Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Baseline levels and trimestral variation of triiodothyronine and thyroxine and their association with mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Conflicting evidence exists with regard to the association of thyroid hormones and mortality in dialysis patients. This study assesses the association between basal and trimestral variation of thyroid stimulating hormone, triiodothyronine, and thyroxine and mortality. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS In 210 prevalent hemodialysis patients, serum triiodothyronine, thyroxine, thyroid stimulating hormone, and interleukin-6 were measured 3 months apart. Cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular deaths were registered during follow-up. Based on fluctuations along tertiles of distribution, four trimestral patterns were defined for each thyroid hormone: persistently low, decrease, increase, and persistently high. The association of baseline levels and trimestral variation with mortality was investigated with Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard models. RESULTS During follow-up, 103 deaths occurred. Thyroid stimulating hormone levels did not associate with mortality. Patients with relatively low basal triiodothyronine concentrations had higher hazards of dying than patients with high levels. Longitudinally, patients with persistently low levels of triiodothyronine during the 3-month period had higher mortality hazards than those having persistently high levels. These associations were mainly attributable to cardiovascular-related mortality. The association between thyroxine and mortality was not altered after adjustment for triiodothyronine. CONCLUSIONS Hemodialysis patients with reduced triiodothyronine or thyroxine levels bear an increased mortality risk, especially due to cardiovascular causes. This was true when considering both baseline measurements and trimestral variation patterns. Our longitudinal design adds observational evidence supporting the hypothesis that the link may underlie a causal effect.
Online and blended learning approach on instructional multimedia development courses in teacher education

In this study, an e-learning environment was designed for teacher candidates. Teacher candidates developed multimedia-based projects by means of multimedia tools. This research aims to determine the effects of online and blended learning approaches on the success level of multimedia projects and the teacher candidates' attitudes, opinions and perceptions on e-learning. This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. There were two different groups in the study: online and blended groups. The online and the blended groups consisted of 30 and 32 teacher candidates, respectively. Teacher candidates in the blended group developed multimedia-based projects and shared information communicating in a WiziQ and Facebook environment with their peers and instructors when they were not at school. On the other hand, the teacher candidates in the online group communicated with their instructors and peers only in a WiziQ and Facebook environment. The results showed that the blended learning approach was more effective than the online learning approach. The usability of online learning and blended learning in higher education is addressed in recommendations for future research and practice.
POSTOPERATIVE MACULAR HOLE FORMATION AFTER VITRECTOMY WITH INTERNAL LIMITING MEMBRANE PEELING FOR THE TREATMENT OF EPIRETINAL MEMBRANE

Purpose: To evaluate the incidence, clinical features, and outcomes of macular hole formation after pars plana vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling for the management of epiretinal membrane. Methods: Retrospective consecutive chart review of 423 cases. Results: Eleven subjects developed postoperative macular holes (incidence 2.6%; 95% confidence interval, 1.5–4.6%). Two of the 11 subjects developed central macular holes (incidence 0.5%; 95% confidence interval, 0.1–1.7%) while 9 had eccentric (nonfoveal) macular holes (incidence 2.1%; 95% confidence interval, 1.1–4.0%). Seven of the 9 eccentric macular holes were <115 µm in diameter, 7 were determined to be along the margin of the internal limiting membrane peel, and 8 were either in the superior or temporal macula. The two central macular holes were closed with subsequent pars plana vitrectomy and gas tamponade. There was no association between macular hole formation and age, gender, preoperative visual acuity, axial length, and preoperative central macular thickness. Overall, a 0.2 or more improvement in logMAR was associated with pseudophakia and poorer preoperative acuity on univariate and multivariate analysis, whereas increased preoperative central macular thickness was associated with improved outcomes on univariate but not multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Postoperative macular hole formation is an infrequent sequela to pars plana vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling for epiretinal membrane. In our cohort, eccentric macular holes tended to be small, located along the edge of the internal limiting membrane peel, and were not visually significant.
Farmer perspectives of Farm to Institution in Michigan: 2012 survey results of vegetable farmers

