Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum cystatin C level is a useful marker for the evaluation of renal function in patients with cirrhotic ascites and normal serum creatinine levels

Background/Aims Several studies suggested that serum cystatin C (CysC) is more useful than serum creatinine (Cr) for the assessment of renal function in patients with liver cirrhosis. This study evaluated the clinical significance of CysC in patients with cirrhotic ascites and normal Cr level. Methods We enrolled patients with cirrhotic ascites and a normal serum Cr level (<1.2 mg/dL). GFR was measured by 99mTc-DTPA renal scan. Serum Cr, CysC, and Cr clearance (CCr) were measured on the same day. Significant renal impairment and severe renal impairment were defined as GFR <60 mL/min and GFR <30 mL/min, respectively. Results Eighty-nine patients with cirrhotic ascites were enrolled in the study (63 men and 26 women; age, 55±11 years). Forty-seven (52.8%) and 42 (47.2%) patients were in Child-Pugh grade B and C, respectively. Serum Cr and CysC levels and GFR were 0.8±0.2 mg/dL, 1.1±0.3 mg/L, and 73.4±25.5 mL/min, respectively. Significant and severe renal impairment were noted in 28 (31.5%) and 2 (2.2%) patients, respectively. GFR was well correlated with serum Cr, CysC, and e-GFRMDRD, while it was not correlated with e-GFRC&G. In multivariate analysis, only CysC was significantly correlated with GFR (β, 45.620; 95% CI, 23.042-68.198; P<0.001). Serum CysC level was the only independent predictor for significant renal impairment. Conclusions Significant renal dysfunction was not rare in patients with cirrhotic ascites, even their serum Cr level is normal. Serum CysC is a useful marker for detecting significant renal dysfunction in these patients.
School proximity to concentrated animal feeding operations and prevalence of asthma in students.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Asthma prevalence and severity are rising in industrialized nations. Studies supporting the hygiene hypothesis suggest that being raised on a farm protects against atopy and, often, asthma. In rural United States, however, an increased rate of asthma has been found among schoolchildren. We hypothesized that the rural US environment may not be protective against airway inflammation, perhaps due to environmental effluents from a relatively high number of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). We compared the prevalence of asthma in two Iowa elementary schools, one adjacent to a CAFO, and the other distant from any large-scale farming operations. DESIGN Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. SETTING Two rural Iowa elementary schools: the study school is located one-half mile from a CAFO, and the control school is distant from any large-scale agricultural operation. PARTICIPANTS Children, kindergarten through grade 5, who attended either the study school or the control school. RESULTS Children in the study school had a significantly increased prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma (adjusted odds ratio, 5.71; p = 0.004). Although this group was more likely to live on a farm and have parents who smoke, these potentially confounding variables did not account for increased prevalence in a multivariate model. No difference in measures of asthma severity was found between the two populations. Because different sets of physicians are responsible for the medical care of the groups of children, it is possible that physician bias is responsible for the different prevalence of asthma diagnoses. This was not explored in the study. CONCLUSIONS This study supports a role for exposure to rural environmental toxicants in the etiology of asthma, and suggests a need for further study of this relationship.
Ethnic and Republic Identification in the Russian Federation and Ukraine: A Social Dominance Perspective

Using representative survey data of 5,466 ‘titular’ (i.e. named after the states or republics of residence) and Russian respondents, this study examines the relationship between ethnic and republic identification in 28 cities in five autonomous republics of the Russian Federation, in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian Republic of Crimea. In accordance with Social Dominance Theory, ethnic and republic identification turned out to be positively and more strongly correlated among dominant than among subordinate groups. Group-size ratio was not found to affect identification patterns. At the contextual level, perceived cultural threat and the endorsement of multiculturalism and minority rights moderated the association between ethnic and republic identification of both groups. Intergroup differences in identification patterns were smaller in cities where both support for multiculturalism and the perception of cultural threat were higher. These results also shed light on the developing relationships between Russian and titular populations in the former Soviet Union.
Reliability and effect of sodium bicarbonate: buffering and 2000-m rowing performance.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to determine the effect and reliability of acute and chronic sodium bicarbonate ingestion for 2000-m rowing ergometer performance (watts) and blood bicarbonate concentration [HCO3-]. METHODS In a crossover study, 7 well-trained rowers performed paired 2000-m rowing ergometer trials under 3 double-blinded conditions: (1) 0.3 grams per kilogram of body mass (g/kg BM) acute bicarbonate; (2) 0.5 g/kg BM daily chronic bicarbonate for 3 d; and (3) calcium carbonate placebo, in semi-counterbalanced order. For 2000-m performance and [HCO3-], we examined differences in effects between conditions via pairwise comparisons, with differences interpreted in relation to the likelihood of exceeding smallest worthwhile change thresholds for each variable. We also calculated the within-subject variation (percent typical error). RESULTS There were only trivial differences in 2000-m performance between placebo (277 ± 60 W), acute bicarbonate (280 ± 65 W) and chronic bicarbonate (282 ± 65 W); however, [HCO3-] was substantially greater after acute bicarbonate, than with chronic loading and placebo. Typical error for 2000-m mean power was 2.1% (90% confidence interval 1.4 to 4.0%) for acute bicarbonate, 3.6% (2.5 to 7.0%) for chronic bicarbonate, and 1.6% (1.1 to 3.0%) for placebo. Postsupplementation [HCO3-] typical error was 7.3% (5.0 to 14.5%) for acute bicarbonate, 2.9% (2.0 to 5.7%) for chronic bicarbonate and 6.0% (1.4 to 11.9%) for placebo. CONCLUSION Performance in 2000-m rowing ergometer trials may not substantially improve after acute or chronic bicarbonate loading. However, performances will be reliable with both acute and chronic bicarbonate loading protocols.
Why Network Across National Borders? TANs, their Discursivity, and the Case of the Anti-GATS Campaign

