Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health Promotion: A developing focus area over the years

In 1953 when the Nordic School of Public Health was founded, the aim of public health programmes was disease prevention more than health promotion. This was not unusual, since at this time health usually was seen as the opposite of disease and illness. However, with the Ottawa Charter of 1986, the World Health Organization made a crucial change to view health not as a goal in itself but as the means to a full life. In this way, health promotion became a first priority and fundamental action for the modern society. This insight eventually reached NHV and in 2002 – 50 years after the foundation – an associate professorship was established with a focus on health promotion. Nevertheless, the concept of health promotion had been integrated with or mentioned in courses run prior to the new post. Subsequently, a wide spectrum of courses in health promotion was introduced, such as ‘Empowerment for Child and Adolescent Health Promotion’, ‘Salutogenesis – from theory to practice’ and ‘Health, Stress and Coping’. More than half of all doctoral theses undertaken at NHV during these years had health promotion as their theme. As a derivative, the Nordic Health Promotion Research Network (NHPRN) was established in 2007 with bi-annual meetings at NHV.
Los gastos públicos en pensiones en América Latina y sus proyecciones al año 2075: evidencia de Chile, Perú, Colombia y México

Esta investigacion analiza los factores que explican el gasto en pensiones y proyecta su evolucion al ano 2075 en cuatro paises de America Latina: Chile, Peru, Colombia y Mexico. Definimos como gasto aquel ejecutado en el presupuesto y destinado a los sistemas de beneficio definido y pensiones no contributivas. Utilizamos el modelo de proyeccion de Clements et al. (2013) y encontramos que actualmente el gasto esta entre 1,8 y 6,4% del PBI, pero este crecera entre dos y cuatro veces en 2075 debido principalmente al envejecimiento poblacional. Se realizan dos simulaciones asumiendo un envejecimiento mas fuerte y una universalizacion de las pensiones no contributivas. Encontramos un aumento significativo del gasto en ambos escenarios y recomendamos a los paises prestar mas atencion al envejecimiento y sus consecuencias de largo plazo –especialmente en la sostenibilidad fiscal de los sistemas pensionarios–, estimar permanentemente sus pasivos, mejorar la contabilidad y ahorrar en fondos de reserva.
α-Latrotoxin Stimulates a Novel Pathway of Ca2+-Dependent Synaptic Exocytosis Independent of the Classical Synaptic Fusion Machinery

α-Latrotoxin induces neurotransmitter release by stimulating synaptic vesicle exocytosis via two mechanisms: (1) A Ca2+-dependent mechanism with neurexins as receptors, in which α-latrotoxin acts like a Ca2+ ionophore, and (2) a Ca2+-independent mechanism with CIRL/latrophilins as receptors, in which α-latrotoxin directly stimulates the transmitter release machinery. Here, we show that the Ca2+-independent release mechanism by α-latrotoxin requires the synaptic SNARE-proteins synaptobrevin/VAMP and SNAP-25, and, at least partly, the synaptic active-zone protein Munc13-1. In contrast, the Ca2+-dependent release mechanism induced by α-latrotoxin does not require any of these components of the classical synaptic release machinery. Nevertheless, this type of exocytotic neurotransmitter release appears to fully operate at synapses, and to stimulate exocytosis of the same synaptic vesicles that participate in physiological action potential-triggered release. Thus, synapses contain two parallel and independent pathways of Ca2+-triggered exocytosis, a classical, physiological pathway that operates at the active zone, and a novel reserve pathway that is recruited only when Ca2+ floods the synaptic terminal.
Role of nucleotide hydrolysis in the dynamics of actin filaments and microtubules.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of nucleotide hydrolysis in the dynamics of actin filaments and microtubules. Actin filaments and microtubules (MT) are the major components of the cytoskeleton of eukaryotic cells. Actin and tubulin are the most widespread, highly conserved, and abundant proteins in nature. They share a number of functional and biochemical properties. Both actin and tubulin are functional in their polymeric form; in the cells in most circumstances, a large proportion of actin and tubulin is found in actin filaments and MT. The recent developments of the kinetics of nucleotide hydrolysis and its implication in the dynamics of the polymer are discussed in the chapter. The evolution of the models, the significant controversies, and their implications are described. The regulation of actin polymerization by adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis is summarized. The nucleotide hydrolysis generates complex patterns of monomer concentration at steady state and during growth, which contrasts with the behavior of equilibrium polymers.
Glyphosate epidemiology expert panel review: a weight of evidence systematic review of the relationship between glyphosate exposure and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or multiple myeloma

