Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Re: Predictors of all-cause mortality for patients with chronic Chagas' heart disease receiving implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy.

1. We included in our study only patients with lifethreatening ventricular dysrhythmias with either hemodynamic instability or resuscitated from cardiac arrest, which means that we have studied a Chagas’ disease population at the highest risk of sudden cardiac death. This contrasts with the studies quoted by the editorialist, in which amiodarone was empirically used to prevent sudden cardiac death. In fact, Scanavacca et al. (ref. 14 of the editorial comment) reported the results of amiodarone therapy (maintenance dose 326 ± 25 mg/day) on 35 consecutive Chagas’ disease patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT), 16 (46%) with hemodynamic instability. Leite et al. (ref. 15 of the editorial comment) described the clinical course of 78 patients with Chagas’ disease with sustained VT (57% of them with hemodynamic instability) and treated with amiodarone (maintenance dose around 390 mg/day). In another study, Leite et al. (ref. 17 of the editorial comment) described the effects of class III antiarrythmics on 115 patients (amiodarone maintenance dose 400 mg/day). However, 37 (32%) patients enrolled in that study had nonsustained VT. Therefore, the papers quoted by the editorialist comprised populations different from that enrolled in our study. Thus, comparing our patients’ cohort with any other previous study using amiodarone to prevent sudden cardiac death does not make sense. 2. Life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias were detected in 64 of 90 patients (71%) enrolled in our study. Sustained VT was observed in 45 out of 64 patients (70%) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) not preceded by sustained VT in 19 (30%) patients despite a maintenance amiodarone daily dose of 331.1 ± 153.3 mg/day. If we assume that 30% of sustained VT episodes will degenerate into VF in Chagas’ disease patients,3 and that VF only exceptionally terminates spontaneously in patients with chronic Chagas’ disease because the severity of underlying myocardial disease, the mortality rate would have been even higher than that currently reported. In fact, if we rule out from the analysis all surviving patients who had no episode of VF, survival probability is markedly increased in patients treated, in comparison with patients not treated with
Attitudes Toward Women’s Work and Family Roles in the United States, 1976–2013

We examine time period and generational differences in attitudes toward women’s work and family roles in two large, nationally representative U.S. samples, the Monitoring the Future survey of 12th graders (1976–2013) and the General Social Survey of adults (1977–2012). Twelfth graders became more accepting of working mothers and equal roles for women in the workplace between the 1970s and the 2010s, with most change occurring between the 1970s and the late 1990s. Acceptance of dual-income families and fathers working half-time or not at all (stay-at-home dads) also increased. Thus, for the most part, Millennials (born 1980s–1990s) have continued trends toward more egalitarian gender roles. However, slightly more 12th graders in the 2010s (vs. the late 1990s) favored the husband as the achiever and decision maker in the family. Adults’ attitudes toward working mothers became more egalitarian between the 1970s and the early 1990s, showed a small “backlash” in the late 1990s, and then continued the trend toward increased egalitarianism in the 2000s and 2010s. In hierarchical linear modeling analyses separating the effects of time period, generation/cohort, and age, trends were primarily due to time period with a generational peak in egalitarianism among White women Boomers (born 1946–1964). Policy makers should recognize that support for working mothers is now a solid majority position in the United States and design programs for working families accordingly.
Ever Bigger Firms?

When the grandfather of modern economics, Adam Smith, was preparing his Wealth of Nations almost a quarter of a millennium ago, the workforce of businesses would typically be counted in single or double figures. Now the world's biggest firms, such as Wal-Mart, have a payroll of well over a million, bigger than the population of some entire nations. This paper reviews some of the reasons for this growth, and considers whether it might continue forever. Powerful evidence exists of potential scale economies, in business functions from R&D to finance, and industries from pin production to pharmaceuticals. And these do indeed translate into remarkable performance records for some industrial giants. But surprisingly, on average, bigger firms do not enjoy above average profitability and, on the whole, giant firms are not gaining on the world economy. This paper reviews some of the market and managerial constraints on size, and considers innovative efforts – ranging from the New Zealand dairy industry to the McDonald's chain – to reconcile global-level scale economies in some functions with local autonomy in others. In passing, the paper notes a disturbing array of incentives tempting some managers to expand their empire, even when that is not in the shareholders' interest.
Different efficacy of soluble CD14 treatment in high‐ and low‐dose LPS models

About 50% of septic shock cases are attributed to Gram‐negative bacteria or their cell wall compound lipopolysaccharide (LPS, endotoxin). An attractive therapeutic strategy could target the binding of LPS to its cellular receptors. In vitro the soluble form of the endotoxin receptor CD14 (sCD14) competitively prevents binding of LPS to membrane‐bound CD14 and inhibits LPS‐stimulated macrophage responses.
êkosi wî-ispayin. (kwayâciho!): Prospective Aspect in the Western Dialects of Cree