Looking at the formation of transnational advocacy networks, this article argues that central aspects evade attention unless approached from a discursive orientation. Utilizing interviews and first-person observation from a particular example of transnational mobilization—critical of negotiations to expand the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade-in-Services—the article demonstrates how an expanded focus on discourse can help research better understand: (1) the self-driving momentum within networks through which those actors involved experience a reconstituted identity and affinity to one another; (2) the role played by earlier moments of collective action in providing both an infrastructure of pre-existing relations and politicization from which the network may draw upon; (3) the often porous character of campaign activity where there is rarely one but, in fact, many overlapping networks at play as part of a much wider discursive process; and (4) the role abstract signifiers such as ‘global’—as in ‘Global Campaign for …’—play in framing the network despite an often uneven geographic distribution to campaign activity and power within the network.
High-Throughput siRNA Screening to Reveal GATA-2 Upstream Transcriptional Mechanisms in Hematopoietic Cells

Hematopoietic stem cells can self-renew and differentiate into all blood cell types. The transcription factor GATA-2 is expressed in both hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and is essential for cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation. Recently, evidence from studies of aplastic anemia, MonoMAC syndrome, and lung cancer has demonstrated a mechanistic link between GATA-2 and human pathophysiology. GATA-2-dependent disease processes have been extensively analyzed; however, the transcriptional mechanisms upstream of GATA-2 remain less understood. Here, we conducted high-throughput small-interfering-RNA (siRNA) library screening and showed that YN-1, a human erythroleukemia cell line, expressed high levels of GATA-2 following the activation of the hematopoietic-specific 1S promoter. As transient luciferase reporter assay in YN-1 cells revealed the highest promoter activity in the 1S promoter fused with GATA-2 intronic enhancer (+9.9 kb/1S); therefore, we established a cell line capable of stably expressing +9.9 kb/1S-Luciferase. Subsequently, we screened 995 transcription factor genes and revealed that CITED2 acts as a GATA-2 activator in human hematopoietic cells. These results provide novel insights into and further identify the regulatory mechanism of GATA-2.
High School and College Athletes' Attitudes Toward Sport Psychology Consulting

The purpose of the present study was to explore attitudes about sport psychology consulting of high school and college athletes living in the United States. The Sport Psychology Attitudes–Revised form (SPA-R; Martin, Kellmann, Lavallee, & Page, 2002) was administered to 362 high school and 431 college athletes. A 2 (Gender) × 2 (Age Group: High School and College) × 2 (Type of Sport: Physical Contact and Physical Non-contact) MANCOVA was conducted with past sport psychology consulting experience as a covariate and attitudes about sport psychology as dependent variables. Follow-up univariate and discriminant function analyses were then performed to identify the attitudes that maximized differences related to gender, age group and type of sport. Results revealed that male athletes, younger athletes and athletes who have been socialized in sports that involve physical contact may have a stigma toward seeking sport psychology consulting. Sport psychology consultants must be sensitive to how personal characteristics, experience and attitudes influence help-seeking to improve the services they offer.
Prior Knowledge Activation and the Comprehension of Compatible and Incompatible Text.

