Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of Low Cardiac Output Syndrome After Isolated Aortic Valve Surgery

Background—Low cardiac output syndrome (LCOS), defined as the need for postoperative intraaortic balloon pump or inotropic support for >30 minutes in the intensive care unit, remains a relatively common complication of aortic valve (AV) surgery. The aim of this study is to identify the preoperative predictors of LCOS in patients undergoing isolated AV surgery. Methods and Results—We conducted a retrospective review of data prospectively entered into an institutional database. Between 1990 and 2003, 2255 patients underwent isolated AV surgery with no other concomitant cardiac surgery. The independent predictors of LCOS and operative mortality (OM) were determined by stepwise logistic regression analysis. The overall prevalence of LCOS was 3.9%. The independent predictors of LCOS were (odds ratio in parentheses) renal failure (5.0), earlier year of operation (4.4), left ventricular ejection fraction <40% (3.6), shock (3.2), female gender (2.8), and increasing age (1.02). Overall OM was 2.9%. The OM was higher in patients who experienced LCOS (38% versus 1.5%; P<0.001). The independent predictors of mortality were (odds ratio in parentheses) preoperative renal failure (8.3), urgency of surgery (3.4), previous stroke (2.9), congestive heart failure (2.6), previous cardiac surgery (2.3), hypertension (1.7), and small AV size (1.3). Conclusions—Low-output syndrome is associated with significantly increased morbidity and mortality. Novel strategies to preserve renal function, optimization of preexisting heart failure symptoms, and avoidance of prosthesis-patient mismatch may reduce the incidence of LCOS and lead to improved results after AV surgery.
Charnley total hip arthroplasty in ankylosing spondylitis: Survivorship analysis of 76 patients followed for 8-28 years

76 consecutive Charnley low friction hip arthroplasties were performed in 54 (37 men) patients with ankylosing spondylitis from 1971 to 1991 in the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital. Their mean age was 40 (16-67) years. They were followed until the end of 1999. The overall prosthesis survival was 80% at 10 years, 66% at 15 years and 62% at 20 years. The survival of the acetabular component was 91%, 77% and 73% at 10, 15 and 20 years and that of the femoral component 82%, 79% and 77%, respectively. We found no significant risk factor that predicted prosthesis survival.
Long-term clinical outcomes in patients with ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock due to acute pump failure

Background: Cardiogenic shock remained the leading cause of death in ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients even in the primary percutaneous coronary intervention era. Methods: Among 3942 STEMI patients with primary percutaneous coronary intervention within 24 h after symptom-onset in the Coronary Revascularization Demonstrating Outcome Study in Kyoto acute myocardial infarction registry, the study population of the current analysis consisted of 466 STEMI patients who were complicated by cardiogenic shock due to acute pump failure. Results: The cumulative incidence of all-cause death of cardiogenic shock due to acute pump failure was 25.4% at 30 days, 38.7% at one year, and 51.4% at five years. Cumulative five-year incidence of all-cause death in patients with left main coronary artery culprit lesion was extremely high (left main coronary artery: 70.4%, left anterior descending artery: 52.5%, left circumflex artery: 50.6%, and right coronary artery; 44.3%, respectively, log-rank p<0.001). The cumulative five-year incidence of all-cause death in patients with onset-to-balloon time ⩽3 h as well as those with door-to-balloon time ⩽90 min were significantly lower than those without (43.3% versus 55.5%, log-rank p=0.008, and 44.9% versus 55.8%, log-rank p=0.003, respectively). After adjusting for confounders, onset-to-balloon time ⩽3 h and door-to-balloon time ⩽90 min were independently associated with lower long-term risk for all-cause death (hazard ratio: 0.69, 95% confidence interval: 0.49–0.96, p=0.03, and hazard ratio: 0.73, 95% confidence interval: 0.53–0.98, p=0.04, respectively). Conclusions: The long-term mortality of STEMI patients complicated by cardiogenic shock due to acute pump failure remains high even in the current clinical practice. In this high-risk category of patients, shorter onset-to-balloon and door-to-balloon time were associated with significantly lower long-term risk for mortality.
Short-distance thermal correlations in the XXZ chain

Recent studies have revealed much of the mathematical structure of the static correlation functions of the XXZ chain. Here we use the results of those studies in order to work out explicit examples of short-distance correlation functions in the infinite chain. We compute two-point functions ranging over two, three and four lattice sites as functions of the temperature and the magnetic field for various anisotropies in the massless regime −1<Δ<1. It turns out that the new formulae are numerically efficient and allow us to obtain the correlation functions over the full parameter range with arbitrary precision.
Understanding teachers as agents of assessment

