Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bone marrow interface: Preferential attachment of an osteoblastic marrow stromal cell line

In this study, we report on the cell adhesion properties of marrow stromal cells to extracellular matrix components such as collagen and noncollagenous proteins. The osteoblastic cells and their non‐osteoblastic counter‐parts (MBA series) from the marrow stroma differentially recognized a spectrum of extracellular matrix proteins. The osteoblastic cells, MBA‐15, preferentially attached to bone matrix proteins, whereas fibroendothelial MBA‐2.1 and adipocytic 14F1.1 cells did not. The MBA‐15 cells demonstrated a preference in their attachment to fibronectin > mixture of collagens > bone matrix extracts > collagen type 1 > noncollagenous proteins. Clonal subpopulations derived from the MBA‐15 cell line representing various stages along the osteogenic lineage expressed differential attachment preference. MBA‐15.4, a less differentiated clonal line, was compared to MBA‐15.6, a mature cell line. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Unusual Foreign Body Ingestion in a Schizophrenic Patient: Case Report

The topic of foreign body ingestion has received extensive coverage in the areas of surgery, emergency medicine, and pediatrics. A subset of this topic, the intentional ingestion of foreign bodies, however, is much less common, and requires special evaluation and management. Here, we report a case of ingestion of a rolled, metal tuna can lid in a male prison inmate previously diagnosed with depression and paranoid schizophrenia. Following evaluation by the surgical team, the foreign body was removed by laparotomy and the patient was discharged back to the prison without complication. In many cases, ingestions of this type involve a command hallucination ordering the patient to swallow the foreign body. Interestingly, the patient in the present case reported auditory hallucinations commanding him not to swallow the can lid. On further investigation, we found that patient had a proclivity toward this swallowing behavior even prior to his incarceration. Early identification of inmates with this proclivity has important implications for treatment and prevention.
The Occurrence of Anular Tears and Their Relation to Lifetime Back Pain History: A Cadaveric Study Using Barium Sulfate Discography

Study Design. The occurrence of anular tears and general disc degeneration of the lumbar spine was studied in relation to the lifetime frequency of back pain. Summary of Background Data. Although anular tears and ruptures are common targets for diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, the relationship between disc findings and back pain has been weak or nonexistent. Methods. The data comprised barium sulfate discograms of lumbar spine levels from 157 male cadavers. The extent of “anular tears” and “general disc degeneration” based on posterior-anterior and side views were evaluated separately using a 4-point scale. Lifetime history of back pain occurrence and work were obtained from the families of 86 cadavers. To assess whether the risk of back pain changed with the severity of findings or the level of disc, we applied trend tests and proportional-odds logistic models for occurrence data. Results. In early adulthood, the risk of anular tears was 0.6 to 0.7, whereas at retirement age, tears were practically unavoidable. The risk of full anular tears with barium sulfate leaking (“leaking” tear) was estimated to be 0.10 and 0.35 among the men in the age groups of 20 to 49 and 50 to 59 years, respectively. The risk of “leaking” tears was greatest at the L5–S1 levels. There were less severe degenerative findings associated with sedentary occupation but no differences between driving and physically light and heavy occupations. Overall, the risk of any anular tears and any general degeneration as defined was similar. The frequency of back pain had a highly significant relation to the occurrence of tears (model-based P = 0.0009). With a “leaking” tear, the model-based estimate of the risk of frequent lifetime back pain was 0.42, with an “outer” tear the risk was 0.20, and with no tears or “inner” tears the risk was 0.10 (the observed prevalence was 0). The effect of occupational loading was of borderline significance (P = 0.045). Conclusion. Anular degeneration of the lumbar discs appear earlier and are more clearly related to back pain than previously thought, most probably due to the better sensitivity of the BaSO4 discography method to detect tears.
Clinical significance of pleural effusion in the new influenza A (H1N1) viral pneumonia in children and adolescent

Parapneumonic effusion has been reported to develop either in typical bacterial infection or in viral pneumonia with bacterial co‐infection and to cause death. Swine‐origin influenza A (H1N1) virus infection can be accompanied with pleural effusion; however, there are no reports about the significance of pleural effusion in H1N1 pneumonia. We retrospectively analyzed both the clinical characteristics and the significance of pleural effusion associated with H1N1 pneumonia in children and adolescent.
Globalisierung ohne Weltregierung

