Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Clinical Interpretation of Viral Blips in HIV Patients Receiving Antiviral Treatment: Are We Ready to Infer Poor Adherence?

Objectives:Viral blips may be an indication of poor adherence to antiretroviral treatment. This article studies how the variations of the definitions of viral blips and that of the choice of sampling frame in studies investigating viral blips may contribute to the uncertainty of the associations between viral blips and possible causes. Design:Mathematical modeling study allows us to study the impact of different sampling frames and different definitions of blips upon study results that are usually not feasible in clinical settings. Methods:Using a previously published mathematical model, scenarios of different drug adherence levels and viral blips, with different sampling frames, were modeled. Results:In the case of viral blips as a result of nonadherence to combinational antiretroviral therapy, rather than calculating the incidence of blips directly from the number of blips observed in a given period of time, it is better to report the proportion of observations in a given period of time that are ≥50 copies per milliliter. Therefore, as the denominator, the number of observations in a given period of time is important. However, the proportion of blips is not very informative on the drug adherence level. Conclusions:We should standardize definitions of viral blips and the choice of sampling frame and to report the proportion of observations of a given sampling frame in a given period of time that are ≥50 copies per milliliter, so that comparable data can be generated across different populations.
Acromegaly and Gigantism

Human growth hormone (GH), a single-chain peptide of 191 amino acids, was isolated from somatotroph cells of the anterior pituitary gland in 1956 and first used therapeutically for treatment of pituitary dwarfism in 1958 (Raben, 1958). Pituitary dwarfism is the classic form of growth hormone deficiency during childhood. Gigantism refers to any standing height more than 2 standard deviations above the mean for the person's sex, age, and Tanner stage. Abnormally high linear growth due to excessive action of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGFI)/GH causes gigantism while the epiphyseal growth plates are open during childhood, as puberty occurs it is followed by progressive acromegalic changes leading to a picture of a giant with acromegalic features acromegalic gigantism. When onset disease is after epiphyseal closure, only acromegaly results. Acromegaly, a somatic growth and proportion disorder first described by Marie in 1886 (Marie, 1886). Elevated levels of growth hormone and IGF-1 are the hallmarks of this syndrome (Melmed, et al., 1983). When Marie first desribed this syndrome at his patients, pitutiary overgrowth is the cause or reflection of the visceromegaly at these patients. In 1909, Harvey Cushing reported the remission of clinical symptoms of acromegaly after partial hypophysectomy, thus indicating the etiology of the disease and its potential treatment as well (Cushing, 1909).
Structural Reforms and the Potential Effects on the Italian Economy

Since the second half of 2011, after a period of prolonged low growth, Italy has found itself at the center of a severe economic crisis. Concerns about the sustainability of its debt burden, along with gloomy growth prospects, have pushed up the cost of government borrowing, exacerbating current economic conditions. At the moment Italy is facing two mounting economic challenges: (i) achieve a rapid fiscal consolidation to restore financial market confidence; (ii) implement structural reforms to strengthen medium-term growth prospects. Using the European Commission's model QUEST III with R&D, adapted to Italy, we quantify the potential effects of a set of interventions inspired to the reform packages currently being undertaken or under discussion and consider different levels of policy effort. Results show that reforms are likely to bring about sizable gains in output, consumption, employment and net foreign assets position and that most of these gains derive from labor market reforms. However, the fiscal austerity plan is likely to severely mitigate the positive effects of the interventions, especially during the earlier phases of the reform process. Most of these losses accrue to liquidity-constraint households who would experience a drop in consumption.
Influence of Vancomycin on Renal Function in Critically Ill Patients after Cardiac Surgery: Continuous versus Intermittent Infusion

