Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is the Diminished Incretin Effect in Type 2 Diabetes Just an Epi-Phenomenon of Impaired β-Cell Function?

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by a deficit in β-cell mass, impaired insulin secretion in response to various stimuli (1–3), as well as a variable extent of insulin resistance (4). More specifically, regarding β-cell function, a significant reduction of the incretin effect, i.e., the postprandial augmentation of insulin secretion by gut hormones, has been described in patients with type 2 diabetes (5). Thus, while the two incretin hormones gastric inhibitory polypeptide (glucose-dependent insulinotopic polypeptide [GIP]) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) are held responsible for ∼50–70% of the postprandial insulin responses in healthy individuals (6), their contribution to the overall insulin responses after oral glucose ingestion may amount to <20% in patients with type 2 diabetes (5,7). The reasons underlying the loss of incretin activity in type 2 diabetes are still incompletely understood. The present article reviews the available evidence regarding disturbances in the enteroinsular axis in patients with type 2 diabetes and provides possible explanations for their etiologies, focusing on the personal experience of the authors. ### Secretion of incretin hormones in patients with type 2 diabetes. Because the incretin effect has been related to the secretion and insulinotropic action of GIP and GLP-1 (8,9), it was obvious to compare these parameters between patients with type 2 diabetes and healthy control subjects: Regarding the secretion of GIP, elevated, normal, and reduced plasma levels have been described in patients with type 2 diabetes (10–15). However, taking together all the evidence available, the secretion of GIP appears to be relatively unchanged in type 2 diabetic patients. For GLP-1 release, the case is even more complex. Several studies have reported significant reductions in GLP-1 levels after mixed meal ingestion in patients with type 2 diabetes (10,16,17). In addition, one study has found minor impairments in GLP-1 levels in individuals with impaired glucose …
Changes in Gustatory Sense During Pregnancy

Changes in gustatory sense were investigated in 97 pregnant women and in 30 healthy, non-pregnant women who served as controls. All 97 pregnant women completed a questionnaire regarding taste changes and 32 of them underwent serial tests of gustatory function, including electrogustometry and testing with filter paper disks placed over the areas of the chorda tympani nerve and glossopharyngeal nerve. All gustatory testing was performed by the same person. In addition, serum levels of trace elements were measured in 72 of the pregnant women. Of the 97 pregnant women, 90 (92.8%) reported in the questionnaire that they had experienced some type of change in taste during pregnancy, usually a change in sour taste (59 women; 65.6%). Pregnant women had higher gustatory thresholds than non-pregnant women, with an especially marked decrease in gustatory function being noticed in the first trimester. Although serum zinc levels decreased in pregnant women between the second and third trimesters, zinc levels were in the normal range in the early stage of pregnancy. Thus, it is difficult to explain dysgeusia in the early stage of pregnancy as being associated with a deficiency of zinc. The decrease in gustatory function during the first trimester is considered to be due to the notable changes in secretion of hormones that occur during this stage.
DNA Vaccination Affords Significant Protection against Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infection without Inducing Detectable Antiviral Antibodies

To test the potential of a multigene DNA vaccine against lentivirus infection, we generated a defective mutant provirus of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) with an in-frame deletion in pol (FIVDeltaRT). In a first experiment, FIVDeltaRT DNA was administered intramuscularly to 10 animals, half of which also received feline gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) DNA. The DNA was administered in four 100-microg doses at 0, 10, and 23 weeks. Immunization with FIVDeltaRT elicited cytotoxic T-cell (CTL) responses to FIV Gag and Env in the absence of a serological response. After challenge with homologous virus at week 26, all 10 of the control animals became seropositive and viremic but 4 of the 10 vaccinates remained seronegative and virus free. Furthermore, quantitative virus isolation and quantitative PCR analysis of viral DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells revealed significantly lower virus loads in the FIVDeltaRT vaccinates than in the controls. Immunization with FIVDeltaRT in conjunction with IFN-gamma gave the highest proportion of protected cats, with only two of five vaccinates showing evidence of infection following challenge. In a second experiment involving two groups (FIVDeltaRT plus IFN-gamma and IFN-gamma alone), the immunization schedule was reduced to 0, 4, and 8 weeks. Once again, CTL responses were seen prior to challenge in the absence of detectable antibodies. Two of five cats receiving the proviral DNA vaccine were protected against infection, with an overall reduction in virus load compared to the five infected controls. These findings demonstrate that DNA vaccination can elicit protection against lentivirus infection in the absence of a serological response and suggest the need to reconsider efficacy criteria for lentivirus vaccines.
Assault and Injury of Dating Partners by University Students in 19 Countries and its Relation to Corporal Punishment Experienced as a Child