Abstract Since international trade leads to prosperity, most economics are in favor of globalization. This basic conviction is shared in this paper. Several standard arguments brought forward by critics of globalization-e.g. the claims that globalization increases poverty, destroys jobs, undermines the welfare state, enables international corporations to seize power and leads to environmental degradation and uniform culture-are shown to be invalid. Nevertheless, compared to orthodox economists, a more critical view of globalization is proposed in this paper, and several shortcomings of globalization are discussed. These shortcomings are the unidirectional trade liberalization at the expense of developing countries, international organizations, like the IMF of World Bank, representing narrow economic interests and, above all, the lack of ‘global governance’. Therefore, the implementation of functional overlapping competing jurisdiction (FOCJ) is put forward. It is argued that the alternative proposition of a world government is dangerous, and global solidarity (also in the form of a ‘Global Compact’) ineffective.
All in the Family: Work–Family Enrichment and Crossover Among Farm Couples

This study expands upon the contextualization of the work–family interface by examining positive work–family experiences within the farming industry. Both individual and crossover effects were examined among a sample of 217 married farm couples. Results demonstrated multiple significant relationships between self-reported attitudes, work–family enrichment, and health outcomes. In addition, crossover effects reveal the importance of individual attitudes (husband work engagement and wife farm satisfaction) for spousal work–family enrichment and health outcomes. Furthermore, individual work–family enrichment was positively related to spousal psychological health and negatively related to spousal physical symptoms. Many of these findings remained significant after controlling for work–family conflict. Overall, our results suggest the potential beneficial impact of the integrated work–family dynamic associated with the farming profession for positive work–family experiences. Implications of these findings, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.
Financial Development and Economic Growth Nexus: The Moroccan Case

The issues of the existence and the direction of causality between inance and growth are not yet settled. Even if theoretical and historical evidences suggest an important contribution of inance to foster economic growth, empirical studies provide conlicting results depending upon analytical approaches, econometric techniques, and used data sets. The empirical exploration of the links between the development of the Moroccan inancial sector (MFS) and the economic performance of the country shed some light on the proile of this relationship. It appears that even if the indicators measuring the degree of development of the MFS have steadily evolved, they are not systematically and signiicantly linked with economic growth. This situation may be explained by the characteristics of the MFS and the existence of other factors, not related to this sector, that hinder economic growth. ");} // --> activate javascript
An unique approach for Voltage Stability improvement with probabilistic Neural Network

This work proposes an exclusive approach for improving voltage stability limit using a Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) classifier resulting remedial controls available in the scenario of various contingencies. The sensitivity of the whole system is analyzed to classify the weak buses with ENVCI valuation when it approaches zero. The input to the controller, named as Voltage Stability Enhancing Neural Network (VSENN) controller for training are line flows and bus voltages near the notch point of the P-V curve and the output of the VSENN is a control variable. For various contingencies, the control action that improves the voltage profile as well as stability index is observed and trained accordingly. The trained VSENN is finally tested for its robustness to improve load margin and ENVCI with new contingencies which are not trained before. The proposed approach is established in IEEE 39-bus test system.
Preservice Teachers' Perceived Beliefs towards English Language Learners: Can a Single Course Change Attitudes?.

Recent immigration trends at the national and local levels indicate that schools are receiving the largest influx of immigrant students since the beginning of the 20th century (Wright, 2010). According to the U.S. Department of Education (2014), English language learners (ELLs) accounted for nearly 4.4 million students during the 2011-2012 school year. These students often enter schools and classrooms with teachers who feel underprepared to meet their complex needs (Walker, Shafer, & Liams, 2004; Webster & Valeo, 2011). In examining teacher demographic data, the National Center for Education Information (Feistrtzer, 2011) indicates that teacher education programs have typically recruited predominantly White females in their early twenties who share similar profiles as beginning teachers. The literature suggests that preservice teachers’ backgrounds often affect the degree to which prospective teachers support multicultural education and the degree to which they wish to explore social inequalities (Levine-Rasky, 2001; Nieto & Bode, 2012). Many preservice teachers embrace the idea of meritocracy, attribute the low achievement in minority students to cultural deficit models, and describe themselves as
Fathers and mothers developing skills in managing children's long-term medical conditions: how do their qualitative accounts compare?

