Inferior Outcome in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Although elevation of the white blood cell (WBC) count at diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) appears to predict shortened survival, its significance later in the course of the disease remains unclear. We reviewed all cases of CLL seen in our center between 1980 and 1999 to evaluate the frequency and clinical significance of WBC elevation >100 × 10 9 /L. CLL was confirmed according to standard diagnostic criteria and data was collected from diagnosis, occurrence of WBC>100 × 10 9 /L, and last follow-up. 235 consecutive patients with CLL were identified; 94 were excluded. 141 included patients had a median age of 61 years and median WBC 19.7 × 10 9 /L at diagnosis. Median follow-up for all patients was 56 months, and median survival was 104 months. 41 patients (29%) had ≥ 1 episode of WBC>100 × 10 9 /L, occurring at a median of 38 months from diagnosis. Compared to controls matched for modified Rai stage, development of a WBC>100 × 10 9 /L did not predict inferior survival (median 107 vs. 101 months, p =0.72 ). We conclude that the occurrence of a WBC count >100 × 10 9 /L in patients with CLL does not shorten the survival, and patients require therapy only if other indications for treatment are present.
Clinico‐pathological significance of hepatitis C virus core antigen levels in chronic infection

Hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCVcoreAg) may be measured in serum with a sensitive, recently validated assay. Beyond its value as a marker of viral infection, there are little data on its relation with clinical, histological, and virological parameters. In this study, the significance of HCVcoreAg levels was studied in a prospective cohort of 114 patients with chronic hepatitis C. HCVcoreAg was measured by a commercial chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Clinical and virological data included quantitative HCV‐RNA, HCV genotype, ALT, GGT, IL28B rs12979860 polymorphism as well as liver histology parameters. HCVcoreAg levels were correlated significantly with HCV‐RNA (r = 0.56; P < 0.0001) but also with ALT levels (r = 0.258; P < 0.01) and liver necroinflammatory activity (r = 0.205; P < 0.04). Patients harbouring HCV genotype 3 showed lower levels of HCVcoreAg than both genotype 1 and two patients. In genotype 3, a direct correlation between steatosis and HCVcoreAg was found. Levels of HCVcoreAg also varied according to the IL28B genotype. These data suggest that the evaluation of HCVcoreAg serum levels may provide relevant data for the baseline clinical evaluation of chronic hepatitis C patients. HCVcoreAg serum levels may be a useful tool to further the understanding of chronic hepatitis C pathobiology. J Med. Virol. 85:1913–1918, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Two-Level Type Theory and Applications

We define and develop two-level type theory (2LTT), a version of Martin-L\"of type theory which combines two different type theories. We refer to them as the inner and the outer type theory. In our case of interest, the inner theory is homotopy type theory (HoTT) which may include univalent universes and higher inductive types. The outer theory is a traditional form of type theory validating uniqueness of identity proofs (UIP). One point of view on it is as internalised meta-theory of the inner type theory. There are two motivations for 2LTT. Firstly, there are certain results about HoTT which are of meta-theoretic nature, such as the statement that semisimplicial types up to level $n$ can be constructed in HoTT for any externally fixed natural number $n$. Such results cannot be expressed in HoTT itself, but they can be formalised and proved in 2LTT, where $n$ will be a variable in the outer theory. This point of view is inspired by observations about conservativity of presheaf models. Secondly, 2LTT is a framework which is suitable for formulating additional axioms that one might want to add to HoTT. This idea is heavily inspired by Voevodsky's Homotopy Type System (HTS), which constitutes one specific instance of a 2LTT. HTS has an axiom ensuring that the type of natural numbers behaves like the external natural numbers, which allows the construction of a universe of semisimplicial types. In 2LTT, this axiom can be stated simply be asking the inner and outer natural numbers to be isomorphic. After defining 2LTT, we set up a collection of tools with the goal of making 2LTT a convenient language for future developments. As a first such application, we develop the theory of Reedy fibrant diagrams in the style of Shulman. Continuing this line of thought, we suggest a definition of (infinity,1)-category and give some examples.
Notice of RetractionKeratin Degradation and Dehairing Application of Keratinase from a New Bacillus subtilis Strain

Feathers and other keratin containing material had not been widely utilized and lead environmental pollution. Feathers are composed of over 90% keratins and are potential feed protein resource. Microbial degradation by keratinase of feathers will be beneficial to the environment and could contribute to the feed industry. Keratinase can hydrolyze keratin-containing materials such as feathers and hair and keratinases have been utilized in feed, leather and pharmaceutical industries. Detailed mechanisms of keratin degradation have not been elucidated and keratinases play important role in the keratin degradation. A new isolated Bacillus subtilis strain high keratinase activity could degrade keratin from feather, hair and silk showed application potential. In order to estimate the application potential of keratinae produced by the new strain, the optimal feather degradation conditions and dehairing capabilities were studied. The results showed that 10 and 15 g/L feather content, initial pH value 8.5, 32°C, 2% inoculum size, 20 h inoculum age got the optimal feather degradation rate; the feather degradation rate got 45% and 68% after 121 and 128°C treatments for 20 min; the keratinase cultivated in feather substrates had good abilities to dehair the calf and goat skin in 8-12 and 12-16 hours respectively.
A Buck-Derived Topology With Improved Step-Down Transient Performance

The slew rate of the inductor current is limited by the inductance value and the voltage across the inductor. In a buck converter, when the controller is saturated, the voltage across the inductor during a step-up load transient is V in-V out, while during a step-down load transient, it is -V out. Thus, a buck converter with a large conversion ratio offers asymmetrical step-up and step-down transients. Since the rate of fall of the inductor current is much slower than the rate of rise of the inductor current, the step-down transient lasts longer than the step-up transient for the same change in the load current. The step-down slew rate can be increased by reducing the inductance, but it results in higher inductor current ripple, and hence, higher losses in the power converters. In this paper, we present a novel topology for improving the step-down load transients without reducing the inductance value. The scheme operates only during load transients and restores to the normal operating conditions during steady-state operation. It provides reduced voltage overshoots and faster settling times in output voltage during such transients. The proposed scheme is tested on a 1-V/12-A buck converter switching at 1 MHz, and the experimental results are presented.