Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of therapeutic control in a Pakistani population with hypertension.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are increasing at an alarming rate in South Asia. High blood pressure is a modifiable risk factor for CVD. In this study, we evaluated the control of blood pressure and the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with hypertension. METHOD A cross-sectional study was conducted in 50 primary health care centres throughout Pakistan. Individuals with a documented history of hypertension, receiving pharmacological therapy, were enrolled and evaluated for the control of their blood pressure. RESULTS The recommended therapeutic control of hypertension (systolic blood pressure <140 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure <90 mmHg) was seen in only 6.4% of the study participants. Values of both the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures in all subjects were higher than the desired therapeutic levels (P<0.001). There was a high prevalence in the study population of established but modifiable risk factors of CVD, such as smoking (30.5%), hypercholesterolemia (59.5%) and sedentary lifestyle (43.5%). Lack of therapeutic control of systolic blood pressure was found significantly associated with age, hypercholesterolemia and sedentary lifestyle (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Patients being treated at primary health care centres in Pakistan have inadequate control of high blood pressure. Evidence-based continuous education of primary health care physicians is a necessary intervention for optimizing treatment strategies and achieving better therapeutic control of hypertension in our population.
Testing for HIV antibodies should not be offered on a same‐day basis

Same‐day testing for HIV is now offered in 16 of Genitourinary Medicine clinics in the UK and in 31 of those in London, and supposedly offers a reduction in client waiting time and anxiety levels. ‘Same‐day’ is, however, misleading as the majority of same‐day testing services provide same‐day negative results only, with confirmed positive results being available no earlier than from a routine drop‐in clinic. In addition, as most same‐day testing services are appointment‐based, patients would generally receive their results much sooner if they were to attend a drop‐in clinic.
Evaluation of domestic washing in Japan using life cycle assessment (LCA)

Changing lifestyles and family structures have changed consumer domestic washing behaviour in our country, with growing use of washer-dryers and changing detergent preferences, including use of concentrated detergents. In particular, there has also been an increase in the number of combined washer-dryers, which both save space and reduce the housework burden. However, power consumption for drying is extremely high compared to that for washing. This study reveals the drying performance of sweat-absorbent, quick-drying clothing in domestic washing, and uses the life cycle assessment method to evaluate washing and drying with heat-pump washer-dryers compared with the conventional washer-dryer. In this study, it was assumed that drying was used on 99 days per year, based on the mean number of 99 days per year with rainfall in Tokyo. Both types of washer-dryer showed high CO2eq emission levels for usage, with the highest levels for power consumption during drying. Compared with the conventional washer-dryer, the heat-pump washer-dryer was able to reduce CO2eq emissions significantly through power savings and used less water as well, although it did require the use of larger amounts of detergent. However, the largest portion of CO2eq emissions was attributable to the drying process, and the use of sweat-absorbent, quick-drying clothing enabled these emissions to be reduced by approximately 10%. The residual moisture content of clothing after washing and spin-drying, which significantly affects the amount of CO2eq emissions generated at the drying stage, depended on spin-drying times and the proportion of polyester fibres in the clothing.
Preventing The Oil “Resource Curse” In Ghana: Lessons From Nigeria

Ghana joined the list of oil-producing countries with the export of its first oil from the Jubilee oilfield in January 2011. President John Atta Mills's statement drawing attention to the potential paradigm shift as well as risks that the discovery of oil and gas imposes not only speaks to the complexity of extractive-industry-engendered development, but it also makes it imperative that the country learns from other countries’ successes and failures. In this article, we use the “resource curse” thesis to examine the emerging dynamics and complexities in Ghana's oil industry, with the attempt to draw both correlations with and lessons from the Nigerian case. The article highlights five key lessons in Nigeria's management of its oil–gas resources related to the legal-regulatory framework, development of the oil-producing areas, Corporate Social Responsibility, management of oil revenues, and oil–civil society nexus that Ghana should give serious thoughts to in order to leverage its new found oil wealth and avert the “resource curse. ”
Inhibited privatization: a hurdle race over vested interests