THIS STUDY examined the effect of prior knowledge activation on average readers' comprehension of compatible and incompatible text. Fifty-two sixth-grade students either activated or did not activate what they believed to be relevant background knowledge prior to reading each of two science passages taken from naturally-occurring text. Based on the results of preexperimental knowledge domain and pilot data measures, the passage on rattlesnakes was judged compatible, while the one on sunlight was considered incompatible due to the counter-intuitive information it contained. Measures of written free recall and multiplechoice tests were the dependent variables. In addition, a post-session questionnaire was administered. Findings supported the notion that prior knowledge may interfere with, rather than facilitate, reading comprehension under certain conditions. Subjects who activated relevant background knowledge prior to reading text that contained ideas which were incompatible with their existing knowledge structures allowed their previous knowledge and experiences to override the text information. This effect was observed for both general and specifically targeted comprehension indices. There was no difference in performance between activators and non-activators on compatible text. Excerpts from students' post-session questionnaire responses were reported, and instructional implications were tentatively drawn regarding the role of text in changing inaccurate background knowledge.
Exercise and Nutrition to Target Protein Synthesis Impairments in Aging Skeletal Muscle

The loss of skeletal muscle size and function with aging and sarcopenia may be related, in part, to an age-related muscle protein synthesis impairment. In this review, we discuss to what extent aging affects skeletal muscle protein synthesis and how nutrition and exercise can be used strategically to overcome age-related protein synthesis impairments and slow the progression of sarcopenia.
Developer Recommendation for Crowdsourced Software Development Tasks

Crowdsourced software development utilises an open call format to attract geographically distributed developers to accomplish various types of software development tasks. Although the open call format enables wide task accessibility, potential developers must choose from a dauntingly large set of task options (usually more than one hundred available tasks on TopCoder each day). Inappropriate developer-task matching may lower the quality of the software deliverables. In this paper, we employ content-based recommendation techniques to automatically match tasks and developers. The approach learns particular interests from registration history and mines winner history to favour appropriate developers. We measure the performance of our approach by defining accuracy and diversity metrics. We evaluate our recommendation approach by introducing 4 machine learners on 3,094 historical tasks from TopCoder. The evaluation results show that promising accuracy and diversity are achievable (accuracy from 50% to 71% and diversity from 40% to 52% when recommending reliable developers). We also provide advice extracted from our results to guide the crowdsourcing platform in building a recommender system in practice.
Constraint-Based Knowledge Brokers

: Imagine distributed knowledge processing with autonomous activities and decentralized control where the handling of partial knowledge will not result in unclear semantics or failure-prone behavior. In this paper, a modular approach is taken where autonomous activities, called constraint-based knowledge brokers, process and generate new knowledge in presence of partial information. We present a mathematical model where the semantics of the knowledge system is described using the traditional (cid:12)xed-point procedure. The computational model is given by LO, our model for multi-agent coordination. The problems of inter-argument dependencies and knowledge reuse inside the knowledge generators are addressed as well as the di(cid:14)culty of recursion control.
The Effects of Methylphenidate on ADHD Adolescents in Recreational, Peer Group, and Classroom Settings

Compared the effects of . 3 mg/kg methylphenidate for 17 attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) boys (7 years, 3 months to 10 years 11 months) and 17 male ADHD adolescents (12 years to 14 years, 6 months) matched for concurrent diagnosis, IQ and reading achievement scores, who were participating in a summer treatment program for children with behavior and/or learning problems. The results revealed equivalent and beneficial effects of methylphenidate on the variables measured for both younger boys and adolescents on the average. However, the positive response rate for the adolescents was only 50%, lower than typically obtained with ADHD children. The study was conducted in a day-treatment program in which a multifaceted behavioral intervention was in effect. Our results imply that when used in conjunction with a behavioral intervention, methylphenidate would appear to be a useful treatment for at least some ADHD adolescents. Possible limitations of this conclusion are discussed.
How Do Drug Use and Social Relations Affect Welfare Participation?

This study analyzes whether welfare use is longitudinally related to drug use and various measures of social relations. It conducts secondary analyses on data from a sample of 382 women. The data, which stem from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, were gathered between 1984 and 2002. The results suggest that use of marijuana or cocaine does not affect women’s welfare participation to a statistically significant degree. Attending religious services and receiving low levels of child support are associated with statistically significant declines in welfare participation. Changes in marital status are linked to increases in welfare participation.
Initial evaluation of a new plastic pancreatic duct stent for endoscopic ultrasonography-guided placement

There are currently no plastic pancreatic duct stents that have been designed for endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS)-guided placement. This study prospectively evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of a new, single-pigtail, plastic stent. Eight patients with main pancreatic duct stricture or stenotic pancreatojejunostomy underwent EUS-guided placement of the pancreatic duct stent. The stent was placed successfully in all cases (8/8). Treatment success was achieved in all cases (8/8). A mild adverse event associated with the procedure was observed in one patient but there were no other adverse events during a mean follow-up of 7.4 months. This new pancreatic duct stent appears to be feasible and effective for EUS-guided stenting.
Structural Modules of the Large Subunits of RNA Polymerase