This study tested the hypothesis that the more prevalent the use of corporal punishment by parents in a social setting, the higher is the prevalence of assault and injury of a dating partner. The sample is from 36 universities in 19 nations (N = 9549). The median percent of students who experienced corporal punishment was 56 percent (range 13-73 percent). The median rate of assaulting a dating partner was 30 percent (range 15-47 percent), and of injuring a dating partner 7 percent (range = 1-20 percent). The results indicate that settings in which the rate of corporal punishment experienced by university students is high, tend to be settings in which the rate of students assaulting and injuring a dating partner is also high. These findings are discussed in the context of theories to explain partner violence and for primary prevention of violence.
Multiple‐dose pharmacokinetics of rufloxacin in patients with cirrhosis

The multiple‐dose pharmacokinetics of rufloxacin were investigated in 13 patients with biopsy‐proven cirrhosis and in 5 healthy controls. Rufloxacin was administered once a day for 5 consecutive days, starting with a loading dose of 400 mg on day 1 and 200 mg on the subsequent days. Plasma and urinary drug concentrations were determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography and a microbiological assay. A one‐compartment model applied to the high‐performance liquid chromatography data was used to calculate the pharmacokinetic parameters of rufloxacin. In the controls rufloxacin had a low plasma clearance (41 ± 4 ml/min, mean ± S.E.M.), a long half‐life (30.1 ± 3.9 hr), a large area under the plasma concentration vs. time curve (171 ± 18 μg · hr/ml) and a low renal clearance (18 ± 2 ml/min). No appreciable differences were observed in the pharmacokinetic parameters between patients with various degrees of liverfunction impairment (modified Child‐Pugh score ranging from 5 to 13). In these patients plasma clearance was slightly reduced (−32%), but this decrease was caused by a marked reduction in renal clearance (−65%) rather than nonrenal clearance, which remained unchanged (22 ml/min in cirrhotic patients vs. 23 ml/min in controls). A significant (p < 0.01) correlation was found between creatinine clearance and both rufloxacin renal clearance (r = 0.769) and rufloxacin plasma clearance (r = 0.681). The elimination half‐life and the area under the plasma concentration vs. time curve were moderately increased in cirrhotic patients (+33% and +26%, respectively). These findings indicate that factors related to declining renal function, rather than liver impairment itself, may be the prime cause in determining alterations in the pharmacokinetic parameters in cirrhotic patients. When these patients have normal renal function, no dose adjustment is needed during oral rufloxacin treatment. (HEPATOLOGY 1993;18:847‐852).
Role of Tissue and Systemic Hypoxia in Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

Human lifestyle in most modern and developing societies has dramatically changed over past decades. Physical inactivity along with unrestricted access to calorie dense foods has established an “obesogenic” environment and contributed to a serious epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D), associated with increased morbidity and mortality. In 2005 a population-based study conducted by Reichmuth et al. of University of Wisconsin with a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis identified that among 1387 participants the odds ratio for T2D with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) > 15 versus an AHI < 5 was 2.30 (1.28–4.11; p < 0.01) after adjustment for age, sex, and body habitus [1]. Therefore it has been assumed that intermittent hypoxic periods associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may play a pathogenic role in inducing insulin resistance and T2D. At organ/tissue levels, in 2007–2009 Ye and colleagues first proposed a central role played by adipose tissue hypoxia resulting from adipocyte expansion in promoting chronic inflammation, adiponectin reduction, adipocyte dysfunction, and death in obese individuals [2, 3]. This group of researchers later identified the mediator roles played by hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) [4] and other hypoxia-triggered signaling mechanisms that may promote free fatty acid release and inhibit glucose uptake in adipocytes by inhibition of the insulin-signaling pathway and induction of cell death [5].
Romantic Relationships, Adolescence and HIV: Love as an Element of Vulnerability

Este estudo investigou a relacao do amor e de diferentes relacionamentos amorosos com variaveis de vulnerabilidade ao HIV, como comportamento sexual e percepcao de risco. Utilizou-se a Escala Triangular do Amor de Sternberg e um questionario estruturado para inquirir 301 estudantes de ensino medio sobre relacoes amorosas, comportamento sexual e percepcao de risco frente ao HIV. Identificou-se que os adolescentes subestimam o proprio risco de contagio quando se comparam a outros individuos e quando consideram a possibilidade de contagio passado e futuro. O amor nao apareceu diretamente associado a autopercepcao de risco, porem, juntamente com o namoro, apresentou-se como complicador do sexo protegido e relacionado a subestimacao do risco do parceiro. Observou-se que relacionamentos estaveis e o amor constituem elementos que aumentam a vulnerabilidade ao HIV, por terem relacao com a confianca no parceiro e por justificarem praticas arriscadas, como o nao uso do preservativo.
Religion and Support for Adoption by Same-Sex Couples