Teaching involves assessment. In making decisions about lesson content and sequencing, about materials, learning tasks and so forth, teachers have to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the alternatives available to them. They make selections based on their experience, on their understandings of learning, language development and of language proficiency itself, together with what they consider to be most appropriate and in the best interests of those they teach. Equally, as part of their professional practice, they are always involved in the observation of their learners, which leads to the development of insights about learner progress and judgements about specific learning outcomes and overall performance. In my experience, however, when asked about classroom assessment, teachers will tell you first and foremost about the formal mechanisms that are in place to monitor language achievement, or about the specific assessment procedures that they use. There is a tendency to prioritize the ‘formal’ and the ‘procedural’ and to underplay the observation-driven approaches to assessment which is strongly in evidence in their everyday classroom practice, such as language sampling (see Gardner and Rea-Dickins, 2002; Rea-Dickins, 2002). This orientation, I suggest, is mirrored in much of our research in language testing and assessment as evidenced by work on language proficiency testing, the focus over time of sustained research. Assessment, with specific reference to teaching and learning in the language classroom, has remained, until recently, relatively unresearched. It is interesting to observe that the recent state-of-theart review (Alderson and Banerjee, 2001) did not include a separate section on either teacher assessment or classroom based assessment. It did, however, contain sub-sections on ‘alternative assessment’,
Feasibility of a Parenting Program to Prevent Substance Use among Latino Youth: A Community-Based Participatory Research Study

Purpose. Family-skills training programs prevent adolescent substance use, but few exist for immigrant Latino families. This study assesses the feasibility of a family-skills training intervention developed using a community-based participatory research framework, and explores parental traditional values as a modifier of preliminary effects. Design. One-group pretest-posttest. Setting. Four Latino youth–serving sites (school, clinic, church, social-service agency). Subjects. Immigrant Latino parents of adolescents aged 10 to 14 years (N = 83). Intervention. Eight-session program in Spanish to improve parenting practices and parent-youth interpersonal relations designed with Latino parents and staff from collaborating organizations. Measures. Feasibility was assessed through retention, program appropriateness, and group interaction quality. Preliminary outcomes evaluated were (1) parenting self-efficacy, discipline, harsh parenting, monitoring, conflict, attachment, acceptance, and involvement, and (2) parent perception of adolescent internalizing, externalizing, and substance use behaviors. Covariates included sociodemographics and parental endorsement of traditional values. Analysis. Feasibility outcomes were assessed with descriptive statistics. Paired t-tests measured changes in parenting outcomes. Adjusted multiple regression models were conducted for change in each outcome, and t-tests compared mean changes in outcomes between parents with high and low traditional values scores. Results. Program appropriateness and group interaction scores were positive. Improvement was noted for eight parenting outcomes. Parents perceived that adolescent internalizing behaviors decreased. Parents with lower endorsement of traditional values showed greater pretest-posttest change in attachment, acceptance, and involvement. Conclusion. This intervention is feasible and may influence parenting contributors to adolescent substance use.
Predicting intentions and use of dental floss among adolescents: An application of the theory of planned behaviour

Abstract In this study the theory of planned behaviour was applied to predict use of dental floss among adolescents. The empirical data stem from a questionnaire survey of 15 year olds conducted in October 1992 in the county of Hordaland in Norway (N=970). Attitude, subjective norm perceived behavioural control and behavioural intention were measured at the baseline survey, and a measure of self-reported flossing was obtained in a subgroup of the original sample (n= 170) four weeks later. Multiple regression analysis showed that perceived behavioural control enhanced the prediction of intention to use dental floss over and above attitude and subjective norm. Actual use of dental floss was predictable from intention and perceived control. While past behaviour predicted intention beyond the components of TPB, this was not the case for actual use of dental floss. The predicted interaction between perceived behavioural control and intention upon behaviour was confirmed.
Catching Leaders’ Mood: Contagion Effects in Teams

Much of the behavior at work takes place within teams. Leaders of teams experience different feelings that, in turn, can have an impact on how team members feel and perform. This study examined the effects of leaders’ mood on individual team members’ mood, group affective tone, and team outcomes (actual team performance, potency, and goal commitment) in a laboratory study, with a sample of 63 students working in three-person teams. Furthermore, the study investigated the mediating role of group affective tone in the leaders’ mood–team outcomes relationship. Results demonstrated that leaders influence team members’ individual mood, group affective tone, actual team performance, and potency. Moreover, group affective tone mediated the relationship between team leaders’ mood and potency. Taken together, the findings suggest that in order to enhance subordinates’ work experience and to attain desired outcomes, leaders should be aware of their mood and its potential effects.
Pulmonary function test: the value among smokers and nonsmokers