Background:Vancomycin is frequently used in clinical practice to treat severe wound and systemic infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria after cardiac surgery. The drug is excreted almost entirely by glomerular filtration and might exhibit nephrotoxic side effects. This study compared the nephrotoxic impact of vancomycin during continuous versus intermittent administration. Methods:The authors analyzed 149 patients admitted to the intensive care unit during a 5-yr period. All patients were treated at the intensive care unit after elective open heart surgery. Thirty patients received a dosage of 1325 ± 603 mg/d vancomycin (range 300–3400 mg/d) by intermittent infusion, and 119 patients received a mean dosage of 1935 ± 688 mg/d (range 352–3411 mg/d) by continuous infusion. Results:Nephrotoxicity occurred in 11 patients (36.7%) in the intermittent treatment group and in 33 patients (27.7%) in the continuous treatment group (P = 0.3; 95% CI = 0.283). Continuous veno-venous hemofiltration after vancomycin administration was required for 9 patients (9 of 30; 30%) in the intermittent treatment group and for 28 (28 of 119; 23.5%) in the continuous treatment group (P = 0.053; 95% CI = 0.256). A change of one unit (1 mg/l) in vancomycin serum concentration (&Dgr;VancoC) induced an average change of 0.04 mg/dl in creatinine (&Dgr;Crea) in the intermittent treatment group versus 0.006 mg/dl in the continuous treatment group (P < 0.001). Conclusions:The data show that both the intermittent and also the continuous application modality of vancomycin are associated with deterioration of renal function in critically ill patients after cardiac surgery. However, continuous infusion showed the tendency to be less nephrotoxic than the intermittent infusion of vancomycin.
Marijuana Dispensaries and the Federal Government: Recommendations to the Obama Administration 2009: Part 1

Cannabis dispensaries are proliferating at a rapid rate — a cause for concern, given the potential for such operations to take advantage of desperate patients and put seriously ill patients at affirmative risk. Local jurisdictions do not have sufficient resources to deal with these abuses. Requiring the DEA unequivocally to take a “hands-off” approach, no matter how egregious the dispensary’s practices, will not serve the best interests of patients.
Social Learning and Norms in a Public Goods Experiment with Inter-Generational Advice

We study a linear public goods game using an inter-generational approach. Subjects in one generation leave advice for the succeeding generation via free-form messages. Such advice can be private knowledge (advice left by one player in generation t is given only to his or her immediate successor in generation t + 1), public knowledge (advice left by players of generation t is made available to all members of generation t + 1), and common knowledge (where the advice is not only public but is also read aloud by the experimenter). Common knowledge of advice generates a process of social learning that leads to high contributions and less free-riding. This behaviour is sustained by advice that is generally exhortative, suggesting high contributions, which in turn creates optimistic beliefs among subjects about others' contributions. We suggest that socially connected communities may achieve high contributions to a public good even in the absence of punishment for norm violators. Copyright 2006, Wiley-Blackwell.
An explanatory model of managers' information needs: implications for management accounting

This paper focuses on managers' need for information for managerial purposes and examines their degree of satisfaction and perception of missing information. Data for this paper were collected from 120 interviews with managers from eleven major French companies. This paper seeks to target the factors determining managers' needs. We consequently developed a model that examines how manager-based variables (function, career path, objectives pursued) and company-based variables (performance, private sector or public sector status) determine managers' needs. The model also takes into account managers' individual strategies in selecting and using information. Based on this model we suggest exploring three roads forward, each of which could eventually lead to an improvement in managers' satisfaction with the management accounting information that they receive.
Cinacalcet Hydrochloride Therapy for Secondary Hyperparathyroidism in Hemodialysis Patients