Abstract We conducted a systematic review of the epidemiologic literature for glyphosate focusing on non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma (MM) – two cancers that were the focus of a recent review by an International Agency for Research on Cancer Working Group. Our approach was consistent with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for systematic reviews. We evaluated each relevant study according to a priori criteria for study quality: adequacy of study size, likelihood of confounding, potential for other biases and adequacy of the statistical analyses. Our evaluation included seven unique studies for NHL and four for MM, all but one of which were case control studies for each cancer. For NHL, the case-control studies were all limited by the potential for recall bias and the lack of adequate multivariate adjustment for multiple pesticide and other farming exposures. Only the Agricultural Health (cohort) Study met our a priori quality standards and this study found no evidence of an association between glyphosate and NHL. For MM, the case control studies shared the same limitations as noted for the NHL case-control studies and, in aggregate, the data were too sparse to enable an informed causal judgment. Overall, our review did not find support in the epidemiologic literature for a causal association between glyphosate and NHL or MM.
MIGRATION DECISIONS OF SKILLED MIGRANTS: International degree students in an offbeat destination

This paper discusses the position of international students in the research on skilled migration based on interview data from Helsinki, Finland. The literature tends to depict students as gainers of human capital, and their role as skilled workers has received less attention. However, the findings of this study challenge the conceptual separation of student and labour migration. Moreover, much of the literature on international student migration focuses on popular, English-speaking destination countries such as the United States. This paper enhances the understanding of student mobility in exploring the migration motives of international students in the case of a less common destination.
Perception of tuberculosis among general patients of tertiary care hospitals of Bengal

Introduction: Tuberculosis is a public health problem in India. The patients of Tuberculosis hide their disease from family, relatives, and community due to the presence of stigma. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge, awareness, and perception regarding social variables of tuberculosis among patients and to associate the awareness with their literacy status. Materials and Methods: Type of study was observational, descriptive, and epidemiological. Study design was cross-sectional. Study setting was general out-patient department of tertiary care hospitals of West Bengal. Sample size was 464 (Four hundred sixty four) patients. The collected data were tabulated, analyzed, and interpreted by proper statistical methods (by percentage and Z test). Results: 60.34% of study population was male. More than one third was illiterate (37.93%). Majority (91.38%) had heard about tuberculosis (TB). Correct answer on cause (infection) was responded by 16.81% patients. About 72.41% had heard about TB from an informal contact. The correct response on mode of spread of TB was told by 31.47% patients. About 62.07% correctly answered that cough was the commonest symptom. 82.76% knew about curability of the disease. Isolation of patient (08.62%) and avoidance of sharing of food (06.03%) were reported as preventive measures. The literacy status had a significant influence on awareness about TB. Conclusion: An attempt could be made in future to improve awareness among illiterates to remove myths and misconceptions, to allay the social stigma attached with it, to decrease TB transmission.
Analysis on target recognition for soccer robots

Robot soccer competition has become increasingly popular in recent years. In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the recognition, the target recognition algorithm is proposed. Several main steps in recognizing process are discussed. These steps include color space transformation, system initialization, color thresholds determining, target identification and the prediction of the motion of objects. The output of the system can be provided to the decision system. According to the results of the implementation, the stability and accuracy of the system are improved, and the preparation time for competition is reduced. It takes less 10 ms in Penrium 1.5G PC to deal with a captured frame with capture resolution 800 times 600.
‘Glucose control-related’ and ‘non-glucose control-related’ effects of insulin on weight gain in newly insulin-treated type 2 diabetic patients