This paper recognizes vested interests as one of the primary premises that reduce the effectiveness of privatization policy, stall its momentum and produce structural problems in the long-run. Both exogenous and endogenous drawbacks are cited, but the main focus is put on the dynamism of vested interests’ character, interconnectedness and evolution. Policy makers have been long aware of the existence of activities rooted in vested interests including empire building behaviors, creation of sinecures or extravagant management style. Hence, the fundamental effort here is put on the identification of emerging vested interests that were typically not considered by scholars. The channels through which conventional vested interests have snowballed over time are emphasized. This includes casting a closer glance at family employment, as well as at sports sponsorship arrangements, which emerge as the favorite domain of marketing activity for Polish state-owned enterprises. The research of available literature is performed, along with its application to the Polish case, and insightful observations concerning the anatomy of privatization-related reluctance. Rough policy recommendations conclude the paper.
Effects of tamoxifen on spinal bone density in women with breast cancer.

Bone densitometry (L2-L4) was performed on 10 postmenopausal women with breast cancer after 0, 6, and 12 months of tamoxifen treatment; the results were compared with data from 10 normal controls. The patients and controls differed significantly at 6 (P less than .05) and 12 (P less than .003) months. The tamoxifen group showed a nonsignificant mean gain in bone mineral density after 6 and 12 months of treatment (+0.024 +/- 0.014 and +0.022 +/- 0.018 g/cm2, respectively), whereas the controls showed a nonsignificant mean loss of bone mass at 6 months (-0.012 +/- 0.018 g/cm2) and a statistically significant loss of bone density after 12 months (-0.024 +/- 0.01 g/cm2). These preliminary data suggest that tamoxifen use is associated with preservation of bone mass during the first year of treatment.
Deal‐making in Whitehall: Competing and complementary motives behind the Review of Sub‐national Economic Development and Regeneration

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore Whitehall motivations underpinning the Sub‐national Review of Economic Development and Regeneration.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on interviews conducted with senior Whitehall officials involved in regional working.Findings – The Sub‐national Review seeks to streamline regional structures and provide regions with enhanced autonomy. However, findings indicate that there are distinct differences of opinion across Whitehall departments regarding the future trajectory of English regionalism and what powers and functions regional bodies should acquire. These contradictory positions raise questions about the implementation and effectiveness of the proposals.Originality/value – An examination of these phenomena is intended to provide greater clarity regarding the opportunities and constraints presented by the latest phase of regional restructuring.
Depreciation Rules and the Relation Between Marginal and Historical Cost

ABSTRACT The reported cost of a product frequently contains historical cost components that reflect past investments in productive capacity. We examine a setting wherein a firm makes a sequence of overlapping capacity investments. Earlier research has identified particular accrual accounting (depreciation) rules with the property that, on a per unit basis, the historical cost of a product captures precisely its marginal cost. Relative to this benchmark, we investigate and characterize the direction and magnitude of the bias in reported historical cost that results from alternative depreciation rules, including in particular straight-line depreciation in conjunction with partial direct expensing. In addition, we demonstrate that for a reasonable range of parameter specifications the resulting bias is rather small. Finally, we apply our framework to two specific settings. First, in a regulatory context, we establish the extent to which the accounting profit margin is indicative of a firm's pricing power in the product market. Second, we model an internal control scenario in which a manager's performance is evaluated using residual income, and identify the distortions in investment levels that result from the use of alternative depreciation rules. Copyright (c), University of Chicago on behalf of the Institute of Professional Accounting, 2009.
Neglect and Related Disorders