This study compared the efficacy of a cinacalcet‐based regimen with unrestricted conventional therapy (vitamin D and phosphate binders) for achieving Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative (K/DOQI) targets for dialysis patients. In this multicenter, prospective study, hemodialysis patients with poorly controlled secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) were randomized to receive a cinacalcet‐based regimen (n = 55) or a conventional therapy (n = 27). Doses of cinacalcet, vitamin D sterols, and phosphate binders were adjusted during a 12‐week dose‐titration phase to achieve intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) levels ≤ 31.8 pmol/L. The primary end point was the percentage of patients with values in this range during a 24‐week efficacy‐assessment phase. The clinical response to 36‐week cinacalcet treatment was evaluated. A dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry was performed before and after 36 weeks of cinacalcet therapy. Fifty‐eight percent of the cinacalcet group reached the primary end point, as compared with 19% of the conventional therapy group (P = 0.001). A higher percentage of patients receiving the cinacalcet‐based regimen versus conventional therapy achieved the targets for calcium, phosphorus and Ca × P. Achievement of targets was greatest in patients with less severe disease (intact PTH range, 31.8 to 53 pmol/L). Cinacalcet therapy increased proximal femur bone mineral density (BMD), but did not affect the lumbar spine. Itching intensity decreased significantly. Cinacalcet based treatment facilitates achievement of the K/DOQI targets for iPTH and bone mineral metabolism compared with conventional therapy in hemodialysis patients. Suppression of iPTH with cinacalcet reverses bone loss in the proximal femur. Cinacalcet alleviated itching.
Deregulation of Hippo kinase signalling in Human hepatic malignancies

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), cholangiocarcinoma (CC) and hepatoblastoma (HB) are the main hepatic malignancies with limited treatment options and high mortality. Recent studies have implicated Hippo kinase pathway in cancer development, but detailed analysis of Hippo kinase signalling in human hepatic malignancies, especially CC and HB, is lacking.
[Coronary ectasia: prevalence, and clinical and angiographic characteristics].

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Coronary ectasia is characterized by the presence of diffuse dilation of the coronary vessels and is detected in 0.3-5.3% of angiographic studies. Our objective was to evaluate the prevalence of this condition, to analyze its clinical and angiographic characteristics, and to compare patients with ectasia and patients without it. PATIENTS AND METHOD Coronary angiography was performed in 4.332 patients from October 1998 to June 2001. This population was divided in two groups, patients with and patients without ectasia and patients without ectasia. Angiographic and clinical variables were compared in these groups. RESULTS The prevalence of ectasia was 3.39%. Most patients with ectasia (77.6%) had coronary stenosis. Ectasia affected a single vessel in 49.7%, most frequently the right coronary artery (132 patients), which also showed the greatest dilation. Most patients with ectasia were men (91.2%), smokers (56.5%), and younger than patients without ectasia (60.8 11.7 vs. 63.3 10.7 years; p = 0.01). They also had a lower prevalence of diabetes (22.4%) and previous revascularization procedures (8.2% angioplasty and 1.4% surgical revascularization). Logistical regression analysis showed that only male sex was associated to the presence of ectasia (OR = 3.33; 95% CI, 1.81-6.13) and that only diabetes was independently associated with absence of ectasia (OR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.43-0.98). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of coronary ectasia in patients who underwent angiography was 3.4%. Coronary ectasia was prevalent in males and associated to the classic cardiovascular risk factors, except diabetes, a pathology that was less frequent than usual.
Different aspects of Lactobacillus inoculants on the improvement of quality and safety of alfalfa silage.

There is a significant range of bacterial inoculants for forage ensiling, but there is still a need for formulations to improve the safety of feed. The objective of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of three lactobacilli strains in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) The following bacterial inoculants were used: Lactocacillus plantarum K KKP 593p (LPK), L. plantarum C KKP 788p (LPC), L. buchneri KKP 907p (LB), and mix of all three strains (LPK+LPC+LB). The application of bacterial inoculants in alfalfa ensiling resulted in a reduction of the total number of molds, Clostridium perfringens and Listeria sp. (up to 5, 7, and 5 times respectively for LB inoculant in comparison to untreated silage). Total inhibition of Salmonella sp. and Escherichia coli growth was achieved in silages treated with all inoculants except for LPC. Aerobic stability in the control silage was the lowest (77 h) and doubled under the influence of bacterial inoculants. The most stable according to aerobic stability was silage treated with LB inoculant (175 h), where the highest concentrations of acetic acid (4.8 g kg-1), propionic acid (0.7 g kg-1) and 1,2-propanediol (526 mg kg-1) were reported. The study discussed that it is important to evaluate not only the effect of bacterial inoculants on physicochemical and microbiological silage properties, as the presence and expression of antibiotic resistance genes in lactic acid bacteria have been reported. The results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the strains showed that almost all minimum inhibitory concentrations values for eight antibiotics were equal to or below the corresponding breakpoints proposed by the European Food Safety Authority, Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed Panel.
Interpreting and extracting open knowledge for human-robot interaction