The β and β′ subunits of Escherichia coli DNA-dependent RNA polymerase are highly conserved throughout eubacterial and eukaryotic kingdoms. However, in some archaebacteria and chloroplasts, the corresponding sequences are “split” into smaller polypeptides that are encoded by separate genes. To test if such split sites can be accommodated into E. coli RNA polymerase, subunit fragments encoded by the segments of E. coli rpoB and rpoC genes corresponding to archaebacterial and chloroplast split subunits were individually overexpressed. The purified fragments, when mixed in vitro with complementing intact RNA polymerase subunits, yielded an active enzyme capable of catalyzing the phosphodiester bond formation. Thus, the large subunits of eubacteria and eukaryotes are composed of independent structural modules corresponding to the smaller subunits of archaebacteria and chloroplasts.
Cerebral Autoregulation: An In Vitro Study

Cerebral autoregulation can be duplicated in vitro using the large middle cerebral arteries from a calf. The limits of autoregulation were between 50 and 150 mm Hg. Excessively high pressures may lead to the appearance of the “sausage- or bead-string” response followed by forced dilation. These results suggest the existence of an intrinsic myogenic mechanism responsive to intraluminal pressure changes.
Just how conserved is vertebrate sex determination?

Background: Sex determination in vertebrate embryos has long been equated with gonadal differentiation into testes or ovaries. This view has been challenged over the years by reports of somatic sexual dimorphisms pre‐dating gonadal sex differentiation. The recent finding that sex determination in birds is likely to be partly cell autonomous has again called for a broader definition of sex determination. Inherent sexual differentiation in each and every cell may apply widely among vertebrates, and may involve more than one “master sex gene” on a sex chromosome. At the gonadal level, key genes required for proper sexual differentiation are conserved among vertebrates, but their relative positions in the ovarian and testicular cascades differ. Results: We illustrate these differences by comparing key sex genes in fishes versus birds and mammals, with emphasis on DM domain genes and the SOX9‐AMH pathway in the testis and the FOXL2‐Aromatase pathway in the ovary. Such comparisons facilitate the identification of ancient versus derived genes involved in gonadal sex determination. Conclusions: The data indicate that vertebrate sex‐determining cascades are not as conserved as once thought. Developmental Dynamics 242:380–387, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Review of empirical research on knowledge management practices and firm performance

Purpose Knowledge management (KM) has emerged as one of the most discussed new management methods. Among the most debated areas in KM has been the association between knowledge and firm performance, but a lack of understanding and consensus still remains as a major issue. This paper aims to address the research gap by reviewing the empirical literature and determining how KM-based managerial and organizational practices are related with firm performance. Design/methodology/approach This study followed a systematic review procedure. Findings The findings demonstrate that utilization of KM practices is significant driver for innovation. Also, specific leadership characteristics and organizational arrangements are likely to support firm performance through more efficient and effective management of knowledge resources. Research limitations/implications This study adds to the discussion on knowledge-based view of the firm by pointing out the key organizational and managerial practices that are associated with firm performance. The results of this study also add structure to the previously scattered discussion on KM practices by synthesizing the relevant literature Practical implications Measuring KM performance is characterized by organizational complexity; this study demonstrated that innovation is a likely outcome of utilization of KM practices, but there are numerous other factors that influence the financial performance figures. Also, this study points out that organizations should pay attention to specific KM leadership attributes and organizational arrangements in order to achieve firm performance through KM. Originality/value This is the first systematic literature review on KM practices and firm performance. The results increase understanding of efficient and effective management of knowledge resources for organizational benefit.
The emotional experience of films: does Audio Description make a difference?

Experiencing emotion is one of the main reasons why we watch movies, go to the theatre or expose ourselves to different audiovisual manifestations. Audio Description attempts to provide the visually impaired with an experience similar to that offered by audiovisual formats such as cinema, dance or theatre. This paper focuses on Audio Description of films, with the aim of discovering whether there are differences between the emotional experience of films as whole audiovisual texts, films without the visual component (only music, sounds and dialogue) and films with Audio Description. We designed a study to measure the emotional experience in sighted and in visually impaired audiences. More specifically, we worked with three basic emotions (disgust, fear and sadness) and 15 film scenes that had been previously validated as effective stimuli in the psychological literature. Employing a Likert questionnaire (PANASX) and heart rate measurement, we compared the emotional impact of these scenes in three different versions (normal films, films without images and films with Audio Description) for 70 sighted and visually impaired subjects. Results showed statistically significant differences between the three stated versions for disgust and fear, but not for sadness.