BACKGROUND Little is known about the respective experience of fathers and mothers within couples when managing their child's long-term medical condition. This study therefore aimed to obtain and compare fathers' and mothers' accounts of managing long-term kidney conditions. METHODS Qualitative study involving individual then joint semi-structured interviews with 14 couples (biological fathers and mothers of 15 children whose care is managed at a specialist unit). Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed using Framework Analysis. Transcripts within and across couples were compared. RESULTS Fathers and mothers made a significant contribution to management and a key theme identified was 'developing skills' in: information processing, sharing/negotiating caregiving, restraining children, adapting to treatment regimens and communicating. Although skill development was often a challenging and uncertain process, both fathers and mothers wanted to and did participate in caregiving; they often negotiated this with each other to accommodate caring for other children, paid employment and to provide mutual practical and emotional support. Developing skills in holding their child for procedures and treatments was a major concern, but it was fathers who assumed the 'protector' role and worried more about their child's long-term health and well-being, while mothers concerned themselves more with current clinical issues and maintaining relationships with professionals. Expressing appreciation for fathers' and mothers' skill development may promote good 'working relationships' between professionals and both parents over the many years of the trajectory. CONCLUSION Developing skills for home-based caregiving of long-term conditions is a challenging and uncertain process. Both parents often participate in caregiving, and the findings reported here may help professionals decide how best to support both parents in their home-based caregiving.
Noncompartmental pharmacokinetics analysis of glucose‐stimulated insulin response in African–American and Caucasian youths

The objective of this study was to examine the differences in glucose and insulin responses between African–American and Caucasian youths and to determine the associations of between‐group differences with sex, body mass index (BMI) and pubertal status using a noncompartmental pharmacokinetic approach. Sixteen African–American and 22 Caucasian healthy adolescents were tested using the frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test. Longitudinal t‐tests across each observation revealed that (1) African–American youths have higher insulin concentrations between 4 to 19 min; (2) insulin levels remained similar as subjects were grouped according to sex and pubertal status; (3) for glucose, the only difference was found as it approached steady‐state basal level (>100 min) between groups with different BMIs. Linear regression showed that insulin concentrations between 4 to 19 min are associated with BMI in Caucasians. African–American youths were found to have higher insulin responses after glucose stimulation and the insulin concentrations were more related to BMI in Caucasians compared with African–Americans. BMI also has a significant effect on the glucose steady state basal level. The acute insulin response to glucose (AIRg) extended to 20 min resulted in a more significant racial difference (p<0.0006) compared with the calculation done over 10 min suggested in the past (p<0.001). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fatty Infiltration and Atrophy of the Rotator Cuff do not Improve after Rotator Cuff Repair and Correlate with Poor Functional Outcome

Background The role of degenerative changes in rotator cuff musculature with respect to the functional outcomes of rotator cuff repair have only recently been recognized and are still not well understood. In addition, the reversibility of these changes with repair of the tendons is questionable. Hypothesis Poorer preoperative muscle quality negatively affects outcome, and a successful outcome (in terms of a healed repair) might demonstrate improvements in fatty infiltration and muscle atrophy. Study Design Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. Methods Thirty-eight patients (mean age, 62 years) were prospectively evaluated with preoperative and 1-year postoperative clinical examination and appropriate magnetic resonance image sequencing to determine grades of muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles. American Shoulder and Elbow Society (ASES), Constant, and pain scores were determined as well as strength measurements. The retear rate and progression of muscle degeneration were also evaluated. Independent predictors of outcome measurements and cuff integrity were determined. Results The overall clinical outcome, including ASES, Constant, and pain scores, improved significantly (P < .0001). Strength in forward elevation improved significantly (P < .006), while external rotation strength did not. There was a strongly negative correlation between muscle quality and outcome results in most cases. When the results were adjusted for multivariate effect, muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration of the infraspinatus muscle were the only independent predictors of ASES and Constant scores (P < .03). Tear size and rotator cuff healing did not play an independent role. Tear size, however, was the only independent predictor of ultimate cuff integrity (P = .002). Both atrophy and fatty infiltration progressed significantly over the course of the study. In cases in which the tendon had re-torn, the progression was found to be more significant than when the repair proved successful (P < .003). Conclusion Muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration of the rotator cuff muscles, particularly of the infraspinatus, play a significant role in determining functional outcome after cuff repair. Tear size appears to have the most influential effect on repair integrity. A successful repair did not lead to improvement or reversal of muscle degeneration and a failed repair resulted in significantly more progression. In general, healed repairs demonstrated minimal progression. These findings suggest that repairs should be performed, if possible, before more significant deterioration in the cuff musculature in order to optimize outcomes, and that understanding the degree of muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration before surgery can help guide patient expectations.
Utilization of Social Support among Food Insecure Individuals: A Qualitative Examination of Network Strategies and Appraisals