A more natural way for non-expert users to express their tasks in an open-ended set is to use natural language. In this case, a human-centered intelligent agent U+002F robot is required to be able to understand and generate plans for these naturally expressed tasks. For this purpose, it is a good way to enhance intelligent robot U+02BC s abilities by utilizing open knowledge extracted from the web, instead of hand-coded knowledge. A key challenge of utilizing open knowledge lies in the semantic interpretation of the open knowledge organized in multiple modes, which can be unstructured or semi-structured, before one can use it. Previous approaches used a limited lexicon to employ combinatory categorial grammar U+0028 CCG U+0029 as the underlying formalism for semantic parsing over sentences. Here, we propose a more effective learning method to interpret semi-structured user instructions. Moreover, we present a new heuristic method to recover missing semantic information from the context of an instruction. Experiments showed that the proposed approach renders significant performance improvement compared to the baseline methods and the recovering method is promising.
The Impact of Consumer Behavior and Service Perceptions of a Major Sport Tourism Event

The Honolulu Marathon has consistently provided a positive economic impact to the state of Hawaii's economy. The purpose of this study was to assess the economic benefits of the 2007 Honolulu Marathon by runners from outside the state of Hawaii and their traveling companions on the city of Honolulu. Another purpose of this study was to compare the service perceptions of Japanese participants with those of English-speaking participants, with a focus on examining opportunities to increase economic contributions from the two groups. The 2007 Honolulu Marathon is the third largest marathon in the USA and six largest in the world, with over 27,000 runners registered. Only the New York City Marathon (34,729) and the Chicago Marathon (32,332) are larger. Of the 27,000 registered participants of the Honolulu Marathon, 19,500 runners are residents from outside the state of Hawaii. The data used in this study were collected by distributing a research instrument to marathon participants. The instrument consisted of 18 questions regarding length of stay, accommodation, and the amount of money spent by the marathon participants for food, lodging, souvenirs and other miscellaneous items while attending the marathon activities in Honolulu. A total of 1,643 participants completed the surveys for this study. Examination and analysis of these results will prove to be very helpful in determining the economic benefit the Honolulu Marathon has on Honolulu and the state of Hawaii. The Honolulu Marathon accounted for an economic impact of $108,890,000 that generated $3.7 million in state taxes. The opportunity for internationally diverse participatory sports events to increase tourism substantially, especially in the state of Hawaii, suggests that further research in this area is necessary.
A Rapid, Specific Membrane Filtration Procedure for Enumeration of Enterococci in Recreational Water

ABSTRACT A two-step membrane filter (MF) method with mE medium, upon which the membrane must be incubated for 48 h and then transferred to a substrate medium to differentiate enterococci, is recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to measure enterococci in fresh and marine recreational waters. The original mE medium was modified by reducing the triphenyltetrazolium chloride from 0.15 to 0.02 g/liter and adding 0.75 g of indoxyl β-d-glucoside per liter. The new MF medium, mEI medium, detected levels of enterococci in 24 h comparable to those detected by the original mE medium in 48 h, with the same level of statistical confidence. In addition, the use of mEI medium eliminated the need to transfer the membrane to a substrate medium to differentiate enterococci from other genera of the fecal streptococcal group. Colonies from mEI medium were examined to determine the rates of false-positive and false-negative occurrences. mEI medium had a false-positive rate of 6.0% and a false-negative rate of 6.5%. Interlaboratory testing of the MF method with mEI medium demonstrated that the relative reproducibility standard deviations among laboratories ranged from 2.2% for marine water to 18.9% for freshwater. The comparative recovery studies, specificity determinations, and multilaboratory evaluation indicated that mEI medium has analytical performance characteristics equivalent to those of mE medium. The simplicity of use and decreased incubation time with mEI medium will facilitate the detection and quantification of enterococci in fresh and marine recreational waters.
Do Contingent Fees Promote Excessive Litigation?

