Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The efficacy and safety of proton pump inhibitors vs histamine-2 receptor antagonists for stress ulcer bleeding prophylaxis among critical care patients: A meta-analysis

Objective:To examine the efficacy and safety of proton pump inhibitors in comparison with histamine-2 receptor antagonists for stress-related upper gastrointestinal bleeding prophylaxis among critical care patients. Data Sources:PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov. Study Selection:Randomized, controlled trials that directly compare proton pump inhibitors with histamine-2 receptor antagonists in prevention of stress-related upper gastrointestinal bleeding in intensive care unit patients published before May 30, 2008. Data Extraction:Two reviewers independently applied selection criteria, performed quality assessment, and extracted data. The primary outcome was the incidence of stress-related upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and the secondary outcome measures were the incidence of pneumonia and intensive care unit mortality. Data Synthesis:The random effect model was used to estimate the pooled risk difference between two treatment arms irrespective of drug, dosage, and route of administration. Results:We identified seven randomized, controlled trials with a total of 936 patients for planned comparison. The overall pooled risk difference (95% confidence interval; p value; I2 statistics) of stress-related upper gastrointestinal bleeding comparing proton pump inhibitors vs. histamine-2 receptor antagonists was −0.04 (95% confidence interval, −0.09-0.01; p = .08; I2 = 66%). In the sensitivity analysis, removing the Levy study significantly reduced the heterogeneity (from I2 = 66% to I2 = 26%) and shifted the overall risk difference closer to the null (pooled risk difference, −0.02; 95% confidence interval, −0.05-0.01; p = .19). There was no difference between proton pump inhibitors and histamine-2 receptor antagonists therapy in the risk of pneumonia and intensive care unit mortality, with pooled risk differences of 0.00 (95% confidence interval, −0.04-0.05; p = .86; I2 = 0%) and 0.02 (95% confidence interval, −0.04-0.08; p = .50; I2 = 0%), respectively. Conclusions:This meta-analysis did not find strong evidence that proton pump inhibitors were different from histamine-2 receptor antagonists in terms of stress-related upper gastrointestinal bleeding prophylaxis, pneumonia, and mortality among patients admitted to intensive care units. Because of limited trial data, future well-designed and powerful randomized, clinical trials are warranted.
The Complexity of Refugees' Return Decision-Making in a Protracted Exile: Beyond the Home-Coming Model and Durable Solutions

This article challenges the static conception of repatriation by demonstrating the dynamic and complicated nature of refugees’ return decision-making through in-depth case studies of Liberian refugees in Ghana. Institutions dealing with refugees tend to depict repatriation as a ‘home-coming’, a natural return movement driven by refugees’ desire to go back to a homeland following the termination of the root causes of their forced displacement. Given the significant changes in their life during prolonged exile in Ghana, however, for the majority of Liberian refugees, the decision to repatriate or not is a complex interplay of their current social, familial, economic and political circumstances, in which nostalgic longing for a homeland has little space. The article argues for the necessity of replacing the sedentarist perception of repatriation with a more holistic understanding that captures the untidy and negotiated nature of refugees’ return decision-making. It also highlights temporary strategies employed by Liberian refugees in response to the repatriation pressure from refugee-policy-makers and invites recognition of the critical gap between refugees and UNHCR about what stands as a ‘solution’ for refugees’ protracted exile.
Isolated Diastolic Hypertension Associated Risk Factors among Chinese in Anhui Province, China