Insulin use is common in type 2 diabetes and is frequently accompanied by weight gain, the composition of which is poorly understood. The present study evaluates insulin-induced body composition changes. Body weight and composition of thirty-two type 2 diabetic patients undergoing their first 12 months of insulin therapy were compared with those observed in thirty-two type 2 diabetic patients previously treated on insulin (minimum 1 year). Body composition was determined by simultaneous body water spaces (bioelectrical impedance analysis) and body density measurements. After 6 months, glycosylated Hb (HbA1c) significantly improved in the newly treated group (P<0·0001), but remained stable in those treated previously. HbA1c did not differ between 6 and 12 months in the two groups. Body weight significantly (P=0·04) changed over 12 months in those newly treated only (+2·8 kg), essentially comprising fat-free mass (P=0·044). Fat mass remained unchanged (P=0·85) as did total body water, while extracellular: total body water ratio tended to increase in those newly treated (P=0·059). Weight changes correlated with HbA1c changes (R2 0·134, P=0·002) in the initial 6 months only. Insulin therapy leads to weight gain (2·8 kg), predominantly fat-free mass, over 12 months. After 6 months, newly treated patients continued gaining weight despite an unchanged HbA1c, suggesting the potential anabolic role of insulin in subsequent gains. Therefore, in the initial 6 months, weight gain can be attributed to a ‘glucose control-related effect’ and further gain appears to be due to a ‘non-glucose control-related’ effect of insulin treatment.
Predicting self-efficacy using illness perception components: a patient survey.

OBJECTIVES To assess the measures of illness representation components in predicting measures of self-efficacy in patients with coronary heart disease. DESIGN A longitudinal design was adopted with predictor variables and dependent variables (general self-efficacy, diet self-efficacy and exercise self-efficacy) measured twice while participants were in hospital and 9 months following discharge. Change scores of the predictor variables can be calculated and dependent variables at baseline can be controlled. METHOD A cohort sample of 300 patients admitted to hospital with coronary heart disease were given the questionnaire measuring their illness perception (illness representation components: identity, consequences, timeline and control/cure and outcome expectation for diet and exercise); self-efficacy (general, diet and exercise self-efficacy measures), demographic and illness characteristics and attendance on a cardiac rehabilitation programme. The patients were asked to complete the questionnaire in hospital before discharge following their cardiac diagnosis, and again, 9 months later, when participants were expected to be functioning independently of any rehabilitation programme. RESULTS Demographic and illness characteristics were found to have a more significant relationship with illness representation components than with specific self-efficacy. The relationship between illness representation components and specific self-efficacy changes overtime, consequence and timeline were significantly related to self-efficacy measures initially; however, symptom and control/cure were the variables that were significantly related to self-efficacy measures 9 months later. After statistically controlling individuals' baseline self-efficacy measures, demographic and illness characteristic effects, symptom and control/cure were found to make significant contributions to exercise and diet self-efficacy, respectively, 9 months later. CONCLUSION A significant relationship exists between illness representation and self-efficacy. There is potential to integrate both approaches to the assessment of psychosocial factors to provide effective individualized care in cardiac rehabilitation.
Clinically isolated syndromes

Multiple sclerosis (MS) represents a spectrum of demyelination that depends on disease duration and clinical categorization. Most patients present with the relapsing–remitting form of the disease. The earliest clinical presentation of relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS) is the clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). Predicting which CIS patients are at high risk for MS is complicated by the disparity between clinical attacks and the extent of axon pathology. However, recent interferon-beta (IFN-β) trials have demonstrated a delay in time to the second demyelinating event with early treatment, and early treatment could also slow the progression from RRMS to secondary-progressive MS (SPMS). Clinical findings in combination with brain MRI and CSF analysis can be used in CIS patients to evaluate their risk for clinically definite MS (CDMS). Application of the McDonald criteria also allows an earlier MS diagnosis by using new MRI lesions to define dissemination in time. Early immunomodulatory therapy for selected CIS patients may eventually prevent future axon pathology and progression of disability in this lifelong disease.
Cyclin D2 is a GATA4 cofactor in cardiogenesis

