Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of the Andersen’s health care utilization framework to secondary complications of spinal cord injury: a scoping review

Purpose: The purpose of this scoping review was to identify research priority areas related to secondary complications and associated health care use for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Method: Data Sources: Peer-reviewed journals were identified using CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, Social Sciences Abstracts, Social Works Abstract and PsycInfo search engines. Key references were hand searched. Study Selection: A total of 289 abstracts were identified from the initial search strategy. We removed studies that did not measure health care and those that did not involve analytical investigation. Data Extraction: The selected 31 studies were reviewed in detail using a coding template based on the domains and sub-components of the Andersen model (i.e. environmental, population characteristics, health behavior and outcome). Results: Most studies measured predisposing characteristics (e.g. age, gender) and need characteristics (e.g. level of injury). There was a notable absence of environmental characteristics (e.g. health system, neighborhood variables), enabling characteristics and health behaviors (beyond diet and nutrition). Conclusions: We identified a gap in the SCI literature. Future research should focus on longitudinal study designs with more representation of non-traumatic spinal cord injury, as well as utilizing more advanced statistical analyses (i.e. multivariate level) to adjust for confounding variables. Implications for Rehabilitation Secondary complications are problematic for individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI). This scoping review aimed to identify research priority areas related to secondary complications and associated health care use for individuals with spinal cord injury. This research showed a gap in the SCI health services literature. Future research should focus on longitudinal study designs with more representation of non-traumatic spinal cord injury as well as utilizing more advanced statistical analyses (e.g. multivariate level) to adjust for confounding variables.
Crosstalk and considerations in endocrine disruptor research.

The presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment has prompted action on several fronts to assess the potential health risks of these compounds. To fully understand the mechanisms behind the observed endocrine disruption, crosstalk and other factors should be considered. In this article we will discuss how crosstalk modulates estrogen action in several common assays and how this and other considerations appear to have been overlooked. In addition, a paradigm shift from theoretical linear response pathways to interaction maps should aid in the understanding and analysis of endocrine disruption.
A simplified synthesis of polymeric nonparticulate stationary phases with macrocyclic antibiotic as chiral selector for capillary electrochromatography

A simplified approach to synthesize nonparticulate (continuous or monolithic) beds with embedded vancomycin chiral selectors for capillary electrochromatography is proposed. In the present approach, N,N'‐diallyltartardiamide monomer with diol functionality is used, which can be readily converted to aldehyde groups via periodate treatment. Parallel to the activation of the polymeric matrix for covalent attachment of vancomycin, the periodate treatment has shown secondary effects on the polymeric bed morphology, namely the increase of the average pore size and porosity of the skeleton. Inversed size‐exclusion chromatography was applied to characterize porosimetric properties of the capillary columns before and after the periodate treatment. Electroosmotic and enantioselective properties of the nonparticulate beds synthesized are presented. The approach is of more general interest attaching different affinity groups to the polymeric matrix and/or enhancing the accessibility to the active sites, for instance, in the molecular imprinting technique.
A GTP:AMP Phosphotransferase, Adk2p, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Adenylate kinases participate in maintaining the homeostasis of cellular nucleotides. Depending on the yeast strains, the GTP:AMP phosphotransferase is encoded by the nuclear gene ADK2 with or without a single base pair deletion/insertion near the 3′ end of the open reading frame, and the corresponding protein exists as either Adk2p (short) or Adk2p (long) in the mitochondrial matrix. These two forms are identical except that the three C-terminal residues of Adk2p (short) are changed in Adk2p (long), and the latter contains an additional nine amino acids at the C terminus of the protein. The short form of Adk2p has so far been considered to be inactive (Schricker, R., Magdolen, V., Strobel, G., Bogengruber, E., Breitenbach, M., and Bandlow, W. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 31103–31110). Using purified proteins, we show that at the physiological temperature for yeast growth (30 °C), both short and long forms of Adk2p are enzymatically active. However, in contrast to the short form, Adk2p (long) is quite resistant to thermal inactivation, urea denaturation, and degradation by trypsin. Unfolding of the long form by high concentrations of urea greatly stimulated its import into isolated mitochondria. Using an integration-based gene-swapping approach, we found that regardless of the yeast strains used, the steady state levels of endogenous Adk2p (long) in mitochondria were 5–10-fold lower compared with those of Adk2p (short). Together, these results suggest that the modified C-terminal domain in Adk2p (long) is not essential for enzyme activity, but it contributes to and strengthens protein folding and/or stability and is particularly important for maintaining enzyme activity under stress conditions.
Reduced migration under climate change: evidence from Malawi using an aspirations and capabilities framework