Objective: To explore potential risk factors of isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) among young and middle-aged Chinese. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 338 subjects, aged 25 years and above, using random sampling technique. There were 68 cases of IDH, 46 cases of isolated systolic hypertension (ISH), 89 cases of systolic and diastolic hypertension (SDH), and 135 of subjects with normal blood pressure. Cases and controls were matched on sex by frequency matching. Demographic characteristics, blood pressure and other relevant information were collected.Results: Compared with controls, patients with IDH and ISH had significant higher level of triglyceride, high density lipoprotein, blood glucose and body mass index (BMI) (p < 0.05); while patients with SDH had significantly higher level of total cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose and BMI (p < 0.05). Linear mixed effects model showed that drinking tea, family history of hypertension (FHH), higher blood glucose, triglyceride and low density lipoprotein were related with elevated diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (p < 0.01); HFH, blood glucose, creatinine and BMI have positive effect on systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Drinking tea, FHH, high levels of triglyceride, high density lipoprotein, blood glucose and BMI are associated with IDH among young and middle-aged Chinese.
Maternal Inheritance and Rapid Evolution of Sexual Size Dimorphism: Passive Effects or Active Strategies?

Adaptive evolution is often strongly influenced by maternal inheritance that transfers the parental strategies across generations. The consequences of maternal effects for the offspring generation depend on the between‐generation similarity in environments and on the evolved sensitivity of the offspring’s ontogeny to maternal effects. When these factors differ between sons and daughters, maternal effects can influence the evolution of sexual dimorphism. The establishment of house finch populations across western Montana during the last 30 years was accompanied by rapid evolutionary change in sexual size dimorphism. Here I show that traits that changed the most across generations were most influenced by maternal effects in males but not females. Maternal effects differentially affected sons' and daughters' survival; greater maternal effects were commonly associated with higher survival of sons, especially when maternal and offspring environments were similar. Stronger maternal effects extended preselection phenotypic variance in morphological traits of males, thereby producing some locally adaptive phenotypes and lessening juvenile mortality. Thus, the observed sex‐specific maternal effects and their contribution to the evolution of sexual size dimorphism are likely a passive consequence of the distinct sensitivity of sons and daughters to maternal adaptations to breeding in ecologically distinct parts of the house finch’s expanding range.
LONG-TERM RESULTS OF LIVER TRANSPLANTATION IN PATIENTS 60 YEARS OF AGE AND OLDER12

Background. Advances in perioperative care and immunosuppression have enabled clinicians to broaden the indications for organ transplantation. Advanced age is no longer considered a contraindication to transplantation at most centers. Although short-term studies of elderly liver transplant recipients have demonstrated that the incidence of complications and overall patient survival are similar to those of younger adults, transplant center-specific, long-term data are not available. Methods. From August of 1984 to September of 1997, 91 patients 60 years of age or older received primary liver transplants at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. This group of patients was compared with a group of younger adults (n=387) ranging in age from 18 to 59 years who received primary liver transplants during the same period. The most common indications for transplantation in both groups were Laennec’s cirrhosis, hepatitis C, primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and cryptogenic cirrhosis. There was no difference in the preoperative severity of illness between the groups. Results. The length of hospitalization was the same for both groups, and there were no significant differences in the incidence of rejection, infection (surgical or opportunistic), repeat operation, readmission, or repeat transplantation between the groups. The only significant difference identified between the groups was long-term survival. Five-year patient survival was 52% in the older group and 75% in the younger group (P <0.05). Ten-year patient survival was 35% in the older group and 60% in the younger group (P <0.05). The most common cause of late mortality in elderly liver recipients was malignancy (35.0%), whereas most of the young adult deaths were the result of infectious complications (24.2%). Conclusion. Although older recipients at this center did as well as younger recipients in the early years after liver transplantation, long-term survival results were not as encouraging.
Team adaptation to an unforeseen system failure: Limits of the potential aids of shared knowledge and standardized communication

The present study investigates the potential benefits of a team’s shared knowledge and standardized communication in adapting to an unforeseen change by combining literature on adaptation and team performance. Each of 20 teams performed a dynamic team task and was suddenly confronted with a simulated partial system breakdown. Results show that a methodological framework designed to describe performance adaptation to an unforeseen change in individuals can also be used to model performance adaptation in teams. The system failure was followed by a performance drop and a subsequent period of gradual performance recovery. Accuracy of teams’ shared knowledge correlated positively with performance before and after the change, confirming and extending the literature on shared mental models. However, the amount of knowledge similarity did not aid teams in adapting to the unforeseen system breakdown. In addition, improving teams’ standardized communication had no damping effect on the sudden performance drop and neither helped them during the subsequent recovery period. These results show that even though shared knowledge and efficient communication are of high value to team performance and success, these characteristics are limited in aiding adaptive team performance after unforeseen unique changes that force team members to update their strategies.
Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence: Their Relations with Classroom Problem Behavior and Peer Status