This article examines the relative impact of religious factors on Americans’ attitudes toward adoption by same-sex couples. Drawing upon national survey data, we fit logistic regression models and compute standardized logistic regression coefficients to estimate the relative net effects of religious tradition, practices, and beliefs about the Bible on support for same-sex adoption. Findings reveal that religious factors are among the strongest predictors of opposition to same-sex adoption, but that religious tradition has no significant effect on support for same-sex adoption once frequency of religious practice and beliefs about the Bible are held constant. Americans who more frequently engage in practices such as religious service attendance and sacred text reading are less supportive of same-sex adoption, and compared to biblical literalists, those who believe the Bible requires interpretation, contains human error, or is a book of history/legends are all more likely to support same-sex adoption. Findings suggest that religious affiliations matter less for predicting same-sex adoption attitudes than how Americans practice and hold their faith.
Lipids and lipoproteins during antihypertensive drug therapy. Comparison of doxazosin and atenolol in a randomized, double-blind trial: the Alpha Beta Canada Study.

A randomized double-blind trial comparing the alpha-adrenergic blocker doxazosin and the beta-adrenergic blocker atenolol was completed by 131 patients with mild to moderate hypertension. Blood pressure and fasting blood lipids were determined at baseline and 4, 12, and 24 weeks of treatment. At entry, plasma lipids and lipoproteins were similar in those patients randomized to doxazosin or atenolol. After 24 weeks of treatment with atenolol, there were significant (P < .05) decreases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and increases in triglycerides and very-low-density triglycerides (VLDL-T). In contrast, doxazosin was associated with significant (P < .05) increases in HDL-C and decreases in triglycerides and VLDL-T. There were no significant differences in HDL apolipoprotein (apo) A-I or low-density lipoprotein apoB between the drugs, but atenolol decreased the ratio of HDL-C to apoA-I, and doxazosin increased this ratio, differences that were statistically significant (P < .002). Neither apoA-I nor apoB concentration at baseline nor apoE phenotype was predictive of the lipid responses during antihypertensive treatment with either drug. Thus, there are significant favorable changes in HDL-C, total triglycerides, and VLDL-T between patients with mild to moderate hypertension and normal plasma lipids when treated with the alpha-blocker doxazosin compared with the beta-blocker atenolol. Plasma lipid or apo concentrations were not predictive of their lipid response during antihypertensive therapy with either of these agents.
Epigenetic promoter silencing in Friedreich ataxia is dependent on repeat length

Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is caused by an expanded GAA triplet‐repeat (GAA‐TR) mutation in the FXN gene. Patients are typically homozygous for expanded alleles containing 100 to 1,300 triplets, and phenotypic severity is significantly correlated with the length of the shorter of the 2 expanded alleles. Patients have a severe deficiency of FXN transcript, which is predominantly caused by epigenetic silencing of the FXN promoter. We sought to determine whether the severity of FXN promoter silencing is related to the length of the expanded GAA‐TR mutation in FRDA.
Acid steatocrit: a reliable screening tool for steatorrhea

This study compared the acid steatocrit (AS) results of healthy children with those of sick children with and without gastrointestinal involvement. Stool samples of 166 children were investigated, comprising 50 healthy children, 26 asthma patients, and 90 patients with gastrointestinal problems divided into 34 treated cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, 16 untreated coeliac disease (CD) patients and 40 patients with various gastrointestinal problems. The median values (5th–95th percentile) of AS results were 3.3% (0.0–21%) for healthy children, 4.5% (1.8–22.5%) for asthma patients, 24.7% (2.6–68.2%) for treated CF patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, 19.8% (3–77.7%) for untreated CD patients and 5.5% (1.8–29%) for patients with various gastrointestinal diseases.
Using Constraint Programming to Achieve Optimal Prefetch Scheduling for Dependent Tasks on Run-Time Reconfigurable Devices

Dynamically reconfigurable hardware not only has high silicon reusability, but it can also deliver high performance for computation-intensive tasks. However, the reconfiguration process usually has long configuration latency, which contributes only negatively to the system performance. Prefetching is a very effective technique to hide such latency, but there is no scheduler that is capable of optimally scheduling tasks while considering prefetching. In this work, constraint programming, an approach with a strong theoretical foundation, was used to perform offline scheduling for dependent tasks. The approach can find an optimal schedule that has minimal schedule length. Experiments on randomly generated task graphs have been carried out. In 2/5 of the cases, the optimal solutions can be found within 1 second
Talent development, work habits, and career exploration of Chinese middle‐school adolescents: development of the Career and Talent Development Self‐Efficacy Scale