Significance Cyclin D2 is a cell cycle regulator with spatially restricted expression. Loss and gain of function in animal models also revealed a role in cell differentiation, but the mechanisms underlying this are incompletely understood. The cardiogenic transcription factor GATA4 is an upstream regulator of cyclin D2. We show that GATA4 and cyclinD2 are part of a forward reinforcing loop in which cyclin D2 feeds back to enhance GATA4 activity through direct interaction. Mutations in GATA4 that abrogate cyclin D2 interactions are associated with human congenital heart disease. The results unravel a unique transcriptional role of cyclin D2 that may underlie its cell specificity. The finding that cyclin D2 is a cardiogenic GATA4 cofactor may be exploitable therapeutically for heart repair. The G1 cyclins play a pivotal role in regulation of cell differentiation and proliferation. The mechanisms underlying their cell-specific roles are incompletely understood. Here, we show that a G1 cyclin, cyclin D2 (CycD2), enhances the activity of transcription factor GATA4, a key regulator of cardiomyocyte growth and differentiation. GATA4 recruits CycD2 to its target promoters, and their interaction results in synergistic activation of GATA-dependent transcription. This effect is specific to CycD2 because CycD1 is unable to potentiate activity of GATA4 and is CDK-independent. GATA4 physically interacts with CycD2 through a discreet N-terminal activation domain that is essential for the cardiogenic activity of GATA4. Human mutations in this domain that are linked to congenital heart disease interfere with CycD2-GATA4 synergy. Cardiogenesis assays in Xenopus embryos indicate that CycD2 enhances the cardiogenic function of GATA4. Together, our data uncover a role for CycD2 as a cardiogenic coactivator of GATA4 and suggest a paradigm for cell-specific effects of cyclin Ds.
The antidepressant response to tricyclics in major depressives is accelerated with adjunctive use of methylphenidate.

Standard tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) treatment usually entails response latencies of 2 to 4 weeks. To accelerate the antidepressant response, methylphenidate (MPH) was administered together with standard antidepressants in an open label trial. Twenty inpatients (9 females, 11 males) met DSM-III-R criteria for major depressive episode (15 unipolar and 2 bipolar), depression NOS (n = 2), or Research Diagnostic Criteria for schizoaffective illness, depressed type (n = 1). Following evaluation for depression, patients received an open-label oral MPH stimulation trial (MST), in 1 or 2 dosages of 5 to 15 mg at 0900 and 1000 hours. Twenty patients with positive MST response were treated with TCAs combined with MPH (5-15 mg/d). Therapeutic response was defined as 50 percent decline in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Six of 20 (30%) patients responded after 1 week of combination TCA-MPH, and 10 of 16 (63%) after 2 weeks. Adverse effects of the combination treatment included: dizziness and orthostatic blood pressure changes (n = 3), dry mouth (n = 3), increased anxiety (n = 3), and hypomania (n = 1). The severity of adverse effects required cessation of the MPH in 3 patients. Elevated self-ratings of anxiety were associated with lack of improvement after both 1 and 2 weeks. Adjunctive MPH appears to accelerate response to tricyclics in this systematically conducted open trial, and adverse effects of the TCA-MPH combination were usually tolerable. Positive response on the MST may be predictive of beneficial therapeutic outcome, especially in depressed patients without high anxiety levels. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Multi-resonant LCC converter - comparison of different methods for the steady-state analysis

Several different approaches for the investigation of the steady-state properties of resonant converters have been published. In addition to solving the occurring equations in the time domain, which turns out to be quite cumbersome, the designer can make use of approximate approaches in the frequency domain. Two of these methods are compared to the exact solution with regard to their accuracy and mathematical complexity within this paper for the multi-resonant LCC converter with inductive output filter. Additionally, a minimized set of nonlinear equations is derived in case of the exact solution based upon the state-plane technique.
Population genomics of the wild yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus: Quantifying the life cycle