For farmers in rural Africa, climate change could significantly alter the natural environment, leading to a loss of income, food security and well-being; however, much remains unknown about the way a change in climate may affect a person's decision to migrate away from their home. Using a framework based on migration aspirations and capabilities, this paper examines how climate stresses (such as droughts that cause a long-term decline in harvests) and climate shocks (i.e. acute food shortages and sudden flooding) may affect migration decision-making in rural Malawi. Drawing on survey (n = 255), interview (n = 75) and focus group (n = 93) data from rural and urban dwellers, we find that climate stresses typically do not change rural dwellers’ aspiration to leave their homes, except for a small group of younger farmers from better-off households. However, these same stresses may erode human, financial and social capital, thus reducing migration capability. Data also reveal that acute shocks erode both the migration aspirations and capabilities of even the most dedicated would-be migrant. Drawing from these two findings, this paper concludes that climate change is likely to increase barriers to migration rather than increasing migration flows in countries like Malawi where the economy is still predominately rural.
“There Can Be No Loser”: White Supremacy and the Cruelty of Compromise

This essay explores the subject of political compromise and its centrality to the politics of race in the United States, arguing that what I call “racial compromise” has been a crucial form of white supremacy in American history. In efforts to establish unity, racial compromise has provided reconciliation by securing the inferior status of black Americans. A unique kind of injustice surfaces: when matters of political importance are shelved for the sake of mutual agreement, the lived experiences of whole populations of people are displaced and exploited. The American tradition of white supremacy is vast, and many of its practices are well mined in historical and theoretical scholarship. Racial compromise should be situated among them. Against the prevailing view that it is a political art, an antidote to the conflicts of pluralism and the irrationality of fanaticism, racial compromise reproduces white supremacy, cloaked in the thin disguise of liberal principles.
Adenoviral Bid Overexpression Induces Caspase-dependent Cleavage of Truncated Bid and p53-independent Apoptosis in Human Non-small Cell Lung Cancers*

Proapoptotic gene transfer to promote death or to augment killing by DNA-damaging agents represents a promising strategy for cancer therapy. We have constructed an adenoviral Tet-Off™ vector with tightly controlled expression of Bid (Ad-Bid) (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA). Using the non-small cell lung cancer cell lines H460, H358, and A549, low dose Ad-Bid was shown to induce high levels of full-length Bid as well as caspase-3 and -9 activity. Although only a small fraction of Bid was processed to truncated Bid (a step inhibited by benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethyl ketone), Ad-Bid gene transfer resulted in mitochondrial changes consistent with apoptosis (mitochondrial depolarization, cytochrome c release), DNA fragmentation, and a dramatic loss of cell viability. The proapoptotic effects of Ad-Bid were independent of p53 status and were augmented markedly by caspase-8 activators such as the DNA-damaging agent cisplatin. When Ad-Bid and cisplatin were used together, chemosensitivity was restored in p53-null H358 cells, increasing death from 35% following treatment with cisplatin and Ad-LacZ to >90% death with Ad-Bid and cisplatin (Ad-Bid alone induced 50% cell death under these conditions). Ad-Bid can induce apoptosis in malignant cells and enhance chemosensitivity in the absence of p53, suggesting this approach as a potential cancer therapy.
Evaluation of Widely Used Diagnostic Tests To Detect West Nile Virus Infections in Horses Previously Infected with St. Louis Encephalitis Virus or Dengue Virus Type 2

ABSTRACT Primary West Nile virus (WNV) infections can be diagnosed using a number of tests that detect infectious particles, nucleic acid, and specific IgM and/or IgG antibodies. However, serological identification of the infecting agent in secondary or subsequent flavivirus infections is problematic due to the extensive cross-reactivity of flavivirus antibodies. This is particularly difficult in the tropical Americas where multiple flaviviruses cocirculate. A study of sequential flavivirus infection in horses was undertaken using three medically important flaviviruses and five widely utilized diagnostic assays to determine if WNV infection in horses that had a previous St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) or dengue virus type 2 (DENV-2) infection could be diagnosed. Following the primary inoculation, 25% (3/12) and 75% (3/4) of the horses mounted antibody responses against SLEV and DENV-2, respectively. Eighty-eight percent of horses subsequently inoculated with WNV had a WNV-specific antibody response that could be detected with one of these assays. The plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) was sensitive in detection but lacked specificity, especially following repeated flavivirus exposure. The WNV-specific IgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IgM ELISA) was able to detect an IgM antibody response and was not cross-reactive in a primary SLEV or DENV response. The WNV-specific blocking ELISA was specific, showing positives only following a WNV injection. Of great importance, we demonstrated that timing of sample collection and the need for multiple samples are important, as the infecting etiology could be misdiagnosed if only a single sample is tested.
Diversity of Nitrite Reductase Genes in “Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis”-Dominated Cultures Enriched by Flow-Cytometric Sorting