It has been suggested that early antisocial behavior plays a causal role in the development of depression during childhood and adolescence through pervasive failures in social competence and social acceptance (Patterson & Capaldi, 1990). The present study was conducted to test this hypothesis by examining longitudinal data from a sample of 215 Italian middle school students. Analyses revealed that Time 1 (T1) problem behavior predicted both Time 2 (T2) peer status and T2 depressive symptoms, even after controlling for T1 peer status and depressive symptoms, respectively. Moreover, T1 peer status predicted depressive symptoms at T2, even after controlling for prior levels of depressive symptoms. However, analyses did not support the hypothesis that peer rejection mediates the effects of problem behavior on depression.
Rethinking Decision Making: An Ethnographic Study of Worker Agency in Crisis Intervention

Building on recent literature that addresses how social workers use knowledge to make practice decisions, this ethnographic study of mental health workers in a residential treatment center for children asks what modes of agency workers enact and how they use formal training in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) during crises. Based on 13 months of participant observation and 36 semistructured interviews, this study demonstrates that, while workers routinely employed specific intervention techniques taught in the TCI curriculum, they rarely reported using its step-by-step decision-making process. Instead, faced with an imperative to act, workers reported using a mode of agency characterized by what they term “instinct,” automaticity, physicality, and instantaneous mental simulation of possible outcomes. I discuss these findings in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s work on habitus, considering implications for crisis intervention training, prescriptive models of decision making, and the further development of contextually sensitive models of agency in social work practice.
Efficiency and "The Fix": Informal Intergroup Relations in a Piecework Machine Shop

Conflict relations between the informal work group and plant management may involve the participation of other groups of the factory's social structure. It was found, through participant observation, that the machine operatives of one shop received surreptitious assistance from five "service groups" in a subversion of formally instituted rules and procedures. This informally organized intergroup "ring" was able to frustrate a series of managerial attempts to effect new designs of production control.
Topical L‐Ascorbic Acid: Percutaneous Absorption Studies

BACKGROUND Reactive oxygen species generated by ultraviolet light result in photocarcinogenic and photoaging changes in the skin. Antioxidants protect skin from these insults. OBJECTIVE This study defines formulation characteristics for delivering L-ascorbic acid into the skin to supplement the skin's natural antioxidant reservoir. METHODS L-ascorbic acid or its derivatives were applied to pig skin. Skin levels of L-ascorbic acid were measured to determine percutaneous delivery. RESULTS L-ascorbic acid must be formulated at pH levels less than 3.5 to enter the skin. Maximal concentration for optimal percutaneous absorption was 20%. Tissue levels were saturated after three daily applications; the half-life of tissue disappearance was about 4 days. Derivatives of ascorbic acid including magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, ascorbyl-6-palmitate, and dehydroascorbic acid did not increase skin levels of L-ascorbic acid. CONCLUSIONS Delivery of topical L-ascorbic acid into the skin is critically dependent on formulation characteristics.
Kindergarten Adjustment Difficulty: The Contribution of Children's Effortful Control and Parental Control