Neglect is a failure to report, respond, or orient to contralateral stimuli that is not caused by an elemental sensorimotor deficit. Subtypes of neglect are distinguished by input (attentional) or output (intentional) demands, the distribution (personal, spatial, and representational), and the means of eliciting the signs (unilateral or bilateral stimuli). In this article we discuss how to assess patients for neglect, the pathophysiology of neglect, and the treatment of neglect.
Absence of Interaction of Cimetidine and Ranitidine with Intravenous and Oral Midazolam

&NA; Eight healthy volunteers received a single 5‐mg intravenous dose of the imidazobenzodiazepine derivative midazolam on three occasions in random sequence: a, control, with no other treatment; b, during coadministration of cimetidine, 300 mg every 6 hr; c, during coadministration of ranitidine, 150 mg every 12 hr. Midazolam kinetics in each trial were determined from multiple plasma midazolam levels measured by gas chromatography for 24 hr after each dose. High pressure liquid chromatography analysis of plasma also verified compliance with cimetidine (mean level, 0.61 μg/ml) and ranitidine (mean level, 0.36 &mgr;g/ml) regimens. Analysis of variance indicated no significant differences in mean values for trials a, b, and c in midazolam elimination half‐life (2.25 vs 2.02 vs 2.05 hr), volume of distribution (2.13 vs 2.14 vs 2.16 L/kg) or total clearance (10.8 vs 12.2 vs 12.3 ml•min‐1•kg‐1). In a second study, six subjects received a 15‐mg oral dose of midazolam on three occasions identical to those described above. Again, there were no significant differences among trials a, b, and c in midazolam peak plasma level (90 vs 95 vs 117 ng/ml), time of peak level (0.65 vs 1.45 vs 0.90 hr after dose), elimination half‐life (3.04 vs 3.38 vs 3.30 hr), or apparent oral clearance (16.2 vs 14.3 vs 13.8 ml•min‐1•kg‐1) Thus the usual therapeutic doses of cimetidine or ranitidine do not significantly alter the kinetics of intravenous or oral midazolam in healthy individuals.
Assessment of the Turkish Local e-Governments: An Empirical Study

In this research, we first evaluated the current practices of the Turkish local e-governments. Then, building upon an earlier study of local e-governments in Europe (Key Elements for Electronic Local Authorities’ Networks [KEeLAN], 2002), we compared the Turkish local e-government stages with their European counterparts to give a broader perspective. The basic framework focuses on the evaluation of current practices on the supply side (government), rather than the demand side (citizen). The emphasis of this research is on the evaluation of each web site in terms of nine basic public services (additional sub-services available) comprised of policy making, economic development, personal documents, credit and loans/financial support, education, building permits, environment, culture and leisure, and information dissemination. It is assumed that at least four of those services (randomly) are supplied in a local context among the Member Countries, including Turkey. We suggest the results might provide a deeper understanding of local e-governments in Turkey and lend support to advances in this under-researched area.
Gender, age, and race in subprime America

For almost 20 years, evidence from journalists' reports, Congressional testimony, and consumer protection litigation suggested that predatory practices in the subprime market were especially harmful for elderly African American women, many of them widows. Much of this evidence has been dismissed as anecdotal, however, and lending research has generally ignored feminist theory – obscuring the relations among race/ethnicity, gender, and age. In this paper, we draw on two complementary datasets to test the hypothesis that subprime inequalities were intensified for African American women. Analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data confirms that gender inequalities exacerbate racial/ethnic inequalities in the segmentation of high-cost subprime credit, while the National Mortgage Data Repository provides limited circumstantial evidence of disproportionate representation of elderly African American women. Loan terms among subprime borrowers in the NMDR display only modest variations by gender and race/ethnicity, however, although there is some evidence of bait-and-switch tactics and persistently higher total fees among African American women. The veneer of equal treatment within an exploitative subprime market conceals the wider context of structural inequalities of race/ethnicity, gender, and age in housing and credit.
Phase I/II Trial of Gefitinib and Oxaliplatin in Patients With Advanced Colorectal Cancer