Background: Pulmonary function testing is a routine procedure for the assessment and monitoring of respiratory diseases. Aim: To estimate the values of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and ratio between FEV1/FVC among smoking and nonsmoking students, staff and workers at Al-Zarqa Private University and to study the effect of age, gender and body mass index (BMI) on these variables. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional research design was used. The study was conducted at Al-Zarqa Private University, Jordan. Two hundred and thirteen healthy smokers and nonsmokers were approached through probability sampling among the students, staff and workers of Al-Zarqa Private University were screened through a questionnaire and spirometric test. Data from 213 subjects was used for analysis. Subjects were excluded if pregnant, or with cardiopulmonary disease body, mass index (BMI) not ranging from 17-25, FEV1/FVC% less than 70 or with no reproducible results. Results: Mean FVC, FEV1 FEV1/FVC% and PEFR were found to be lower in smokers than the nonsmokers, there were significant differences between mean spirometric values smoking and nonsmoking in age 20-30 years and 30-39and 40-49. Conclusion: The mean FVC, FEV1 and PEFR were lower in smoker. In order to generalize these reference values, a larger study following the ATS criteria is needed. Health education campaign needed to keep community aware of the risk of smoking.
Gait pattern generation with knee stretch motion for biped robot using toe and heel joints

This paper presents a new alternative methodology to generate gait pattern with a knee stretched motion for biped robot utilizing toe and heel joints. During walking sequence, human heels act as passive joints that create some support area which enhances the stability of human walking. This research tries to replace human-heel like mechanism with a heel joint in the biped robot foot. The existence of heel joints in the biped robot feet has two main advantages. The first one is that the support area during double support phase will be increased. Secondly, singularity during knee stretch motion can be avoided. The loss of degree of freedom in the knee joint will not produce singularity in the inverse kinematics solution since there is still another degree of freedom in the heel joint. The effectiveness of the algorithm is being studied through a dynamic simulation tool. A stable knee stretch walking pattern utilizing toe and heel joints was generated, which has some similarity to the human walking pattern. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of joint torque requirements as well as energy consumptions have also been shown.
Early childhood caries in Moshi, Tanzania.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence, severity and pattern of early childhood caries (ECC) in Moshi Municipality, Tanzania. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Moshi Municipality, Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania. SUBJECTS Three hundred and seventy two randomly selected children aged three to five years (157 males and 215 females) in 2008. RESULTS Overall caries prevalence was 30.1% with no significant gender difference (p>0.05). The severe form of ECC that attacks primary maxillary incisors occurred in 21.2% of the children. The mean dmft score was 0.95 (SD +/- 1.81). The decay component was 0.87 (SD +/- 1.71), whereas the missing component was 0.08 (SD +/- 0.41). There was no significant gender difference in the mean dmft scores (p>0.05). Among the posterior teeth, mandibular last molars had the highest caries prevalence (12.4%) and for the anterior teeth, the maxillary central incisors had the highest caries prevalence (21%). Majority of the affected children had three or less teeth affected. The sample mean plaque score was 0.57 (SD +/- 0.46) with no statistical gender difference (p>0.05). A total of 174 (46.8%) parents/guardians responded to the questionnaire. Caries risk and experience was significantly higher in children with guardians and in children with history of falling asleep with the breast in the mouth respectively (p<0.05). CONCLUSION Most of the affected children had ECC in the anterior and posterior segments. In the anterior segments, the maxillary teeth were affected more frequently than the mandibular teeth, while in the posterior segments the mandibular teeth were more frequently involved than the maxillary teeth. Significantly higher caries prevalence was found in children under the care of the guardians, children who had slept with breast in the mouth and those with higher sugar moments as the result of snacking.
Genetic Polymorphisms of XRCC1, Alcohol Consumption, and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Japan

Background X-ray cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) polymorphisms affect DNA repair capacity and may therefore be of importance in colorectal carcinogenesis. Alcohol consumption, an important risk factor for colorectal cancer, may induce carcinogenesis through DNA damage caused by the toxic effects of alcohol or its metabolites. Therefore, we examined the associations of XRCC1 Arg399Gln, Arg280His, and Arg194Trp polymorphisms with colorectal cancer and the impact of the association between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer risk. Methods This case-control study in Fukuoka, Japan including 685 cases and 778 controls. The cases were incident patients with histologically confirmed colorectal adenocarcinoma. The controls were randomly selected community subjects. Results The XRCC1 399Gln/Gln genotype was significantly associated with colorectal cancer risk (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.57, 95% CI 1.01–2.42; relative to 399Arg/Arg genotype). The association was strongest in individuals with high alcohol consumption. The Arg280His polymorphism modified the association between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer risk (interaction P = 0.049). The OR of colorectal cancer in individuals with the 280His allele was 0.45 (95% CI 0.26–0.78) as compared with the 280Arg/Arg genotype limited to the 399Gln allele (interaction P = 0.001). The adjusted ORs for 399Gln/Gln-280Arg/Arg-194Arg/Arg and 399Arg/Gln-280Arg/Arg-194Arg/Trp were 1.71 (95% CI 1.02–2.87) and 1.57 (95% CI 1.05–2.33), respectively, with 399Arg/Arg-280Arg/Arg-194Arg/Arg as reference (interaction P = 0.418). Conclusions The findings are additional evidence that individuals with the XRCC1 399Gln/Gln genotype have an increased risk of colorectal cancer, and that XRCC1 polymorphisms have an important role in colorectal cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption or gene-gene interaction.
‘Bring Men Back In’: A Re-Examination of the Impact of Type of Education and Educational Enrolment on First Births in Spain