Abstract Local food purchasing programs at institutions such as K-12 schools, colleges and hospitals offer benefits including supporting farms and local economies, encouraging more healthful eating habits of patrons and fostering closer connections between farmers and consumers. Increasing in number and expanding in breadth, Farm to Institution (FTI) markets are promising outlets that may fulfill social and economic motivations for farmers. However, significant challenges and barriers have kept many from participating; farmers interested in this market will incur transaction costs, with high negotiation costs in particular due to product differentiation (in this case, by provenance) and less established markets and terms. Researchers have just begun to study farmers’ perspectives on FTI and, to date, have primarily done so through convenience sampling. By utilizing a representative farmer sample, this study provides a major contribution to FTI research. This survey study was designed to better understand Michigan vegetable farmers’ interest and willingness to participate in institutional markets and to identify perceived barriers and opportunities. Michigan is an ideal location for this research as it boasts one of the most diverse sets of agricultural crops in the US, has an economy highly reliant on the food and agriculture industry and has thriving FTI activity with extensive, ongoing outreach, education and research. Results of this survey study showed that half (50%) of the respondents (n = 311) reported interest in selling to at least one institution type (of K-12 schools, colleges and hospitals), but only a small percentage (7%) had yet sold produce to institutions. The most frequently reported motivators to sell to institutions were supplying healthy foods to customers (77%), fair, steady prices (77%) and supplying local food to consumers (76%), indicating that farmers’ motivations are largely based in social values. Smaller scale farmers (less than 25 acres) were significantly less likely to rate economic factors and help in meeting logistical challenges as important, which suggests that they see more potential social value in FTI markets while larger farmers will seek to minimize their transaction costs related to this market. This research can inform the development of scale-appropriate farmer education to foster this market opportunity and its contribution to regional food system development. As demand for local food increases, it is critical to further examine the viability of FTI markets and continue to understand the opportunities and challenges to farmers of different types and scales to participate.
Analyzing Redistribution Policies: A Study Using Austrialian Data

Preface 1. Introduction Part I. Conceptual Issues in the measurement of Income Distribution: 2. Income-recipient units and their differing needs 3. Income concept in the analysis of income distribution Part II. Measures of Income Inequality, Redistribution, and Equity: 4. On the measurement of income inequality 5. Measures of redistribution and equity Part III. Distribution and Redistribution of Income: 6. Distribution of income in Australia 7. Tax rates and government benefit rates by income ranges 8. Effects of taxes and cash benefits on equity 9. Redistribution of income within and between socioeconomic and demographic groups 10. Progressivity of sales tax on individual expenditure items Part IV. Welfare and Poverty: 11. Distribution of welfare in Australia 12. Optimal negative income taxation, when individuals feel envious 13. The impact of taxes and cash benefits on poverty Appendix Notes References Author index Subject index.
Financialization of the Economy

Financialization refers to the increasing importance of finance, financial markets, and financial institutions to the workings of the economy. This article reviews evidence on the causes and consequences of financialization in the United States and around the world, with particular attention to the spread of financial markets. Researchers have focused on two broad themes at the level of corporations and broader societies. First, an orientation toward shareholder value has led to substantial changes in corporate strategies and structures that have encouraged outsourcing and corporate disaggregation while increasing compensation at the top. Second, financialization has shaped patterns of inequality, culture, and social change in the broader society. Underlying these changes is a broad shift in how capital is intermediated, from financial institutions to financial markets, through mechanisms such as securitization (turning debts into marketable securities). Enabled by a combination of theory, technology, and.
Neonatal facilitation of stress-induced adrenocorticotropin secretion by prior stress: evidence for increased central drive to the pituitary.

The adrenocortical system of the neonatal rat exhibits both normal pituitary (ACTH) and blunted adrenal corticosterone (B) responses to a variety of different stressors. It is established that although circulating levels of B are low during the first 2 weeks of life, efficient inhibition of ACTH secretion by B is observed in neonatal rats. We investigated the ability of the hypothalamo-pituitary unit to respond to two consecutive, 1 h apart, exposures to 3 min ether vapor (stress 1 and stress 2) and whether an exogenously provided B signal that mimicked the amount of B secreted after the first stress could impair stress-induced ACTH secretion. We also determined in vivo and in vitro whether previous stress could alter pituitary responses to CRF, arginine vasopressin (AVP), or a combination of both peptides. After stress 2, 10-day-old neonates showed similar or increased peak (5 min = control) ACTH secretion compared to stress 1, although the area under the curve over 60 min after stress was comparable between stresses 1 and 2. Stress-induced B secretion was significantly elevated (P < 0.05) 60 min after stress 1, and the mean area (n = 5 experiments) was 39.3 +/- 14 micrograms/dl.60 min. Exogenously injected B (0.1 mg/kg BW) instead of stress 1 was able to mimic the magnitude of the B signal observed after stress 1 (area = 56.4 micrograms/dl.60 min) and significantly reduced (56.4 +/- 18% of ether peak) the peak ACTH secretion seen after stress 2. Doses of 1 and 0.01 mg B/kg BW also reduced peak ACTH amplitude to 20.6 +/- 6.6% and 73.7 +/- 30% of the ether peak value, respectively. Previous exposure to ether stress did not affect the in vivo ACTH response to CRF (10 micrograms/kg) or AVP (5 micrograms/kg) measured 30 min after ip injection, but increased (P < 0.05) the response to CRF plus AVP treatment. When pituitaries from previously stressed 13-day-old pups were incubated in vitro, basal ACTH release was increased, and the ACTH response to CRF (1 and 10 nM), expressed as a percentage of the control value, was reduced. A similar observation was made when intact pituitaries were treated with CRF (0.1 nM) during the preincubation period. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Indications of Climate Regime shifts in the Middle Adriatic Sea