Abstract:Colorectal cancers frequently overexpress the epidermal growth factor receptor. Gefitinib (Iressa), an inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase, is synergistic with oxaliplatin in preclinical colon cancer models. The authors conducted a phase I/II trial of gefitinib plus oxaliplatin in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer. In the phase I portion, 14 patients received oxaliplatin 130 mg/m2 intravenously every 21 days and gefitinib orally daily at 1 of 2 dose levels: 250 mg/day (8 patients), and 500 mg/day (6 patients). There were no objective responses. Three patients (38%) in the 250-mg cohort experienced disease stabilization for a median of 12 weeks, and 1 patient in the 500-mg cohort had stable disease for 18 weeks. Nausea/vomiting and rash were dose limiting. The randomized phase II part of the trial, in which patients were to receive oxaliplatin with or without gefitinib, was canceled due to the inactivity of single-agent gefitinib observed in the phase I portion, and emergent phase III data regarding the minimal activity of single-agent oxaliplatin. The authors conclude that the combination of gefitinib plus oxaliplatin is inactive in advanced colorectal cancer.
Observation of partial relaxation mechanisms via anisotropic strain relief on epitaxial islands using semiconductor nanomembranes

In this work we attempt to directly observe anisotropic partial relaxation of epitaxial InAs islands using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and synchrotron x-ray diffraction on a 15 nm thick InAs:GaAs nanomembrane. We show that under such conditions TEM provides improved real-space statistics, allowing the observation of partial relaxation processes that were not previously detected by other techniques or by usual TEM cross section images. Besides the fully coherent and fully relaxed islands that are known to exist above previously established critical thickness, we prove the existence of partially relaxed islands, where incomplete 60° half-loop misfit dislocations lead to a lattice relaxation along one of the 〈110〉 directions, keeping a strained lattice in the perpendicular direction. Although individual defects cannot be directly observed, their implications to the resulting island registry are identified and discussed within the frame of half-loops propagations.
Fiscal Effects of the Voter Initiative: Evidence from the Last 30 Years

In 23 American states, citizens can initiate and approve laws by popular vote; in the other 27 states, laws can be proposed only by elected representatives. This paper compares the fiscal behavior of state and local governments over the last 30 years under these two institutional arrangements. The main finding is that spending is significantly lower, on the order of 4 percent, in states with voter initiatives than in pure representative states. It is also found that local spending is higher and state spending is lower in initiative states. On the revenue side, initiative states rely less on broad-based taxes and more on charges tied to services. Taken together, the evidence indicates that the initiative leads to a reduction in the overall size of the government sector and suggests that it causes a decline in the level of redistributional activity.
Effect of ethanol, acetate, and phenol on toluene degradation activity and tod–lux expression in Pseudomonas putida TOD102: evaluation of the metabolic flux dilution model

The reporter strain Pseudomonas putida TOD102 (with a tod‐lux fusion) was used in chemostat experiments with binary substrate mixtures to investigate the effect of potentially occurring cosubstrates on toluene degradation activity. Although toluene was simultaneously utilized with other cosubstrates, its metabolic flux (defined as the toluene utilization rate per cell) decreased with increasing influent concentrations of ethanol, acetate, or phenol. Three inhibitory mechanisms were considered to explain these trends: (1) repression of the tod gene (coding for toluene dioxygenase) by acetate and ethanol, which was quantified by a decrease in specific bioluminescence; (2) competitive inhibition of toluene dioxygenase by phenol; and (3) metabolic flux dilution (MFD) by all three cosubstrates. Based on experimental observations, MFD was modeled without any fitting parameters by assuming that the metabolic flux of a substrate in a mixture is proportional to its relative availability (expressed as a fraction of the influent total organic carbon). Thus, increasing concentrations of alternative carbon sources “dilute” the metabolic flux of toluene without necessarily repressing tod, as observed with phenol (a known tod inducer). For all cosubstrates, the MFD model slightly overpredicted the measured toluene metabolic flux. Incorporating catabolite repression (for experiments with acetate or ethanol) or competitive inhibition (for experiments with phenol) with independently obtained parameters resulted in more accurate fits of the observed decrease in toluene metabolic flux with increasing cosubstrate concentration. These results imply that alternative carbon sources (including inducers) are likely to hinder toluene utilization per unit cell, and that these effects can be accurately predicted with simple mathematical models. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Allelic imbalance in lichen sclerosus, hyperplasia, and intraepithelial neoplasia of the vulva.