In this article, by focusing on men, I re-examine two established findings concerning the effect of education on family formation. I investigate whether the effects on fertility of timing of departure from education and type of education found among women in Spain apply also for men. I use data from the Spanish Family and Fertility Survey and apply event history models that take account of unobserved heterogeneity. My results show that, for men, type of education is just as important as level of education. However, the mechanism linking men's field of study to their fertility behaviour is quite the opposite to women's: those academic fields concerned with caring and/or which emphasise interpersonal skills do not have a positive influence on first birth timing in Spain. Additionally, and contrary to results from the female sample, neither process for men seems to be partially determined by common (unmeasured) determinants.
Social Identity Complexity: Its Correlates and Antecedents

Social identity complexity (Roccas & Brewer, 2002) refers to individual differences in perception of one's multiple ingroup memberships. More specifically, social identity complexity is represented as perceived overlap in membership across pairs of ingroups, with lower overlap reflecting higher complexity. Previous research has demonstrated that social identity complexity is associated with tolerance and positive affect toward racial outgroups, and the present research explores further the nature of social identity complexity and its antecedents and correlates. Three studies are reported which examined the determinants of social identity complexity in different ways. Study 1 identified individual difference correlates of social identity complexity and demonstrated that perceived overlap predicts both explicit and implicit racial attitudes, above and beyond any effects of ideology and cognitive style. Study 2 confirmed the causal influence of the need for cognition on social identity complexity by demonstrating that manipulating need for cognitive elaboration influenced subsequent perceived overlap scores. Finally, Study 3 took advantage of a large field study with a diverse sample to assess the relationship between experience with an ethnically complex environment and social identity complexity.
Lipopolysaccharide activates an innate immune system response in human adipose tissue in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

UNLABELLED Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation. Adipose tissue (AT) may represent an important site of inflammation. 3T3-L1 studies have demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activates toll-like receptors (TLRs) to cause inflammation. For this study, we 1) examined activation of TLRs and adipocytokines by LPS in human abdominal subcutaneous (AbdSc) adipocytes, 2) examined blockade of NF-kappaB in human AbdSc adipocytes, 3) examined the innate immune pathway in AbdSc AT from lean, obese, and T2DM subjects, and 4) examined the association of circulating LPS in T2DM subjects. The findings showed that LPS increased TLR-2 protein expression twofold (P<0.05). Treatment of AbdSc adipocytes with LPS caused a significant increase in TNF-alpha and IL-6 secretion (IL-6, CONTROL: 2.7+/-0.5 vs. LPS: 4.8+/-0.3 ng/ml; P<0.001; TNF-alpha, CONTROL 1.0+/-0.83 vs. LPS: 32.8+/-6.23 pg/ml; P<0.001). NF-kappaB inhibitor reduced IL-6 in AbdSc adipocytes ( CONTROL 2.7+/-0.5 vs. NF-kappaB inhibitor: 2.1+/-0.4 ng/ml; P<0.001). AbdSc AT protein expression for TLR-2, MyD88, TRAF6, and NF-kappaB was increased in T2DM patients (P<0.05), and TLR-2, TRAF-6, and NF-kappaB were increased in LPS-treated adipocytes (P<0.05). Circulating LPS was 76% higher in T2DM subjects compared with matched controls. LPS correlated with insulin in controls (r=0.678, P<0.0001). Rosiglitazone (RSG) significantly reduced both fasting serum insulin levels (reduced by 51%, P=0.0395) and serum LPS (reduced by 35%, P=0.0139) in a subgroup of previously untreated T2DM patients. In summary, our results suggest that T2DM is associated with increased endotoxemia, with AT able to initiate an innate immune response. Thus, increased adiposity may increase proinflammatory cytokines and therefore contribute to the pathogenic risk of T2DM.