ABSTRACT “Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis” is considered a polyphosphate-accumulating organism (PAO) though it has not been isolated yet. To reveal the denitrification ability of this organism, we first concentrated this organism by flow cytometric sorting following fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using specific probes for this organism. The purity of the target cells was about 97% of total cell count in the sorted sample. The PCR amplification of the nitrite reductase genes (nirK and nirS) from unsorted and sorted cells was performed. Although nirK and nirS were amplified from unsorted cells, only nirS was detected from sorted cells, indicating that “Ca. Accumulibacter phosphatis” has nirS. Furthermore, nirS fragments were cloned from unsorted (Ba clone library) and sorted (Bd clone library) cells and classified by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. The most dominant clone in clone library Ba, which represented 62% of the total number of clones, was not found in clone library Bd. In contrast, the most dominant clone in clone library Bd, which represented 59% of the total number of clones, represented only 2% of the total number of clones in clone library Ba, indicating that this clone could be that of “Ca. Accumulibacter phosphatis. ” The sequence of this nirS clone exhibited less than 90% similarity to the sequences of known denitrifying bacteria in the database. The recovery of the nirS genes makes it likely that “Ca. Accumulibacter phosphatis” behaves as a denitrifying PAO capable of utilizing nitrite instead of oxygen as an electron acceptor for phosphorus uptake.
Understanding Drivers of Employment Changes in a Multiple Sclerosis Population.

BACKGROUND Qualitative data are lacking on decision making and factors surrounding changes in employment for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). This study aimed to increase our understanding of the key symptoms and factors leading patients with MS to leave work or reduce employment. METHODS Adults with MS who reported leaving the workforce, reducing work hours, or changing jobs due to MS in the past 6 months were recruited from four US clinical sites. Patients participated in semistructured interviews to discuss MS symptoms and reasons for changing employment status. All interviews were transcribed and coded for descriptive analyses. RESULTS Twenty-seven adults (mean age = 46.3 years, mean duration of MS diagnosis = 10.9 years) with a range of occupations participated; most were white (81.5%) and female (70.4%). Physical symptoms (eg, fatigue, visual deficits) (77.8%) were the most common reasons for employment change; 40.7% of patients reported at least one cognitive symptom (eg, memory loss). Fatigue emerged as the most pervasive symptom and affected physical and mental aspects of patients' jobs. Most patients (85.2%) reported at least two symptoms as drivers for change. Some patients reported a significant negative impact of loss of employment on their mental status, family life, and financial stability. CONCLUSIONS Fatigue was the most common symptom associated with the decision to leave work or reduce employment and can lead to a worsening of other MS symptoms. Comprehensive symptom management, especially fatigue management, may help patients preserve their employment status.
Implementing ID3 algorithm for gender identification of Bangladeshi people

Data mining is the procedure of breaking down data from unlike perspectives and resuming it into useful information. It is very important in the field of classification of the objects. It has been fruitfully applied in expert systems to get knowledge. We can determine appropriate classification of unknown objects according to decision tree rules by applying inductive methods to the given values of attributes of those objects. In this paper a decision tree learning algorithm ID3 is applied to build a decision tree in achieving our goal to gender identification of unknown objects. Our experiments have used records of 50 individuals among which 26 were male and 24 were female subjects having age groups of 19 to 25 years. The classification related to the training sets is done by proper calculation. The output of the work is the classified decision tree and the decision rules. It has been observed that the proposed decision tree can recognize 45 subjects gender from 50 individuals. It is a faster process in recognition of individuals' gender and having accuracy level 85% to 90%.
Role of CRF in Stress‐Related Alterations of Gastric and Colonic Motor Function a

Major advances have been made in the understanding of the pathophysiology of stress-related alteration of gut function. A wealth of information indicates that CRF is involved in the central mechanisms by which stress inhibits gastric emptying while stimulating colonic motor function. CRF acts in the PVN to trigger both the inhibition of gastric emptying and the stimulation of colonic motor function in response to stress, in addition to previously established endocrine and behavioral responses. Preliminary evidence exists that CRF acts in the locus coeruleus to induce a selective stimulation of colonic transit without influencing gastric emptying. The central actions of CRF to alter gastric and colonic motor function are conveyed by autonomic pathways and are unrelated to the associated stimulation of pituitary hormone secretion. The demonstration that central CRF plays a role in mediating gastric stasis resulting from surgery, peritonitis or high levels of central interleukin-1 provides new insight into the mechanisms involved in gastric ileus induced postoperatively or by infectious disease. Likewise, the demonstration that CRF in the PVN and locus coeruleus induce the anxiogenic and colonic motor responses to stress and that colonic distention activates neurons in the locus coeruleus opens new avenues for the understanding of the pathogenesis of a subset of IBS patients with colonic hypersensitivity associated with psychopathological disturbance and diarrhea-predominant symptoms.
Prolactin and Growth Hormone in the Regulation of the Immune System