BACKGROUND Few studies have addressed in detail the genetic alterations that occur in vulvar squamous carcinomas (VSCC) and their precursor lesions. In a previous study, we determined the most common chromosomal loci for allelic imbalance (AI) in HPV-positive and -negative VSCCs. The present study was designed to determine whether AI and the microsatellite instability phenotype (MIN) were present in epithelial lesions known to be associated with VSCC. DESIGN Fifty-seven epithelial loci were analyzed, including HPV-positive (classic) and -negative (differentiated) vulvar intraepithelial neoplasms (VINs), lichen sclerosus (LS), and nonatypical hyperplasias. Thirty-one epithelial loci (55%) were obtained from patients with associated invasive vulvar carcinoma. HPV status was determined by polymerase chain reaction analysis. AI and MIN were determined by comparisons of microdissected target tissues with stromal controls, targeting 11 chromosomal loci. RESULTS AI was identified in all epithelial categories, involving at least one chromosomal locus in 67, 53, 50, and 43% of classic VIN, differentiated VIN, hyperplasia, and LS. MIN was infrequent (10-13%), but confined to HPV-negative epithelial changes. HPV-positive lesions generally scored for AI more frequently, but certain loci scored nearly equally in both HPV-positive and -negative lesions, including 8p, 11q, and 17p. There were no differences in frequency of AI between epithelia with and without associated invasive carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS The presence of allelic imbalance in vulvar hyperplasia and LS supports the hypothesis that these alterations are at greater risk for neoplasia despite the absence of conspicuous cellular atypia. A model is proposed in which these changes represent monoclonal expansion and are at empirically greater risk for subsequent "critical events" leading to morphologic atypia (VIN). The possibility that these early genetic changes influence both HPV-positive and -negative pathways merits further study.
Functional optimization of agonistic antibodies to OX40 receptor with novel Fc mutations to promote antibody multimerization

ABSTRACT Immunostimulatory receptors belonging to the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) superfamily are emerging as promising targets for cancer immunotherapies. To optimize the agonism of therapeutic antibodies to these receptors, Fc engineering of antibodies was applied to facilitate the clustering of cell surface TNFRs to activate downstream signaling pathways. One engineering strategy is to identify Fc mutations that facilitate antibody multimerization on the cell surface directly. From the analyses of the crystal packing of IgG1 structures, we identified a novel set of Fc mutations, T437R and K248E, that facilitated antibody multimerization upon binding to antigens on cell surface. In a NF-κB reporter assay, the engineered T437R/K248E mutations could facilitate enhanced agonism of an anti-OX40 antibody without the dependence on FcγRIIB crosslinking. Nonetheless, the presence of cells expressing FcγRIIB could facilitate a boost of the agonism of the engineered antibody with mutations on IgG1 Fc, but not on the silent IgG2σ Fc. The Fc engineered antibody also showed enhanced effector functions, including antibody-dependent cell-meditated cytotoxicity, antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis, and complement-dependent cytotoxicity, depending on the IgG subtypes. Also, the engineered antibodies showed normal FcRn binding and pharmacokinetic profiles in mice. In summary, this study elucidated a novel Fc engineering approach to promote antibody multimerization on a cell surface, which could enhance agonism and improve effector function for anti-TNFR antibodies as well as other therapeutic antibodies.