NEARLY all personal injury cases in the United States are taken on a contingency basis by plaintiff's lawyer. ' Contingent fees are attractive to plaintiffs because they bear little financial risk of filing a lawsuit. As a result, critics see them as invitations to frivolous suits. However, there exists little theoretical or empirical evidence for this claim. The purpose of this article is to provide a rigorous theoretical analysis of the effect of contingent fees on the extent of frivolous litigation. An abundant literature on contingent fees exists, most of which has focused on the incentives they create for lawyers to act in the best interest of their clients.2 Several authors have also commented on the issue of excessive litigation, but only a few have examined it in detail.3 Those
Inhibition of DNA Replication of Human Papillomavirus by Artificial Zinc Finger Proteins

ABSTRACT Recently, we demonstrated that plant DNA virus replication was inhibited in planta by using an artificial zinc finger protein (AZP) and created AZP-based transgenic plants resistant to DNA virus infection. Here we apply the AZP technology to the inhibition of replication of a mammalian DNA virus, human papillomavirus type 18 (HPV-18). Two AZPs, designated AZPHPV-1 and AZPHPV-2, were designed by using our nondegenerate recognition code table and were constructed to block binding of the HPV-18 E2 replication protein to the replication origin. Both of the newly designed AZPs had much higher affinities towards the replication origin than did the E2 protein, and they efficiently blocked E2 binding in vitro. In transient replication assays, both AZPs inhibited viral DNA replication, especially AZPHPV-2, which reduced the replication level to approximately 10%. We also demonstrated in transient replication assays, using plasmids with mutant replication origins, that AZPHPV-2 could precisely recognize the replication origin in mammalian cells. Thus, it was demonstrated that the AZP technology could be applied not only to plant DNA viruses but also to mammalian DNA viruses.
The Going-Concern Market Anomaly

We explore the market response to announcements of first-time going-concern (GC) audit opinions and, for a subset of these cases, their subsequent withdrawal, from 1993 to 2005. We find that the market fully responds to GC withdrawal announcements but underreacts to the GC announcements themselves, resulting in a downward drift of −14% over the one-year period subsequent to the GC opinion. This result is robust to alternative explanations documented in prior literature. However, after adjusting for transactions costs, the opportunity to earn profits by trading on this market anomaly is limited. We demonstrate that despite such clear adverse signals about the firm's continuing financial viability, this information is not being fully impounded by the market on a timely basis. Our findings differ from those of others who suggest that there is no pricing anomaly associated with GC opinions in the United States. We show that this is likely due to important issues with their research methods.
Affinity fraud and trust within financial markets

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a financial fraud which originates as an affinity fraud can utilise the interpersonal trust, which is a central feature of an affinity fraud, to move the fraud into situations such as organizational markets, where personal relationships are much less dominant.Design/methodology/approach – Sources of information consisted of scholarly articles and articles retrieved from the web.Findings – The trust which develops naturally between members of a community with common interests can be exploited by a fraudster who is, or purports to be, a member of that community. This trust can then be used as the basis of creating trust within other types of relationships – especially where some people are active in more than one relationship – where personal relationships play a minor role.Practical implications – Both individuals and organizations when making investments should regularly formally evaluate their relationship with the organization in whom they are inv.