The Adriatic Sea, as adjacent sea of the greater Mediterranean Sea, is under direct influence of atmospheric processes and their variability. Cold deep water formed under strong winter outbursts of Bura wind in the Northern Adriatic plays crucial role in the overall Adriatic circulation. Interannual variability of temperature and salinity in the Adriatic Sea is firstly interplay of Northern Adriatic Dense water (NAdDW) formation and intrusions of Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) (BULJAN, 1953; ZORE-ARMANDA, 1963; VILIBIC & ORLIC, 2001). The LIW continuously enters the Adriatic in the intermediate layer but with variable intensity depending on wider scale atmospheric conditions (ZORE-ARMANDA, 1972; GRBEC et al., 1998), which are of global character. It is supposed that El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was one of the mechanisms Applying sequential t-test analysis for regime shift detection on 52 years (period 1963-2004) of continuous summer thermohaline data at the three ocean stations in the Adriatic Sea, the two shifts in sea temperature were evidenced, around 1987 and 1998. These shifts separated three climate regimes, where the first climate regime is rather similar to the third one. The first climate regime (1963-1986) is characterized by moderate temperatures and rather high salinities. The first shift occurred in 1987, triggering the second climate regime, influenced by East Mediterranean Transient (EMT). The temperature and salinity in the Adriatic in the second climate regime were lower for one standard deviation than in the previous regime. In the third regime, after second shift the temperatures and salinities abruptly increased. All these conditions were influenced by changes in wind field pattern over the Mediterranean.
Effects of Nitrogen Dioxide and Anoxia on Global Gene and Protein Expression in Long-Term Continuous Cultures of Nitrosomonas eutropha C91

ABSTRACT Nitrosomonas eutropha is an ammonia-oxidizing betaproteobacterium found in environments with high ammonium levels, such as wastewater treatment plants. The effects of NO2 on gene and protein expression under oxic and anoxic conditions were determined by maintaining N. eutropha strain C91 in a chemostat fed with ammonium under oxic, oxic-plus-NO2, and anoxic-plus-NO2 culture conditions. Cells remained viable but ceased growing under anoxia; hence, the chemostat was switched from continuous to batch cultivation to retain biomass. After several weeks under each condition, biomass was harvested for total mRNA and protein isolation. Exposure of N. eutropha C91 to NO2 under either oxic or anoxic conditions led to a decrease in proteins involved in N and C assimilation and storage and an increase in proteins involved in energy conservation, including ammonia monooxygenase (AmoCAB). Exposure to anoxia plus NO2 resulted in increased representation of proteins and transcripts reflective of an energy-deprived state. Several proteins implicated in N-oxide metabolism were expressed and remained unchanged throughout the experiment, except for NorCB nitric oxide reductase, which was not detected in the proteome. Rather, NorY nitric oxide reductase was expressed under oxic-plus-NO2 and anoxic-plus-NO2 conditions. The results indicate that exposure to NO2 results in an energy-deprived state of N. eutropha C91 and that anaerobic growth could not be supported with NO2 as an oxidant.
Limited Transmission of blaCTX-M-9-Type-Positive Escherichia coli between Humans and Poultry in Vietnam

ABSTRACT We examined whether Escherichia coli isolates that produce CTX-M-9-type extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) are transferred between humans and chickens in a Vietnamese community. The phylogenetic group compositions, sequence types, antimicrobial resistance profiles, the prevalence of plasmid antibiotic resistance genes, and the plasmid replicon types generally differed between the human and chicken E. coli isolates. Our results suggest that transmission of the blaCTX-M-9-positive E. coli between humans and poultry was limited.
Pharmacokinetics of pterostilbene in Sprague-Dawley rats: the impacts of aqueous solubility, fasting, dose escalation, and dosing route on bioavailability.