Most microbes have complex life cycles with multiple modes of reproduction that differ in their effects on DNA sequence variation. Population genomic analyses can therefore be used to estimate the relative frequencies of these different modes in nature. The life cycle of the wild yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus is complex, including clonal reproduction, outcrossing, and two different modes of inbreeding. To quantify these different aspects we analyzed DNA sequence variation in the third chromosome among 20 isolates from two populations. Measures of mutational and recombinational diversity were used to make two independent estimates of the population size. In an obligately sexual population these values should be approximately equal. Instead there is a discrepancy of about three orders of magnitude between our two estimates of population size, indicating that S. paradoxus goes through a sexual cycle approximately once in every 1,000 asexual generations. Chromosome III also contains the mating type locus (MAT), which is the most outbred part in the entire genome, and by comparing recombinational diversity as a function of distance from MAT we estimate the frequency of matings to be ≈94% from within the same tetrad, 5% with a clonemate after switching the mating type, and 1% outcrossed. Our study illustrates the utility of population genomic data in quantifying life cycles.
The Mammalian Peroxin Pex5pL, the Longer Isoform of the Mobile Peroxisome Targeting Signal (PTS) Type 1 Transporter, Translocates the Pex7p·PTS2 Protein Complex into Peroxisomes via Its Initial Docking Site, Pex14p*

In mammals, two isoforms of the peroxisome targeting signal (PTS) type 1 receptor Pex5p, i.e. Pex5pS and Pex5pL with an internal 37-amino acid insertion, have previously been identified. Expression of either type of Pex5p complements the impaired PTS1 import in Chinese hamster ovary pex5 mutants, but only Pex5pL can rescue the PTS2 import defect noted in a subgroup of pex5 mutants such as ZP105. In this work, we found that Pex5pL directly interacts with the PTS2 receptor Pex7p, carrying its cargo PTS2 protein in the cytosol. Pex5pL, but not Pex5pS, mediated the binding of PTS2 protein to Pex14p by translocating Pex7p, demonstrating that Pex5pL plays a pivotal role in peroxisomal PTS2 import. Pex5p was localized mostly in the cytosol in wild-type CHO-K1 and Pex14p-deficient mutant cells, whereas it accumulated in the peroxisomal remnants in cell mutants defective in Pex13p or the RING family peroxins such as Pex2p and Pex12p. Furthermore, overexpression of Pex14p, but not Pex10p, Pex12p, or Pex13p, caused accumulation of Pex5p in peroxisomal membranes, with concomitant interference with PTS1 and PTS2 import. Therefore, Pex5p carrying the cargoes most likely docks with the initial site (Pex14p) in a putative import machinery, subsequently translocating to other components such as Pex13p, Pex2p, Pex10p, and Pex12p.
Exact-MSR Codes for Distributed Storage with Low Repair Complexity

In this paper, we propose two new constructions of exact-repair minimum storage regenerating (exact-MSR) codes. For both constructions, the encoded symbols are obtained by treating the message vector over GF(q) as a linearized polynomial and evaluating it over an extension field GF(q^m). For our exact-MSR codes, data repair does not need matrix inversion, and can be implemented by additions and multiplications over GF$(q)$ as well as cyclic shifts when a normal basis is used. The two constructions assume a base field of GF(q) (q>2) and GF(2), respectively. In contrast to existing constructions of exact-MSR codes, the former construction works for arbitrary code parameters, provided that $q$ is large enough. This is the first construction of exact-MSR codes with arbitrary code parameters, to the best of our knowledge. In comparison to existing exact-MSR codes, while data construction of our exact-MSR codes has a higher complexity, the complexity of data repair is lower. Thus, they are attractive for applications that need a small number of data reconstructions along with a large number of data repairs.