Abstract Evidence implicating prolactin (PRL) and growth hormone (GH) in the regulation of the immune system has been reviewed. Hypophysectomized animals have deficiencies in both cell-mediated and humoral immunological functions and either PRL or GH corrects these deficiencies. Animals administered bromocryptine, a drug that specifically blocks PRL release, have impaired immune responses similar to hypophysectomized animals, and again both PRL and GH correct these deficiencies. Genetically dwarf animals, which lack both PRL and GH, are also immunocompromised, and once again PRL and GH can correct the deficiencies. In dwarf animals, however, fewer studies have examined PRL actions. In growth-deficient children, immune function is not dramatically altered and basal secretion of GH has been reported. Very few clinical studies have examined whether PRL secretion is also deficient, and this may explain why a clear loss in immune function is not evident in growth-deficient children. In a number of species, including man, both PRL and GH stimulate thymic function and increase the secretion of thymulin, a thymic hormone. No studies, however, have reported on the effects of PRL and GH on other thymic hormones. A number of studies have reported in vitro effects of PRL and GH on cells involved with immunity, and the presence of high-affinity PRL and GH receptors have been observed on a number of these cells. The action of GH on the proliferative response of cells involved with immunity in vitro appears to be mediated by the production of insulin-like growth factor I. The effect of PRL on insulinlike growth factor I production by these ceils has not been examined. One of the most consistent findings from in vitro studies is that prolactin antisera blocked a number of immune reactions. This led to the discovery that cells involved with immunity appear capable of producing PRL and GH, but the physiological significance of these observations have not been explored. There is a great need to identify the cell types responding to PRL and GH and this should be a goal of future investigations. There is also a need for investigators to be aware that both PRL and GH are involved in the regulation of the immune system and to design experiments to elucidate where each functions in the maturation cascade of cells involved with immunity. From the evidence available, it is apparent that PRL and GH have an important function in the immune system and future investigations should be directed toward elucidating their site(s) of action.
Optimal generation scheduling of a microgrid

This paper presents an efficient method for the optimal generation scheduling of a microgrid comprising various distributed generators (DG), storage device. To give the optimal operation strategy, an optimization model is proposed respecting various distributed energy resources (DER) constraints and system constraints. The objective function is aimed at minimizing the system cost associated with the DG's energy production and start-up and shut-down decisions, along with possible profits. The problem is similar to a unit commitment problem in power system, however, there are some differences due to the special characteristics of DERs in the microgrid, each DER is modeled based on its characteristics and constraints. Finally, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) method is applied to solve the problem. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated by case studies, the test results also indicate the MILP method is a promising approach to solve this kind of problem with high accuracy and low time consumption.
The Relationship between Local Wealth and Dual Enrollment Participation in Virginia's Community Colleges: Rural, Urban, and Suburban Patterns and Subsequent Postsecondary Enrollment Status.

LOCAL WEALTH AND DUAL ENROLLMENT PARTICIPATION IN VIRGINIA’S COMMUNITY COLLEGES: RURAL, URBAN, AND SUBURBAN PATTERNS AND SUBSEQUENT POSTSECONDARY ENROLLMENT STATUS Ellen Richardson Davenport Old Dominion University, 2013 Director: Mitchell R. Williams In Virginia, the availability of dual enrollment classes for high school students has varied, depending on the interest of the local school division and the community college’s president in whose service region the school division is located. HB 1184, which passed in the 2012 session of the Virginia General Assembly, stipulates that the opportunity must be available for all high school students throughout the Commonwealth to be able to participate in dual enrollment and either receive a Uniform Certificate of General Instruction or an associate degree. Utilizing data from 2006 dual enrollment students, this study’s purpose was to determine if there is a relationship between the wealth of the locality in which each student’s school division is located and the rate of dual enrollment participation in community colleges serving Virginia school divisions. Utilizing the composite index of local ability-to-pay, calculated every biennium by the Virginia Department of Education as a measure of local wealth to determine the state and local shares of mandated expenditures for K-12 public education, research questions measured whether local wealth influenced participation in dual enrollment. The relationships between local wealth and dual enrollment rate in urban, suburban, and rural school divisions respectively were examined. Finally, local wealth was analyzed to determine if it was a statistically significant predictor of the rate of dually enrolled students who subsequently enrolled in a community college or in a four-year institution. For the predictive models calculated, a linear relationship was not established between local wealth and dual enrollment participation. In addition, local wealth did not predict enrollment in a Virginia community college in the fall after the student’s spring graduation from high school. There was a moderate relationship between local wealth and subsequent enrollment of dual enrollment students in a public or private four-year institution in the fall following spring graduation. Local wealth’s moderate relationship to enrollment in a four-year institution after high school graduation indicates that some uniform model of cost-sharing between community colleges and local school divisions, and the state and local funding streams that support them, should be investigated.