SCOPE Pterostilbene (trans-3,5-dimethoxy-4'-hydroxystilbene, PTS) possesses various health-promoting effects. This study aimed to investigate the impacts of aqueous solubility, fasting, dose escalation, and dosing route on its bioavailability in Sprague-Dawley rats. METHODS AND RESULTS Upon intravenous administration (2.5 mg/kg), PTS had rapid clearance (Cl = 68.2 ± 9.8 mL/min/kg) and moderate terminal elimination half-life (t(1/2λz) = 93.9 ± 22.3 min). Dose-escalation led to about twofold decline in clearance at the dose of 25 mg/kg (Cl = 36.4±7.8 mL/min/kg). When given in oral suspension (15 mg/kg), PTS had relatively low bioavailability (F = 15.9 ± 7.8%) while fasting substantially attenuated its bioavailability (F< 5.5 %). However, when dosed in a solution formulated with 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) (15 mg/kg), PTS possessed good bioavailability (F = 59.2 ± 19.6%). Dose escalation resulted in about twofold increase in bioavailability at the dose of 60 mg/kg. Sublingual delivery (2.5 mg/kg) led to rapid absorption and moderate bioavailability (F = 25.8 ± 13.1%). Statistical comparison clearly indicated that the pharmacokinetics of PTS was more favorable than resveratrol. CONCLUSION Aqueous solubility was identified as a barrier to its oral bioavailability while solubilizing PTS with HP-β-CD substantially increased its bioavailability; dose manipulation was a practical strategy to enhance its bioavailability and systemic exposure; and its delivery through oral mucosa was feasible. As PTS possessed superior pharmacokinetics, it is a favorable candidate for further development.
Teachers as Language Policy Planners: Incorporating Language Policy Planning into Teacher Education and Classroom Practice

Teachers are not passive recipients of language policy; rather, they play an instrumental role in classroom language policy (re)creation. All teachers, whether teaching mainstream or English Language Learner/ Bilingual Education (ELL/BLE) classrooms, are inevitably engaged in acts of language planning and policy each day. In this paper, I argue that teachers can and should proactively (re)create language policy to make classrooms more equitable spaces for students acquiring English as an additional language. I also advocate more explicit acknowledgement of the limitations of schools and schooling. Focusing specifically on the importance of adding language planning and policy (LPP) to the teacher preparation period, I claim that the practice of LPP can simultaneously help new teachers better support the success of students learning English, while also furthering the broader goals of teacher education programs.
The role of clathrin in mitotic spindle organisation

Clathrin, a protein best known for its role in membrane trafficking, has been recognised for many years as localising to the spindle apparatus during mitosis, but its function at the spindle remained unclear. Recent work has better defined the role of clathrin in the function of the mitotic spindle and proposed that clathrin crosslinks the microtubules (MTs) comprising the kinetochore fibres (K-fibres) in the mitotic spindle. This mitotic function is unrelated to the role of clathrin in membrane trafficking and occurs in partnership with two other spindle proteins: transforming acidic coiled-coil protein 3 (TACC3) and colonic hepatic tumour overexpressed gene (ch-TOG; also known as cytoskeleton-associated protein 5, CKAP5). This review summarises the role of clathrin in mitotic spindle organisation with an emphasis on the recent discovery of the TACC3–ch-TOG–clathrin complex.
The Exchange Value of the Pakistan Rupee & Pakistan Trade Balance: An ARDL Bounds Testing Approach

Results of previous studies on the correlation between exchange rate changes and trade balance are unpersuasive. The present endeavor tries to understand the direction of changes between trade balance and exchange rate and how the depreciation in exchange rate takes place by incorporating the absorption and monetary approaches including Marshal Lerner condition. Our results reveal that existence of long run relationship between exchange rate, income and money supply on trade balance examined through ARDL bounds testing approach. The lag of dependent variable i.e. trade balance has significant impact on the current year trade balance due to pervious year trade policy. At the same time, depreciation in exchange rate deteriorates the trade balance thus adoption of such trade policies that boost the trade balance in future are desirable. The results have also been indicated that beneficial impact of trade policies on trade balance is nullifying by the exchange rate depreciation. Low level of money supply rather than income plays an important role to improve the trade balance in Pakistan. The prevalence of Keynesian postulation exists in Pakistan that states 'income increase will encourage general public to purchase more imported goods and thus deteriorates the trade balance'. This paper would highlight some new insights for policy formulation regarding trade, exchange rate, and economic growth.
System Dynamics Understanding in Projects: Information Sharing, Psychological Safety, and Performance Effects

Systems thinking has proven useful in project management planning activities and has been suggested as a critical driver of a range of beneficial organizational behaviors. Yet, empirical evidence on the myriad of ways in which systems thinking can impact internal project dynamics and performance remains limited. This study focuses on one aspect of systems thinking in particular: the ability to recognize and understand the dynamics of systems and their features (e.g., feedback and delay). It makes use of a unique, large‐scale interview data set along with objective and structured survey data drawn from multiple sources associated with supply chain system implementation projects. Analysis suggests that an individual's understanding of system dynamics as well as the similarity of such understanding to that typical of their team is, in fact, a strong predictor of both perceptions of psychological safety and information sharing quality in project work. These outcomes appear to mediate the relationship between system dynamics understanding and performance.