Research Findings: This paper examines the extent to which children's effortful control and early family experiences predict difficulty in kindergarten adjustment. One hundred and eighty-two children from 31 kindergarten classrooms in rural elementary schools in the Southeast participated. Teachers reported on children's difficulty with kindergarten adjustment, and parents completed measures assessing children's effortful control (inhibitory control and attentional focus) and types of parental control (i.e., lax, firm, and harsh). A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to address three research questions: First, how does effortful control (inhibitory control and attentional focus) contribute to children's difficulty with kindergarten adjustment? Second, how does parental control predict children's difficulty with kindergarten adjustment? Third, to what extent does parental control moderate the relation between effortful control and difficulty with kindergarten adjustment? Practice or Policy: Children lower on inhibitory control showed greater difficulty with kindergarten adjustment than children with higher inhibitory control. Furthermore, lax parental control, but not firm or harsh parental control, predicted children's adjustment problems. Lax parental control moderated the relation between children's inhibitory control and difficulty with kindergarten adjustment; specifically, higher levels of lax parental control coupled with lower levels of inhibitory control predicted more difficulty with the adjustment to kindergarten.
How do children understand themselves as learners? Towards a learner‐centred understanding of pedagogy

This paper challenges notions that pedagogy is predominantly rational, conscious and deliberate. Drawing on two research projects about experiences of learning in primary and secondary schools, the paper explores pedagogic relationships and the ways these structure and enable different kinds of learning and knowledge creation. The data are read with (Felman, 1987) the psychoanalytic writings of Wilfred Bion to investigate the ways in which knowing and learning are bound up in the unconscious emotional flows of classroom relationships. A learner‐centred understanding of pedagogy is tentatively and critically developed. The desirability and some simultaneous difficulties of working with such notions of pedagogy are discussed.
The Psycho- and Sociogenesis of Neoliberalism

This analysis examines the psycho-social pressures that gave rise to neoliberal subjectivity in the 1970s, drawing insights from the work of Norbert Elias, Sigmund Freud and Georges Bataille. Specifically, it looks to new codes of shame regarding feelings of superiority that were developing with the civil and women’s rights movements as pivotal in neoliberalism’s ascendancy. These codes of shame heightened psychical tensions for the normalized Fordist subject by making taboo entrenched registers of social hierarchy. The transition to neoliberal subjectivity, with its emphasis on hyper-individualism and the increasing mediation of social relations by impersonal market forces, reflected a compensatory strategy for organizing selfhood. The neoliberal subject, while nominally adhering to notions of political equality, sublimated aggression through a form of economic sociality that reinforced historical inequalities. As the article concludes, neoliberalism is akin to a narcissistic neurosis, obstructing identification with others, and manifests itself in a dispassionate social destructiveness.
The Grapevine Transcription Factor VvMYBPA1 Regulates Proanthocyanidin Synthesis during Fruit Development1[OA]

Proanthocyanidins (PAs; or condensed tannins) can protect plants against herbivores, contribute to the taste of many fruits, and act as dietary antioxidants beneficial for human health. We have previously shown that in grapevine (Vitis vinifera) PA synthesis involves both leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR) and anthocyanidin reductase (ANR). Here we report the characterization of a grapevine MYB transcription factor VvMYBPA1, which controls expression of PA pathway genes including both LAR and ANR. Expression of VvMYBPA1 in grape berries correlated with PA accumulation during early berry development and in seeds. In a transient assay, VvMYBPA1 activated the promoters of LAR and ANR, as well as the promoters of several of the general flavonoid pathway genes. VvMYBPA1 did not activate the promoter of VvUFGT, which encodes the anthocyanin-specific enzyme UDP-glucose:flavonoid-3-O-glucosyltransferase, suggesting VvMYBPA1 is specific to regulation of PA biosynthesis in grapes. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) MYB transcription factor TRANSPARENT TESTA2 (TT2) regulates PA synthesis in the seed coat of Arabidopsis. By complementing the PA-deficient seed phenotype of the Arabidopsis tt2 mutant with VvMYBPA1, we confirmed the function of VvMYBPA1 as a transcriptional regulator of PA synthesis. In contrast to ectopic expression of TT2 in Arabidopsis, constitutive expression of VvMYBPA1 resulted in accumulation of PAs in cotyledons, vegetative meristems, leaf hairs, and roots in some of the transgenic seedlings. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a MYB factor that controls genes of the PA pathway in fruit, including both LAR and ANR, and this single MYB factor can induce ectopic PA accumulation in Arabidopsis.
Pulmonary Vascular Distensibility Predicts Pulmonary Hypertension Severity, Exercise Capacity, and Survival in Heart Failure