This article describes the development of an instrument – the Career and Talent Development Self‐Efficacy Scale (CTD‐SES) – for assessing students’ self‐efficacy in applying life skills essential for personal talent development, acquisition of positive work habits, and career exploration. In Study 1, data were obtained from a large sample of Chinese middle‐school students (N=15,113) in Grades 7–9 in Hong Kong. The CTD‐SES is an 18‐item questionnaire with subscales containing items that address students’ orientations toward developing their own talents, acquiring and applying positive work habits, and exploring their career possibilities. Evidence is provided for internal consistency, temporal stability, and factor structure of the CTD‐SES. Goodness of fit statistics provided support for a three‐primary‐factor‐plus‐higher‐factor model, and this solution was used in the statistical analyses. The data also indicated that students with plans for university study reported significantly higher scores than those without on all three domains of career and talent development. In Study 2 (N=308) Grade 10 high‐ability students’ scores in CTD‐SES were correlated with scores in career decision self‐efficacy and academic performance. The development and validation of CTD‐SES is the first step toward investigating career exploration, work habits, and talent development among Asian middle‐school adolescents.
Changes in Social Networks of Women and Men Following Divorce

A theoretical critique and review is presented concerning the character and consequences of changes in the social networks of spouses following separation and divorce. For men, cultural traditions that prescribe the duties and obligations of husbands are thought to encourage the development of personal friendships while simultaneously encouraging independence, thus insulating men from the possible benefits of social support following divorce. For women, the duties and obligations of wives as they are traditionally defined encourage women to accept responsibility for “kinkeeping” during and after marriage while simultaneously discouraging bonds with friends. These circumstances are thought to isolate women from the unique benefits of personal friendship and ensure networks that are dominated by kin, which typically are high in exchanges of both social support and interference. Important distinctions are drawn between the character of relationships with kin and friends, as well as between the concepts of social support and social interference.
Interplay of motivational and cognitive strategies in predicting self‐efficacy and anxiety

The purpose of the present study was to test a model explaining self‐efficacy and anxiety by the interrelationships with task value, cognitive strategies (rehearsal, elaboration and organisation) and metacognitive self‐regulation in the domain of chemistry. Data were collected from 518 college students in Turkey. Findings of structural equation modelling indicated that chemistry self‐efficacy and anxiety were predicted as a function of task value, cognitive strategies and metacognitive self‐regulation, supporting the proposed model. That is, students with high levels of task value tended to use more learning strategies which promoted the use of regulatory strategies. In turn, these students may decrease their chemistry anxiety, leading to an increase in chemistry self‐efficacy indirectly.
Hindsight and Causality

When people know how an event turned out, they are usually unable to reproduce the judgments they would have made without outcome knowledge. Furthermore, they are unaware of their inability to recapture their pre-outcome state of mind. This tendency to overestimate what they would have known without the outcome knowledge is called "hindsight. " An experiment explored the moderating effects of the type of cause to which the outcome was attributed on the magnitude of the hindsight effect. When the outcome was attributed to unforeseeable "chance" factors, such as an unexpected storm or an earthquake, the hindsight effect was virtually eliminated. When no causal attribution was provided or when a plausible "deterministic" cause (human skill or lack of skill) was cited, subjects' judgments showed sizable hindsight effects. These. findings are interpreted as supporting Fischhoff's "creeping determinism" hypothesis and as providing evidence that the hindsight effect is a by-product of adaptive learning from feedback.
Monotherapy with Intravenous Vinflunine in Patients with Advanced or Metastatic Urothelial Cancer after Failure of a Platinum-Containing Regimen: A Retrospective Analysis of German Routine Data

Objective: The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of vinflunine monotherapy and the utility of second-line prognostic factors in patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer relapsing/progressing during or after a prior platinum-containing regimen under daily routine clinical conditions in Germany. Methods: The selection was based on the marketing authorization indication and recommendations as well as on the evaluation of second-line prognostic factors issued from prior pivotal trials. Results: Eight centers across Germany provided a total of 21 patient records. Demographic and clinical characteristics were similar to the data previously reported in pivotal trials. Complete and partial response to vinflunine treatment was observed in 1 (4.8%) and 3 (14.3%) patients, respectively, resulting in an overall response rate of 19.1%. The disease control rate reached 47.7%. The median progression-free survival amounted to 4.4 months (95% CI 2.6-6.6), with a median overall survival of 6.2 months (95% CI 3.9-10.7). The observed toxicity profile was manageable and consistent with prior clinical trials: leukopenia (33.3%), neutropenia (9.5%), anemia (9.5%) and hyperglycemia (4.8%). The reported satisfaction rate with the treatment was 90.5 and 61.9% among patients and physicians, respectively. Conclusions: This retrospective study confirms that the clinical outcomes obtained from routine medical practice in Germany with vinflunine in the treatment of advanced/metastatic urothelial cancer are in line with the data observed in prior clinical trials.