This paper seeks to clarify the difference between two markers of future time reference in the Cree language. The preverbal particles ta- (~ ka-) and wi- have both generally been treated as future tense markers. While future tense is found to be sufficient characterization for ta-, wi- requires further consideration, resulting in the conclusion that, rather than simple tense, it marks prospective aspect. The characterization of wi- in this way ties together a number of alternate interpretations as secondary semantic and/or pragmatic offshoots of the basic category of the prospective. Though data are presented in the Plains Cree dialect, native‐speaker judgments confirm the arguments for all the major western dialects, Plains, Woods, and Swampy Cree, as spoken in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Bridging theory and practice: a conceptual framework for consulting organisations

A growing number of organisations are emerging as partners to districts pursuing systemic improvement. Given the critical role a consulting organisation could play in supporting system reform efforts, how does a district leader looking to establish a consulting partnership determine what characteristics in a consulting organisation may be more likely to yield success? This paper utilises an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach for two purposes: (1) to assess whether the quality domains of consultants most prevalent in the literature are consistent with multiple sources of expert knowledge at the point of practice and (2) to determine which, if any, quality domains of consultants are perceived as more important than others for partnership success. Overall, the findings corroborated that the domains identified through the literature are influential to partnership success. While no specific domain or set of domains emerged as most dominant, interpersonal skills and content expertise are foundational indicators that crosscut the other domains.
Fear of Death and Supernatural Beliefs: Developing A New Supernatural Belief Scale to Test the Relationship

Fear of death features in both historical and contemporary theories of religion, but the relationship between death anxiety and religious belief is still ambiguous, largely due to the use of inappropriate or imprecise measures. The current studies therefore aimed to develop a valid, targeted measure of respondents’ tendency towards religious belief, the ‘Supernatural Belief Scale’ (SBS), and to use the SBS to examine the relation between death anxiety and religious belief. Results indicate that the SBS shows high reliability and convergent validity and that its relation to death anxiety depends on participants’ religious identification: ‘religious’ participants fear death less the stronger their religious beliefs, whereas ‘non–religious’ participants are more inclined towards religious belief the more they fear death. These studies contribute a new measurement tool for research on religious belief and provide a starting point for an experimental integration of discrepant research findings. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology
Bacillus anthracis Factors for Phagosomal Escape

The mechanism of phagosome escape by intracellular pathogens is an important step in the infectious cycle. During the establishment of anthrax, Bacillus anthracis undergoes a transient intracellular phase in which spores are engulfed by local phagocytes. Spores germinate inside phagosomes and grow to vegetative bacilli, which emerge from their resident intracellular compartments, replicate and eventually exit from the plasma membrane. During germination, B. anthracis secretes multiple factors that can help its resistance to the phagocytes. Here the possible role of B. anthracis toxins, phospholipases, antioxidant enzymes and capsules in the phagosomal escape and survival, is analyzed and compared with that of factors of other microbial pathogens involved in the same type of process.
Professions and Institutional Change: Towards an Institutionalist Sociology of the Professions

Beginning with this article, our special issue advances the understanding of the role of professions in processes of institutional change and through this it proposes a retheorization of contemporary professionalism. Using institutionalist lenses in professional settings, we highlight the relationship between professionalization and broader institutionalization projects. We start by critically reviewing existing approaches in the sociology of the professions, identifying a functionalist and a conflict-based approach. Then, we build on and further elaborate an institutionalist perspective on professional work. Such a perspective affirms the importance of studying professions as institutions and connecting professionalization to broader patterns of institutionalization; it highlights the role of professions and professionals as agents in the creation, maintenance, and disruption of institutions, and recognizes the importance of accommodating contemporary patterns of professionalization within the organizational context. We also illustrate how, empirically, the eight papers in this issue advance our understanding of professional agency in contemporary change and, theoretically, contribute to the reconceptualization of the study of professionalism. Finally, we briefly summarize our contribution and identify a series of directions for further research.
Development of the International Tinnitus Inventory (ITI): A Patient-Directed Problem Questionnaire

Tinnitus can be a very troubling complaint but its impact may vary between individuals, both in the perceived severity and the aspects of life affected. The International Tinnitus Inventory (ITI) is an eight-item questionnaire based on the commonest patient reported complaints attributed to tinnitus. It is modelled on the International Outcomes Inventory – Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) to be brief, have a clear and simple response format and be comparable across languages. The psychometric properties of the English and French versions have been examined in this paper. Preliminary results show that the ITI is a robust questionnaire. It is unifactorial, has a good response rate and high internal consistency and it is easy to interpret. Responses from the inventory relate to hearing level but not to other demographic factors. The ITI is a simple and patient friendly measure which can be a helpful tool to highlight the predominant tinnitus-related complaint(s) of the individual, thus providing useful information not only about the tinnitus but also to help plan and assess a rehabilitation programme.
How repeatable is the estimation of developmental stability by fluctuating asymmetry?