ABSTRACT This study explored the role of social support as low-income individuals endure experiences of food insecurity. The sample includes 37 participants who indicated being challenged by food insecurity and identified using social networks in some capacity in the acquisition of food. Data was analyzed following a grounded theory approach. Participants emphasized the utility of networks (family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors) and the value of resource exchange and pooling strategies to reduce impacts of food insecurity. Attention is given to the appraisal process, which includes assessing one’s own needs and resources as well as their network’s ability to offer help. Important implications for policy and practice addressing social safety net and food programs are discussed.
Forecasting the Expansion of Zebra Mussels in the United States

Abstract: Because zebra mussels spread rapidly throughout the eastern United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s, their spread to the western United States has been expected. Overland dispersal into inland lakes and reservoirs, however, has occurred at a much slower rate than earlier spread via connected, navigable waterways. We forecasted the potential western spread of zebra mussels by predicting the overland movement of recreational boaters with a production‐constrained gravity model. We also predicted the potential abundance of zebra mussels in two western reservoirs by comparing their water chemistry characteristics with those of water bodies with known abundances of zebra mussels. Most boats coming from waters infested with zebra mussels were taken to areas that already had zebra mussels, but a small proportion of such boats did travel west of the 100th meridian. If zebra mussels do establish in western U.S. water bodies, we predict that population densities could achieve similar levels to those in the Midwestern United States, where zebra mussels have caused considerable economic and ecological impacts. Our analyses suggest that the dispersal of zebra mussels to the western United States is an event of low probability but potentially high impact on native biodiversity and human infrastructure. Combining these results with economic analyses could help determine appropriate investment levels in prevention and control strategies.
Education and happiness: an alternative hypothesis

ABSTRACT Recent research has documented a negative relationship between education and happiness. We test the hypothesis that the extent to which education makes an individual happy depends on their current age in life. We find suggestive evidence that people with higher education are more likely to be happier, on average, than their less educated counterparts starting in their early to mid-30s.
Reversal of left ventricular hypertrophy in essential hypertension. A meta-analysis of randomized double-blind studies.

OBJECTIVE To determine the ability of various antihypertensive agents to reduce left ventricular hypertrophy, a strong, blood pressure-independent cardiovascular risk factor, in persons with essential hypertension. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, DIMDI, RINGDOC, ADES, EMBASE, and review articles through July 1995 (English-language and full articles only). STUDY SELECTION Meta-analysis of all published articles including only double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical studies with parallel-group design. DATA EXTRACTION Intensive literature search and data extraction according to a prefixed scheme performed independently by 2 investigators. Reduction of left ventricular mass index after antihypertensive therapy with placebos, diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, or angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors was the principal parameter. DATA SYNTHESIS Of 471 identified references describing the effects of antihypertensive drugs on left ventricular hypertrophy, only 39 clinical trials fulfilled the inclusion criteria of our study. We found that the decrease in left ventricular mass index was more marked the greater was the decline in blood pressure (systolic r=0.46, P<.001; diastolic r=0.21, P=.08) and the longer was the duration of therapy (r=0.38, P<.01). After adjustment for different durations of treatment (mean duration of treatment, 25 weeks), left ventricular mass decreased 13% with ACE inhibitors, 9% with calcium channel blockers, 6% with beta-blockers, and 7% with diuretics. There was a significant difference between drug classes (P<.01): ACE inhibitors reduced left ventricular mass more than beta-blockers (significant, P<.05) and diuretics (tendency, P=.08). Similar differences between drug classes were found with regard to effect on left ventricular wall thickness (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS The database of articles published through July 1995 is small and incomplete, and most of the articles are of poor scientific quality. In this first meta-analysis including only double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical studies, decline in blood pressure, duration of drug treatment, and drug class determined the reductions in left ventricular mass index. The ACE inhibitors seemed to be more potent than beta-blockers and diuretics in the reduction of left ventricular mass index; calcium channel blockers were somewhat in the intermediate range. The ACE inhibitors and, to a lesser extent, calcium channel blockers emerged as first-line candidates to reduce the risk associated with left ventricular hypertrophy.