Background—Pulmonary vascular (PV) distensibility, defined as the percent increase in pulmonary vessel diameter per mm Hg increase in pressure, permits the pulmonary vessels to increase in size to accommodate increased blood flow. We hypothesized that PV distensibility is abnormally low in patients with heart failure (HF) and serves as an important determinant of right ventricular performance and exercise capacity. Methods and Results—Patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction (n=48), HF with reduced ejection fraction (n=55), pulmonary arterial hypertension without left heart failure (n=18), and control subjects (n=30) underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing with invasive hemodynamic monitoring and first-pass radionuclide ventriculography. PV distensibility was derived from 1257 matched measurements (mean±SD, 8.3±2.8 per subject) of pulmonary arterial pressure, pulmonary arterial wedge pressure and cardiac output. PV distensibility was lowest in the pulmonary arterial hypertension group (0.40±0.24% per mm Hg) and intermediate in the HF with preserved ejection fraction and HF with reduced ejection fraction groups (0.92±0.39 and 0.84±0.33% per mm Hg, respectively) compared to the control group (1.39±0.32% per mm Hg, P<0.0001 for all three). PV distensibility was associated with change in right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF, &rgr;=0.39, P<0.0001) with exercise and was an independent predictor of peak VO2. PV distensibility also predicted cardiovascular mortality independent of peak VO2 in HF patients (n=103; Cox hazard ratio, 0.30; 95% confidence interval, 0.10–0.93; P=0.036). In a subset of patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (n=26), 12 weeks of treatment with the pulmonary vasodilator sildenafil or placebo led to a 24.6% increase in PV distensibility (P=0.015) in the sildenafil group only. Conclusions—PV distensibility is reduced in patients with HF and pulmonary arterial hypertension and is closely related to RV systolic function during exercise, maximal exercise capacity, and survival. Furthermore, PV distensibility is modifiable with selective pulmonary vasodilator therapy and may represent an important target for therapy in selected HF patients with pulmonary hypertension. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00309790.
Human Methyl Purine DNA Glycosylase and DNA Polymerase β Expression Collectively Predict Sensitivity to Temozolomide

Overexpression of N-methylpurine DNA glycosylase (MPG) has been suggested as a possible gene therapy approach to sensitize tumor cells to the cell-killing effects of temozolomide, an imidazotetrazine-class chemotherapeutic alkylating agent. In the present study, we show that both elevated MPG expression and short hairpin RNA-mediated loss of DNA polymerase β (Pol β) expression in human breast cancer cells increases cellular sensitivity to temozolomide. Resistance to temozolomide is restored by complementation of either wild-type human Pol β or human Pol β with an inactivating mutation specific to the polymerase active site yet functional for 5′-deoxyribose-phosphate (5′dRP) lyase activity. These genetic and cellular studies uniquely demonstrate that overexpression of MPG causes an imbalance in base excision repair (BER), leading to an accumulation of cytotoxic 5′dRP lesions, and that the 5′dRP lyase activity of Pol β is required to restore resistance to temozolomide. These results imply that Pol β-dependent 5′dRP lyase activity is the rate-limiting step in BER in these cells and suggests that BER is a tightly balanced pathway for the repair of alkylated bases such as N7-methylguanine and N3-methyladenine. Furthermore, we find that 5′dRP-mediated cell death is independent of caspase-3 activation and does not induce the formation of autophagosomes, as measured by green fluorescent protein-light chain 3 localization. The experiments presented herein suggest that it will be important to investigate whether an active BER pathway could be partially responsible for the temozolomide-mediated resistance seen in some tumors and that balanced BER protein expression and overall BER capacity may help predict sensitivity to temozolomide.