The estimation of individual fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is subject to large sampling variabilities. Heritability estimates, as well as correlations between developmental stability and any other individual character and/or between–trait correlations, are consequently biased downward if FA is used as an estimate of an individual's ability to buffer its development against developmental noise. The estimation of the hypothetical repeatability, defined as the ratio of the between–individual component of variation in the unsigned FA divided by the total variance, allows correction for these biases such that patterns observed for FA can be translated to make inferences about the presumed underlying developmental stability. In this paper I show that previous estimates of this repeatability are incorrect. I provide a new method and show by means of simulations that the hypothetical repeatability is in most cases even lower than previously thought. This has important consequences for the analysis of FA with respect to statistical power and the interpretation of patterns in FA.
Patrones de comunicación, diferenciación y satisfacción en la relación de pareja: Validación y análisis de estas escalas en muestras españolas

Title: Communication pattern, differentiation and satisfaction in couple relationships: validation and anaysis of these scales in Spanish samples. Abstract: Studies about violence point out that there is a relationship between Communication Patterns, Differentiation in the Couple and with Satisfaction with the Partner, and the family violence research (Badcock, Waltz, Jacobson y Gottman, 1993; Bartle y Rosen, 1994; Cook and Frantz- Cook, 1984; Penn, 2002). However, the scales which measure these vari- ables are not available in Spanish. Hence, it was necessary to adapt and validate them. In the present work, we do it, focussing on their psycho- metric properties. Finally, we describe the correlations between these three variables, paying special attention to the relationships that emerged be- tween the different questionnaire's subscales and the satisfaction with the couple scale.
Immunohistochemical and Molecular Characteristics with Prognostic Significance in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma with marked biologic heterogeneity. We analyzed 100 cases of DLBCL to evaluate the prognostic value of immunohistochemical markers derived from the gene expression profiling-defined cell origin signature, including MYC, BCL2, BCL6, and FOXP1 protein expression. We also investigated genetic alterations in BCL2, BCL6, MYC and FOXP1 using fluorescence in situ hybridization and assessed their prognostic significance. BCL6 rearrangements were detected in 29% of cases, and BCL6 gene alteration (rearrangement and/or amplification) was associated with the non-germinal center B subtype (non-GCB). BCL2 translocation was associated with the GCB phenotype, and BCL2 protein expression was associated with the translocation and/or amplification of 18q21. MYC rearrangements were detected in 15% of cases, and MYC protein expression was observed in 29% of cases. FOXP1 expression, mainly of the non-GCB subtype, was demonstrated in 37% of cases. Co-expression of the MYC and BCL2 proteins, with non-GCB subtype predominance, was observed in 21% of cases. We detected an association between high FOXP1 expression and a high proliferation rate as well as a significant positive correlation between MYC overexpression and FOXP1 overexpression. MYC, BCL2 and FOXP1 expression were significant predictors of overall survival. The co-expression of MYC and BCL2 confers a poorer clinical outcome than MYC or BCL2 expression alone, whereas cases negative for both markers had the best outcomes. Our study confirms that DLBCL, characterized by the co-expression of MYC and BCL2 proteins, has a poor prognosis and establishes a significant positive correlation with MYC and FOXP1 over-expression in this entity.
Radial Basis Function Neural Network method of determining functional relationships for Quality Function Deployment

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic approach that captures customer requirements and translates them, through house of quality (HOQ), into engineering characteristics of product. As the functional relationships between customer requirements and engineering characteristics in QFD are uncertain, unclear and fuzzy, Radial Basis Function (RBF) to determine the functional relationships for QFD is presented, and a QFD functional relationships model based on RBF is proposed. According to RBF neural network can realize the nonlinear mapping space from the input space to the output, and can obtain the optimal relationships pattern of the input and output, the customer requirements and engineering characteristics in QFD constituted the input and output of the RBF Neural Network respectively, the optimal relationships are constructed through the neural network training. A case study of natural lighting products development is provided to illustrate the application of the presented method.
Effects of Inconsiderate vs. Considerate Text on Secondary Students' Vocabulary Learning

This study examined differences in secondary students' vocabulary learning from original and revised contextual information. Materials included two passages from a U.S. history text, each embedding 10 pertinent target words. One version left the original passage intact; a second version was revised for each target word according to four contextual characteristics: proximity, clarity of connection, explicitness, and completeness. Subjects were 55 high-ability and average-ability students enrolled in U.S. history classes. Prior to reading, subjects were asked to indicate their knowledge of each target word and to write a definition. Then, over a two-day period, they read an original version of one passage and a revised version of the second passage; text and version were counterbalanced within groups. Following their readings, the subjects were asked again to indicate their knowledge of each word and to provide a meaning. In addition, they were asked to write the significance of each word in understanding the topic. Results showed that the high- ability group outscored the average-ability group on all dependent measures, although both groups did significantly better on posttest over pretest tasks. On the revised text passages, subjects received higher scores on both the definition and significance measures but not on the indication of knowledge measure. These findings suggest that contextual information in natural text may be inconsiderate for word learning, but students may be satisfied with the partial/erroneous knowledge acquired.
Teaching Pragmatics: Trends and Issues

Theoretical, empirical, and practical interest in pragmatic competence and development for second language (L2) learners has resulted in a large body of literature on teaching L2 pragmatics. This body of literature has diverged into two major domains: (a) a group of experimental studies directly testing the efficacy of various instructional methods in pragmatics learning and (b) research that explores optimal instructional practice and resources for pragmatic development in formal classroom settings. This article reviews literature in these two domains and aims at providing a collective view of the available options for pragmatics teaching and the ways that pragmatic development can best be promoted in the classroom. In the area of instructional intervention, this article reviews studies under the common theoretical second language acquisition paradigms of explicit versus implicit instruction, input processing instruction, and skill acquisition and practice. In the area of classroom practice and resources, three domains of research and pedagogical practices are reviewed: material development and teacher education, learner strategies and autonomous learning, and incidental pragmatics learning in the classroom. Finally, this article discusses unique challenges and opportunities that have been embraced by pragmatics teaching in the current era of poststructuralism and multiculturalism.
Culture Swapping: Consumption and the Ethnogenesis of Middle-Class Haitian Immigrants

By means of an ethnographic study of a Haitian family in the midwestern United States, this article demonstrates how ethnic consumers "culture swap," using goods to move between one cultural identity and another as they negotiate relations between home and host cultures. This interpretation of consumer behavior is grounded in a semiotics of performance, emphasizing the dynamic and mutable nature of self, social identity, and cultural identification in global consumer culture. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.
Effects of graded levels of cupric citrate on growth performance, antioxidant status, serum lipid metabolites and immunity, and tissue residues of trace elements in weaned pigs

Objective The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of cupric citrate (CuCit) on growth performance, antioxidant indices, serum lipid metabolites, serum immune indices, and tissue residues of copper (Cu), zinc, and iron in weaned pigs. Methods A total of 180 weaned pigs (Duroc×Landrace×Large White) with an average body weight of 8.98±1.21 kg were randomly assigned to a corn-soybean meal control ration, or 4 similar rations with 30, 60, 120, or 240 mg/kg Cu as CuCit. All diets contained 10 mg/kg Cu as cupric sulfate from the vitamin-mineral premix. The experiment was divided into two phases: 0 to 14 d (phase 1) and 15 to 28 d (phase 2). Results Average daily gain (ADG; linearly, p<0.01) and average daily feed intake (ADFI; linearly and quadratically, p<0.05) were affected by an increase in CuCit during phase 2. Overall period, ADG (p<0.05) and ADFI (p<0.01) were linearly increased with increasing dietary levels of CuCit. Serum malondialdehyde concentrations (p<0.05) and glutathione peroxidase activity (p<0.01) linearly decreased and increased respectively with an increase in CuCit. Serum levels of Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase were linearly affected with an increase in CuCit (p<0.01). Hepatic malondialdehyde levels decreased with an increase in CuCit (linearly and quadratically, p<0.01). Serum total cholesterol concentrations were quadratically affected (p<0.05) and decreased in pigs fed Cu as CuCit at 60 and 120 mg/kg and increased in pigs fed 240 mg/kg Cu as CuCit. Serum high-density lipoprotein concentrations were linearly affected with an increase in CuCit (p<0.01). Serum IL-1β levels were quadratically affected (p<0.05) by dietary treatment. Compared with other treatments, 240 mg/kg Cu from CuCit quadratically increased hepatic (p<0.01) and renal (p<0.05) Cu concentrations, and quadratically decreased hepatic and renal iron concentrations (p<0.05). Conclusion Cu administered in the form of CuCit at a dosage range of 30 to 60 mg/kg, effectively enhanced the growth performance and antioxidant status of weaned pigs.